Each session, co-taught by Parent to Parent staff, is required for all third year medical students during their pediatric clerkship. Session One Parent to Parent staff introduces the concept of family-centered care to medical students during their orientation to pediatrics, letting medical students know from the very beginning the importance of families as teachers. During this first session students are asked to consider from a parent s perspective a treatment decision for Brianna, born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. They are given one day to decide, the same period of time families are often given to consider the dilemma of choosing surgery, transplant or palliative care. During the second session, students share their decision about Brianna.
Discussion leads to the ethical dilemmas that frequently confront physicians and families.
In this session, quality of life issues and end of life decisions are openly discussed with medical students. Medical students are also asked to choose among four diagnoses which they would find most difficult and least difficult as a parent, and why. Through this exercise medical students discover their own biases and beliefs about chronic illness and disability and understand how these personal perspectives might influence their interactions with individuals and families. At each of these sessions family and physician preceptors engage students in discussions about the challenges, opportunities and expectations of family-centered care. For the final session students are asked to share what they have learned from families and to write a reflection on their experiences.