Recommendations for teaching upon sensitive topics in forensic and legal medicine in the context of medical education pedagogy.
Undergraduate medical curricula typically include forensic and legal medicine topics that are of a highly sensitive nature. Examples include suicide, child abuse, domestic and sexual violence. It is likely that some students will have direct or indirect experience of these issues which are prevalent in society. Those students are vulnerable to vicarious harm from partaking in their medical education. Even students with no direct or indirect experience of these issues may be vulnerable to vicarious trauma, particularly students who are especially empathetic to cases presented. Despite these risks, instruction relating to these topics is necessary to ensure the competencies of graduating doctors to respond appropriately to cases they encounter during their professional careers. However, risk can be minimised by a well-designed and thoughtfully delivered educational programme. We provide recommendations for the successful inclusion of sensitive forensic and legal medicine topics in undergraduate medical curricula.
SAOLTA University Hospitals Group, Health Service Executive West, Hazelwood House, Parkmore Road, Galway, Ireland; Room 104, Comerford Medical Education Centre, Clinical Science Institute, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. Electronic address: kieran.kennedy@nuigalway.ie.
Kieran M
KM
Kennedy
Centre for Global Women's Studies, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. Electronic address: stacy.scriver@nuigalway.ie.
Stacey
S
Scriver
D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D005554:Forensic Medicine / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D013663:Teaching
Curriculum; Education; Forensic and legal medicine; Medical education; Pedagogy; Sensitive topics