Objective: Effectively training medical students in compassion, communication, and empathy is essential in fostering a holistic approach to patient care. We sought to address this by implementing an early clinical experience service learning program for medical students in the initial years of their medical education.
Methods: Medical students at Stony Brook University initiated, designed, and facilitated the volunteer program, which provides students a framework to learn magic therapy and engage with pediatric patients. The program includes an introductory presentation, training course, and organized bedside sessions with patients. To evaluate the program, a sample of participants partook in a focus group, written questionnaire, and/or online survey.
Results: From 2015 to 2020, 130 students participated in magic therapy rounds, engaging 1391 patients. Nine themes of student benefit emerged from qualitative analysis, including acquisition of familiarity with the hospital and healthcare team, cultivation of communication skills, contribution to improvement of patient affect, development of empathic qualities and techniques, and improvement in psychological health. Students were very satisfied with their experiences and viewed the activity as helpful for patients, parents, staff, and themselves.
Conclusions: The program engaged students in compassionate patient care within a holistic approach to patient care early in training.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-021-01456-y.
Keywords: Early clinical experience; Magic; Medical students; Preclinical; Service learning; Undergraduate medical education.
© The Author(s) under exclusive licence to International Association of Medical Science Educators 2021.