Attitudes of Medical Trainees Towards Homeless Persons Presenting for Care in the Emergency Department

NCT00281398 | Completed DMC

• 1 other identifier: 05-31
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 100
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Homelessness is a significant problem in Canada, and many homeless people will seek routine care in the Emergency Department (ED) as a result of barriers to access. There is a paucity of information in the literature concerning the attitudes of health care workers towards homeless patients in the ED setting, although there is ample reason to believe that these attitudes may be suboptimal. In the absence of formal teaching regarding issues of homelessness, medical students have been shown to develop increasingly negative attitudes towards this vulnerable population. It is therefore important to better delineate the attitudes of ED physicians towards homeless persons and to develop an emergency medicine curriculum that helps sensitize physicians to the needs of this already disadvantaged population.

Conditions

Homeless Persons; Emergency Medical Services

Keywords

homelessness; Attitudes of medical trainees towards the homeless

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• The main outcome measure is the difference in change in the mean score in those who have participated in the curriculum compared with those who have not during the 2nd year of the study.

• Objective 1: To describe the attitudes of medical trainees towards the homeless population before and after completion of an emergency medicine rotation at St. Michael's Hospital

• Objective 2: To define, develop, and implement a core curriculum in care of the homeless patient for emergency medicine rotations in Canada

• Objective 3: To determine the effect of curriculum implementation on the attitudes of trainees towards homeless patients in the Emergency Department

Interventions

Questionnaire BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 25 Years - 45 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• All undergraduate and postgraduate students will be eligible to participate. In the second year of the study, attitudes will be surveyed before and after completion of the clinical rotation and didactic training.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Unity Health Toronto: lead
• The Physicians' Services Incorporated Foundation: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

St. Michael's Hospital

Toronto, Ontario, M5B 1W8, Canada

Location

MeSH Terms

Interventions

Surveys and Questionnaires

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Data Collection; Epidemiologic Methods; Investigative Techniques; Health Care Evaluation Mechanisms; Quality of Health Care; Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation; Public Health; Environment and Public Health

Study Officials

• Julia Spence, MD, FRCPC

  Unity Health Toronto

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 18, 2006
• First Posted: January 24, 2006
• Study Start: August 1, 2005
• Primary Completion: December 1, 2007
• Study Completion: December 1, 2007
• Last Updated: June 20, 2013

Record last verified: 2008-06

Locations

CA (1)