UE Savoir-Être: an ethical and educational innovation for our students

As debates on student mental health have resurfaced in the wake of the health crisis and at a time of undergraduate reform, our teaching teams have developed a unique educational concept in collaboration with students and users. Temporarily named "Interpersonal Skills and Therapeutic Communication," this empathy-focused teaching program is a true ethical and educational innovation. To learn more, we turned to the project leaders: Dr. Amandine Luquiens and Prof. Céline Bourgier, as well as Théo Lacoste, a student member of the steering committee.

 

Genesis of a project focused on empathy

A need for evaluation arising from the R2C evaluation methods

In 2018, the draft reform of the second cycle of medical studies (R2C) was submitted to the various educational managers at the Faculty and caught the attention of Professor Céline Bourgier. She noted that the R2C assessment methods would include evaluating students' interpersonal skills and empathy through the clinical skills certificate (C3). However, at that time, our training program did not include any courses dedicated entirely to developing these skills. 

Joined in 2019 by Dr. Amandine Luquiens, a psychiatrist and addiction specialist at Nîmes University Hospital, the two doctors will work together to lead the project to develop an innovative teaching unit capable of meeting the requirements of R2C. Their first step is to study the current level of empathy among medical students.

 

A striking observation: medical students' empathy declines as they progress through their studies.

Their initial findings are surprising. Through their bibliographic research, the two practitioners discovered that medical students tend to experience a decline in empathy throughout their studies. "This decline begins at the same time as hospital internships. It would seem that the difference between 'the idealization of the healthcare profession' and 'the reality of the healthcare profession' is a triggering factor," explains Amandine Luquiens.

Another observation: this decline is strongly correlated with the problems of burnout and depression that health students may encounter.

 

Structured teaching to halt this decline and ensure better quality of care in the future

These findings motivated the project leaders to create a new innovative teaching unit (UE) with a dual objective: 

• Equip students with the tools and skills necessary to improve the quality of careby instilling in them a person-centered approach rather than just symptoms/pathologies.
• Preventing psychosocial risks, not only for patients, but also for students, future healthcare professionals.

These two complementary elements will therefore be co-developed by a dedicated committee composed of teachers, students, and users.

 

A jointly developed EU for acquiring skills related to empathy towards oneself and towards patients

Stages in the construction of the EU

Such a university requires a period of creation and experimentation, which will take shape within the Faculty in five major stages: 

 

A structured EU to facilitate students' acculturation in the subject of emotion management

As Théo Lacoste, Vice Dean of Students for 2021-2022, points out, medical students are "perfectionists": "They are selected because they are the best. And this selection process continues over the years. The need to be, or at least appear, 'infallible' at all levels—whether professionally or emotionally—continues until it becomes an almost cultural component of our way of thinking." 

However, it is precisely a acculturation on this subject that this EU should encourage: Amandine Luquiens explains: "We are seeking to acculturate students, and even the faculty as a whole. The faculty takes care of its students, and students must take care of themselves. We will therefore help them to acquire tools that will enable them both to protect themselves and to curb 'emotional suppression', a management strategy used for many years by doctors to understand the patient-caregiver relationship."

 PTo achieve this objective, the EU is structured around four major modules, all of which are mandatory: 

• Introduction to mindfulness meditation Mindfulness
• Peer-to-peer exchanges of practices : this module encourages open discussion and also provides a better understanding of professional communication within a healthcare team.
• Therapeutic communication : a multi-year module with theoretical instruction on announcements, integration of theater workshops, and simulation workshops.
• Stigmatization in healthcare : a module featuring user testimonials in front of students about situations they may have experienced during their healthcare journey

 

In summary: an innovative initiative in more ways than one

Humanism is a core value of the Faculty. It is an integral part of its history, but it is also a value that will shape its future, as demonstrated by this innovative program in more ways than one. Indeed, it represents an ethical and educational innovation : 

• Co-created with students, teaching staff, users, and administrative personnel: a true example of cross-functional collaboration between the women and men of our community. 
• who is interested in the real social and societal issue for health students and intervenes early enough enough in their studies to anticipate it and long enough to address it in depth
• which incorporates theoretical modules but also, and above all, highly practical modules, focused on a human approach to the patient-caregiver relationship, particularly through simulation workshops.
• creator of key skills key skills in empathy and interpersonal skills: essential tools for a more humane approach to medicine
• carrying a message both for students and their future patients

 

Open perspectives on other courses

The introduction of this EU in the medical curriculum inevitably raises the question of other courses offered by the faculty (midwifery, paramedical). "Medicine is relatively behind compared to other courses," admits Dr. Luquiens. "Indeed, there are already course units in other programs, but not in such a structured way over time. The idea is therefore, once this course unit has been proven, to "spread" it to other programs, with a view to taking a transdisciplinary approach to these skills."