Medical Education in Occupational Health Using Simulated Patients and Role Playing / 医学教育

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.