Creation and evaluation of a participatory child abuse and neglect workshop for medical students.
Christos Giannakas, Aspasia Manta, Maria Effrosyni Livanou, Vasiliki Daniil, Angeliki Paraskeva, Maria-Konstantina Georgiadou, Nefeli Griva, Vassiliki Papaevangelou, Maria Tsolia, John M Leventhal, Alexandra Soldatou
Author Information
Christos Giannakas: Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Aspasia Manta: Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Maria Effrosyni Livanou: Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Vasiliki Daniil: Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Angeliki Paraskeva: Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Maria-Konstantina Georgiadou: Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Nefeli Griva: Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Vassiliki Papaevangelou: 3rd Department of Pediatrics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Rimini 1, 124 62, Chaidari, Greece.
Maria Tsolia: 2nd Department of Pediatrics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Thivon and Levadeias, Goudi 11527, Athens, Greece.
John M Leventhal: Department of Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine, 333 Cedar St, CT, 06510, New Haven, USA.
Alexandra Soldatou: 2nd Department of Pediatrics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Thivon and Levadeias, Goudi 11527, Athens, Greece. alex_soldatou@hotmail.com. ORCID
BACKGROUND: Since child abuse and neglect (CAN) is prevalent worldwide, medical students should acquire basic knowledge, skills, and confidence in identifying and addressing CAN. Although significant educational efforts have been previously described, none has focused on using participatory methods to teach medical students CAN. PURPOSE: To: 1) develop a participatory educational workshop in CAN for medical students, 2) gather, train, and establish a peer-to-peer teaching group, and 3) assess the effectiveness of the workshop in gain of knowledge and improvement of self-confidence for participants. METHODS: A two-hour workshop was created with role-playing, the use of mannikins and peer-to-peer teaching. A 15-item knowledge and a 9-item self-confidence questionnaire were used before, right after, and six months after each workshop. RESULTS: Nine workshops in two academic pediatric departments with a total attendance of 300 6th year medical students were conducted. For the 69 students who completed the questionnaires at all three times, there were statistically significant gains in knowledge right after (p < .001) and six months after (p < .0001) the workshops. Similarly, self-confidence increased right after (p < .0001) and six months after (p < .001) the workshops. Self-selection bias testing indicated that these 69 students who completed all three questionnaires were representative of those who completed the pre-testing and the testing right after. CONCLUSIONS: We successfully established a peer-to-peer teaching group to conduct nine participatory workshops that improved the participants' knowledge and self-confidence in CAN. This feasible and novel active learning approach may help address inadequacies in medical curricula.
