Families have been part of physician education at the University of Vermont College of Medicine since 1985

MEP……………………………………………………FIRST

Teaching Family-Centered Care To Medical Students and Pediatric Residents At the University of Vermont
– A Partnership With Families

For fifteen years Parent to Parent of Vermont has been a support and information network for families who have a child with special health needs. Since 1984, Parent to Parent of Vermont has been responding to the needs of over 1800 families. Inherent in our program is the belief that through support, information, and opportunities for collaboration, families challenged by the special needs of their children, will have their needs met and live the lives they dream about – in their community.

Parent to Parent works in partnership with many organizations in order to provide a variety of opportunities for families and health care professionals to learn from each other and to develop policies and practices that reflect a family-centered philosophy. Parents are integral partners in the teaching process. Incorporating families in curriculum planning, implementation and evaluation, together with students, faculty and community-based professionals, represents a family-centered approach which yields numerous practical benefits. Collaboration yields better services on behalf of children as well as new insights into the parent-professional partnership.

Medical Student Training Project - The Medical Education Project

Families have been part of physician education at the University of Vermont College of Medicine since 1985. Born out of the need to ensure that all individuals receive care that is respectful, compassionate, and empowering, families together with physicians designed the Medical Education Project. Two pediatricians serving on the Parent to Parent of Vermont Advisory Board and faculty in the Department of Pediatrics offered to incorporate this four-part course within their seminar. Each session, co-taught by Parent to Parent staff, is required for all third year medical students during their pediatric clerkship.

Session One

Parent to Parent staff introduces the concept of family-centered care to medical students during their orientation to pediatrics, letting medical students know from the very beginning the importance of families as teachers. During this first session students are asked to consider from a parent’s perspective a treatment decision for Brianna, born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. They are given one day to decide, the same period of time families are often given to consider the dilemma of choosing surgery, transplant or palliative care.

Session Two

During the second session, students share their decision about Brianna. Discussion leads to the ethical dilemmas that frequently confront physicians and families. In this session, quality of life issues and end of life decisions are openly discussed with medical students. Medical students are also asked to choose among four diagnoses which they would find most difficult and least difficult as a parent, and why. Through this exercise medical students discover their own biases and beliefs about chronic illness and disability and understand how these personal perspectives might influence their interactions with individuals and families. At each of these sessions family and physician preceptors engage students in discussions about the challenges, opportunities and expectations of family-centered care.

Session Three

Students are randomly matched for a home visit with one of forty family faculty, each one prepared to share their own story and the lessons they want students to "take home" with them. Students hear from families about the impact of chronic illness on children, families and siblings, how difficult information can be shared, the complexity of health care systems, and the struggle with health care financing; they learn about resilience and family strengths and how families characterize a successful relationship with physicians.

Session Four

For the final session students are asked to share what they have learned from families and to write a reflection on their experiences. As one medical student reflected: "It was enlightening to relax with this family and look at life
through the eyes of parents, a perspective that is
often disregarded when planning services
for a child with special needs."

From the very beginning, the University of Vermont College of Medicine has embraced the concept of families as faculty. To date, 849 medical students have been part of the Medical Education Project. The course we have designed, "The Practice of Family-Centered Care", provides medical students with an opportunity to learn family-centered concepts and apply them during their pediatric rotation. Leadership within the Department of Pediatrics has assured that the lessons taught in the homes of families are well integrated into their training. According to Dr. Lewis First, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, "the unique linkage between our Department of Pediatrics and Parent to Parent’s Family Faculty has allowed family-centered care to become a household work for our students, residents, staff, and faculty."

The success of the Medical Education Project has opened new doors for Parent to Parent of Vermont to participate in physician education. Last year a pediatric resident came to Parent to Parent with the suggestion that pediatric residents have a similar opportunity to learn directly from families.

Click for more information on FIRST

Pediatric Residency Training Project – Families Involved in Resident/Student Teaching (FIRST)

Families Involved in Resident/Student Teaching, FIRST, a curriculum designed to provide Pediatric Residents with an in-depth understanding of family-centered care, is now part of the Pediatric Residency Program at the University of Vermont. Residents, matched with families over the course of their three years, will be skilled in those areas presently identified by practicing pediatricians as gaps in their training including care coordination, interdisciplinary training, family involvement, and advocating for family-centered policies and practices within health, education, and community settings.

Over the course of three years, residents have the opportunity to enter the community with families and follow their children into the schools, physician’s offices, and community programs. The FIRST curriculum taught by Parent to Parent staff, residents and community physicians, has the luxury of a longitudinal, three-year family/resident relationship that allows residents to explore with families the concepts of resiliency, family strengths, siblings support, transition to adulthood and to learn from families the type of physician they find most beneficial. Residents learn first hand what services, therapies, educational programs, and subspecialist care are available to families, and what is truly helpful.

Along with the FIRST team consisting of community pediatricians and Parent to Parent faculty, the residents reflect upon their family visits and relate the lessons they learn to experiences they have in the hospital. Residents have an opportunity to explore their own values in relation to the care they provide as pediatric residents in the hospital setting.

Parent to Parent Participation in Developing Medical School Curriculum

This past spring the University of Vermont College of Medicine embarked on an effort to redesign their four-year curriculum. As a result of successful programs such as the Medical Education Project and FIRST the College of Medicine has decided to weave family-centered care into its new curriculum by introducing "Family Faculty" into all facets of its curriculum.

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