Preparing Medical Students to Care for Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Purpose: Medical education is increasingly expected to address underserved and vulnerable populations and teach medical students to be culturally competent. We developed a curriculum that incorporates didactic instruction, patient interviews and panel discussions to teach medical students how to care for patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our goal was to discover whether patient panels can effectively teach students patient care issues from the patient or family perspective. Methods: Medical students were asked closed-ended questions about the training using SurveyMonkey, as well as to provide a written reflection. Quantitative analysis of student feedback (N=99) was carried out using SPSS. Students’ reflections were analyzed using QSR NVivo software. Results: Students’ age ranged from 23 to 37 years old and 50 students were male and 49 female. Students reported positive or very positive changes after the training in areas including, knowledge about what to do or say (86.7%), level of understanding for the challenges that people with ASD face (86.6%), skills (77.3%), confidence (62.6%), competence in communication (70%), and ability to provide better care (80%). Males were almost 3 times less likely than females to report a change in their communication skills (p <.01) and were less optimistic about future training being beneficial (p < .05). No differences were found based on race or ethnicity. Those without previous professional knowledge about ASD were significantly more likely to find the training helpful (p < .05). Conclusion: Disability specific education results in positive changes in students’ knowledge, confidence and competence.  Dissemination efforts are needed to incorporate disability in medical education.