Trainees as Agents of Change: A Theory-Informed Model for Trainee-Driven Curricular Advocacy in Medical Education

How Medical Students Benefit from Participating in a Longitudinal Resource Stewardship Medical Education Program (STARS): An International Descriptive Evaluation

BACKGROUND

STARS (Students and Trainees Advocating for Resource Stewardship) is a medical student leadership program that promotes integration of resource stewardship (RS) into medical education in at least seven countries. Little is known about how participation affects student leaders.

AIM

To understand how partaking in STARS impacted participants' knowledge, skills, and influenced career plans, and aspirations.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

We conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with STARS participants (n = 27) from seven countries.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

STARS was designed to facilitate grassroots efforts that embed RS principles into medical education. STARS programs globally share common features: participation from several medical schools, centralized organizing hubs and leadership summits, and support from faculty mentors. Students take lessons learnt from centralized programming to implement changes that advance RS initiatives at their schools.

PROGRAM EVALUATION

Students finished STARS with better RS knowledge, enhanced change management skills (leadership, advocacy, collaboration), and a commitment to incorporate RS into future practice. Nearly all respondents hoped to pursue leadership activities in medicine, but most were unclear if they would focus efforts to advance RS.

DISCUSSION

STARS participants gained knowledge as it relates to RS, change management skills, and catalyzed a commitment to incorporate high-value care into future practice. Medical education initiatives should be leveraged as a key strategic approach to build RS capacity.

Innovation in Medical Education on Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities: Report on the National Inclusive Curriculum for Health Education-Medical Initiative

The lack of physician training in serving patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) has been highlighted as a key modifiable root cause of health disparities experienced by this high-priority public health population. To address gaps in medical education regarding the lack of IDD curriculum, lack of evaluation/assessment, and lack of coordination across institutions, the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry created the National Inclusive Curriculum for Health Education-Medical (NICHE-MED) Initiative in 2016. The aims of NICHE-MED are to: (1) impact medical students' attitudes and/or knowledge to address underlying ableism and address how future physicians think about disability; (2) apply a lens of health equity and intersectionality, centering people with IDD, but fostering conversation and learning about issues faced by other disability and minoritized populations; and (3) support community-engaged scholarship within medical education. As of 2024, the NICHE-MED initiative consists of close to 40 Medical School Partners, each with their own community-engaged disability curriculum intervention paired with a rigorous evaluation that ties centrally to coordinated program evaluation. The NICHE-MED initiative demonstrates implementation success at scale and is a successful community-engaged curriculum change model that may be replicated regarding disability more broadly and regarding necessary medical education efforts that center other marginalized populations.