The BELIEF Instrument: a preclinical teaching tool to elicit patients' health beliefs.
OBJECTIVE
The BELIEF Instrument is a cultural interviewing tool for preclinical medical students that does not require diagnostic or therapeutic skills.


METHODS
An expert panel developed and taught the instrument to 200 first-year medical students in (1) a didactic session, (2) standardized patient interviews, and (3) clinical correlation sessions with community physicians and third-year medical students. Standardized patients evaluated students on the BELIEF questions in a graded interview.


RESULTS
A total of 93.5% (range 86% to 97%) of 197 students elicited information on each of the BELIEF items.


CONCLUSIONS
The BELIEF instrument works as a cultural interviewing tool. It is unknown if students' interviewing behavior generalizes to real patients in clinical settings.
Dobbie
Alison E
AE
Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, England. a.dobbie@ic.ac.uk
Medrano
Martha
M
Tysinger
James
J
Olney
Cynthia
C
D003469:Culture; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D010361:Patients