Make Every Encounter Therapeutic (MEET) elective opportunity for second year students
The Make Every Encounter Therapeutic (MEET) elective focuses on creating connections between physician and patients
“When there’s a difficult diagnosis, and there isn’t a cure to provide to the patient, talking to them may be the only thing you can do,” says MD Program student Megan Woolner, who recently completed the expanded Make Every Encounter Therapeutic (MEET) elective. “I learned how just listening – and being comfortable just listening – can be therapeutic. Even when you aren’t asking specific questions, you can still learn about the individual person, which is instrumental to providing care.”
MEET is part of the newly integrated Medical Psychiatric Alliance (MPA) curriculum, which focuses on improving outcomes for patients with both mental and physical illnesses. The elective was first piloted in 2013/2014 with five second-year students. With the support of the MPA, the elective has since expanded to include 34 students with representation from each academy. “Each year we see a great deal of interest from students,” says Dr. Adrienne Tan, one of three curriculum leads for the MEET elective, together with Dr. Ketan Vegda and Dr. Pracha Vatsya.
Through the MEET elective, students integrate therapeutic and diagnostic interviewing skills while focusing on making a connection with the patient. Students learn therapeutic communication skills and, with a teacher observing, apply the skills by interviewing patients with both physical and mental illness. Following the interview, patients provide feedback on the student’s communication skills.
Learn more about the 2016-2017 MEET elective opportunity for second-year students (PDF).
“Using motivational interview skills and empathic statements, I was able to get patients engaged,” recounts Woolner. “Patients said they felt like I was listening to them and that they were comfortable with the interaction. That was really important for me because we were discussing sensitive issues. As a Iearner, I felt a little uneasy about probing about sensitive topics, but this experience got me past that and I really saw the value in giving people space to express their feelings.”
According to Dr. Tan, feedback received from students about their MEET elective experience has been overwhelmingly positive. MEET provides a complement to diagnostic interviewing skills, which helps future physicians better understand the patient experience. “One student remarked that learning what it’s like to have a disease is just as important as learning about the disease when practicing medicine. It’s about building a relationship and caring for the whole person,” concludes Dr. Tan.
As a second-year student, Woolner is working on integrating what she learned through the MEET elective into standard medical interviews. “It’s great that we’re learning these skills now, towards the beginning of our medical education, so that we can embed them in our practice.”
Recognizing the unwavering commitment from teachers – the majority of whom are fourth- or fifth-year residents in psychiatry – the hope is to expand teaching opportunities to other divisions, with accompanying faculty development, in order to offer the experience to a greater number of students.
Second-year students interested in participating in the 2016-2017 MEET elective should senf brief statement (Word) about your interest via e-mail by December 5, 2016. Please indicate your academy and student number. Successful applicants will be contacted by December 16, 2016.
