Tell Me More®: A medical student focused humanistic communication model to enhance student professional identity formation through meaningful patient encounters

Introduction: The Tell Me More (TMM)(R) program provides a template for guided interviews to help pro-viders procure an expansive social history from patients and connect with them as people beyond their illness. (TMM)(R) may provide a dual benefit: it improves the patient's experience with their healthcare team and the medical students' experience in developing their identity as a physician. Our aim was to characterize the impact of the patient-student conversations in TMM (R) on the participating medical students through analysis of their written reflections throughout the program. Methods: Students conducted interviews with hospitalized patients using the TMM (R) template, Through narrative medicine and individualized posters, patients were able to highlight their unique qualities. Results: Qualitative analyses of 63 journal reflections from 14 students, across 7 hospital settings, identified 6 themes. These included connection, humanism, discovery, impact, privilege, and perspective. Conclusion: Reflective practice as a learning pedagogy created an opportunity to enhance the medical students' awareness of empathy and compassion during the TMM (R) program. Documentation of reflections assured students would process the encounter as a profound learning experience and develop their professional identity formation as a student preparing to become a physician. Practical implications: TMM (R) provides an opportunity for medical students to practice and apply their interpersonal and communication skills through authentic patient encounters. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study aimed to characterize the impact of patient-student conversations in the Tell Me More (TMM) (R) program on medical students. Through analysis of their written reflections, it was found that the program enhanced students' awareness of empathy and compassion, contributing to their professional identity formation as future physicians.