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| LETTER TO THE EDITOR |
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| Year : 2016 | Volume
: 29
| Issue : 1 | Page : 63-64 |
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Patients' perceptions of participation in educational home visits
Aida Jaffar1, Chai-Eng Tan2, Zuhra Hamzah2, Syahnaz Mohd Hashim2, Noorlaili Mohd Tohit2
1 Department of Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine and Defence Health, National Defence University of Malaysia, Malaysia
2 Department of Family Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
| Date of Web Publication | 18-Mar-2016 |
Correspondence Address:
Chai-Eng Tan
Department of Family Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Jalan Yaacob Latif, 56000 Cheras, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/1357-6283.178930
How to cite this article:
Jaffar A, Tan CE, Hamzah Z, Mohd Hashim S, Mohd Tohit N. Patients' perceptions of participation in educational home visits. Educ Health 2016;29:63-4 |
Dear Editor,
We support the opinions expressed in a recent article published in your journal, entitled “Community-based medical education: Is success a result of meaningful personal learning experiences?”[1] One of the teaching-learning methodologies that can expose students to chronic illness in a more personal and meaningful way is home visits to patients. Home visiting is one of the teaching-learning activities within our Comprehensive Healthcare (CHC) module, which is an interprofessional educational programme for medical and pharmacy students that introduces the concept of a bio-psychosocial approach in managing patients.[2]
We conducted a qualitative study to explore Malaysian patients' experiences and expectations from their participation in home visits within the CHC module. A total of nine patients were interviewed in their own homes, out of 31 eligible patients. The transcribed interviews were then analysed using an inductive approach to derive meaningful themes. Ethical approval was obtained from the Medical Research and Ethics Committee of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre.
All participants were more than 50 years old, with the exception of one 22-year old man. Analysis of transcripts uncovered themes that linked patients' expectations and experiences from the home visit.
Before the home visit, participants were expecting that they would be contributing more than receiving. The experience of the home visits was similar to that of a social visit, where participants received encouragement and advice from students. Concerns regarding privacy did not materialize, as the patients were able to control the amount of information shared with the students. From the visits, some participants went on to develop meaningful relationships with the students, which continued even beyond student graduation. This led to increased patient receptivity to participate in future program home visits.
Interestingly, there were culture-specific reasons for willingness to receive home visits from the students [Table 1]. Asian participants felt the generational responsibility to teach the young as they viewed students as if their own children. Some viewed their participation as a charitable act, which would contribute to spiritual rewards for themselves. Many studies have also reported similar patients' altruistic desire to help students as well as to contribute to society.[3],[4],[5] | Table 1: Study participants' responses regarding their experiences and contributions through their involvement in medical and pharmacy student home visits
Click here to view |
This study adds to the knowledge base of patients' experiences and expectations of participating in home visits of healthcare students from an Asian perspective. The participants had certain culturally-specific reasons behind their willingness to contribute to the education of the students. Patients' experiences in the home visits were generally positive and some participants developed a long-term relationship with students who visited them.
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the Strategic and Action Research Grant of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (PTS-2013-131). The team would also like to thank Seng-Fah Tong for peer-checking and guidance in qualitative analysis.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Kelly L, Walters L, Rosenthal D. Community-based medical education: Is success a result of meaningful personal learning experiences? Educ Health (Abingdon) 2014;27:47-50.  |
| 2. | Tan CE, Jaffar A, Tong SF, Hamzah MS, Mohamad N. Comprehensive Healthcare module: Medical and pharmacy students' shared learning experiences. Med Educ Online 2014;19:25605. |
| 3. | Coleman K, Murray E. Patients' views and feelings on the community-based teaching of undergraduate medical students: A qualitative study. Fam Pract 2002;19:183-8. |
| 4. | Stacy R, Spencer J. Patients as teachers: A qualitative study of patients' views on their role in a community-based undergraduate project. Med Educ 1999;33:688-94. |
| 5. | Lauckner H, Doucet S, Wells S. Patients as educators: The challenges and benefits of sharing experiences with students. Med Educ 2012;46:992-1000. |
[Table 1]
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