Banca de DEFESA: GUILHERME LUCAS DE OLIVEIRA LIMA

Uma banca de DEFESA de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
DISCENTE : GUILHERME LUCAS DE OLIVEIRA LIMA
DATA : 16/08/2019
HORA: 08:00
LOCAL: sala RUTE, no 3º andar do prédio administrativo do HUOL/UFRN
TÍTULO:

Neurophobia among UFRN’s medical students: a mixed-method study.

PALAVRAS-CHAVES:

Neurology; Phobia; Attitude; Higher education; Curriculum; Medical faculty. 

PÁGINAS: 93
GRANDE ÁREA: Ciências da Saúde
ÁREA: Medicina
RESUMO:

Background: The increasing prevalence of neurological diseases imposes the need for training of doctors able to provide initial care to this population. The feeling of inability to treat neurological patients and fear of neuromedicine (the branch that studies neuroscience, neurology, and neurosurgery) are present among students and doctors for a long-time, which led to the use of the term “neurophobia” 25 years ago. Objectives: To diagnose neurophobia, understand its development in medical students at UFRN-Natal-RN and to propose transformative measures for teaching neuromedicine. Method: A mixed-method explanatory study, with a quantitative phase followed by a qualitative one, was applied to the 600 medical students of the institution. In the qualitative phase, an electronic instrument assessed the perceptions of 5-level Likert neuromedicine. The items were about the level of knowledge, confidence (in problem-solving), interest, difficulty with neuromedicine, importance for generalist training and current fear of content at the time of the research. The neurophobic group represented the students who assessed themselves with fear levels of 4 or 5. The weighted average of the Likert items show trends: positive (>4), neutral (between 3 and 4), and negative (<3), except for difficulty and fear. The descriptive and comparative statistical analysis of the groups was performed according to the variable categories and the linear correlation between the neurophobia and the independent criteria was calculated, allowing associations and correlations of the factors involved in neurophobia with a significance level of p<0.05. In the qualitative phase, eight students participated in the Focus Group and five interviews were integrated into the corpus to reach saturation. The transcription allowed categorical thematic content analysis according to Bardin and Minayo. The triangulation of the quantitative and qualitative methods was performed. Results: In the quantitative phase, 215 instruments were completed, the overall prevalence of neurophobia was 41.9% (n = 90), with increase throughout the course. The weighted average levels of knowledge, confidence, interest, difficulty, importance, and fear were, respectively, 2.31; 2.00; 3.57; 3.69; 4.39 and 2.97. There was a 36% positive correlation between neurophobia and perceived difficulty, and a 49% negative correlation for interest. The neurophobic group noticed more difficulty, less knowledge, less confidence, and less interest in neuromedicine than the non-neurophobic group. In the qualitative phase, the speeches suggested a preconceived view that may be associated with student immaturity, and both corroborate the negative perception of neuromedicine at the beginning of the course. Besides the early origin of neurophobia, there is a tendency of its aggravation that seems to be due to the applied methodologies: at the beginning of the course, which do not prioritize the contextualization and, throughout the course, by exposing specific content of little relevance to the general doctor. Also, the curriculum model in disciplines tends to decrease the integration of content and teachers. The improvement proposals dealt with the suitability of the teacher as a protagonist of the curricular integration and the applicability of neuromedicine in the general context. Final considerations: Neurophobia is present among medical students at UFRN. It is more related to perceptions of high difficulty and low interest in neuromedicine. Changes in the traditional teaching profile for meaningful adaptive learning, with active learning methodologies in an integrated neuromedical curriculum, focused on generalist education, are the students’ proposals to mitigate neurophobia.

MEMBROS DA BANCA:
Externo à Instituição - BRUNO LOPES DOS SANTOS LOBATO - UFPA
Interno - 1369275 - CLECIO DE OLIVEIRA GODEIRO JUNIOR
Presidente - 2172036 - MARIA JOSE PEREIRA VILAR