Patient-centered Care: Student Perspectives on the Benefits and Challenges

In light of the increasing emphasis on incorporation of patient-centered care techniques into health care services, we sought to explore the greatest impediments to and benefits from student engagement in patient-centered care. A secondary aim of this research was to explore possible improvements in the way patient-centered care is taught to medical students. Thirdyear medical students on family medicine rotations at Stanford School of Medicine were provided the following open-ended prompt: “Describe a patient-centered care challenge or surprise in the family medicine core clerkship.” 326 free responses were collected. Transcripts were inductively coded by a primary researcher and reviewed by two secondary researchers. Coding discrepancies were resolved through a multi-step adjudication and consensus process. The primary researcher reviewed coded transcripts to identify preliminary themes. The entire research team worked collaboratively to iteratively refine representative themes until consensus was achieved.