ABSTRACT
As part of an occupational health curriculum, 3rd-year medical students were taught about sexual harassment so that they can treat victims in an appropriate way. A lecture presented basic information: the definition of sexual harassment, its history, legal aspects, specific features, effects on victims' physical and psychological health, and appropriate approaches of doctors to victims. Students then played roles of both a patient and an occupational health doctor. A patient profile was created on the basis of a legal case.<BR>Students were extremely interested in the course and judged it highly. Role play helped students develop a sincere interest in the problem of sexual harassment and an empathic understanding of its victims. The relevance of sexual harassment to medical education is discussed.
ABSTRACT
Occupational health was taught to 3rd-year medical students using simulated patients and role playing. Patient profiles were created to enable students to consider psychosocial aspects, such as work environment and lifestyles, involved in occupational health. Simulated patients were used, later, students acted as patients and each student played the role of an occupational health doctor. The aim of the exercise was for students, through their own actions and observations, to learn communication skills and approaches to occupational health, such as prevention, health promotion, and the importance of health education, which are based on a biopsychosocial model.<BR>Students were extremely interested and found the course valuable. This result shows the effectiveness and current shortage of active learning methods as well as the need for acquiring communication skills.<BR>Although learning communication skills is most relevant to clinical medicine, active learning and communication training is also important for occupational health education because the latter should be based not on the traditional doctor-patient relationship but on the biopsychosocial model.