Photo-elicitation for capacity building and promoting professional interest in working with older adults – piloting a novel “Humanism in Ageing” workshop in medical curriculum

Abstract

With the increased exposure to frail and vulnerable older patients coupled with recent advances in anti-ageing and regenerative medicine, medical students may develop the tendency to view the ageing negatively. Age-related biases in medical students might include seeing ageing as a frustrating process of decline, infirmity and decay. A recent cross-sectional survey in China reported that first-year medical students had more favourable attitudes toward older adults than senior students, suggesting that attitudes on ageing might have been affected by knowledge in the medical school. Another study has found medical students to have moderately negative attitudes toward older adults, and little expressed desire to pursue a specialty in geriatrics. This phenomenon is perhaps even more worrisome at a time that the COVID pandemic has exacerbated intergenerational tension, and has exposed us to the fact that society’s rationing of healthcare resources on some occasions have been based arbitrarily on chronological age. Most recently, the United Nations has declared the next Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021-2030) and has called for international, concerted action to “change how we think, feel and act towards age and ageing”. Visual images evoke emotions, abstract ideas, and the shared human experience. It can also be used to tell stories and, in narrative pedagogy, illustrate themes to be taught. For instance, photographs of older adults could elicit learners’ apprehension of geriatric care, and images of senile and frail older adults could elicit anxiety about growing old, thereby enabling dialogue about stereotypes and prejudices, and in turn potentially facilitating sensitivity, perception, empathy and insight, perspective-taking. Research also reports that socializing medical students with healthy older adults through visual art could foster positive attitudes toward the other age group, and enhance a sense of commonality. At Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine of The University of Hong Kong, our team has sought to harness the potential of photo-elicitation as a teaching & learning tool to foster medical students’ awareness of, and insight into their own age-related assumptions on health. In the MBBS curriculum, we held intergenerational workshops for medical students to jointly explore visual narratives on healthy ageing with a silver age volunteers in the community, and to reflect upon person-cantered healthcare for the ageing population. The project is funded by the Teaching Development Grant (TDG) at The University of Hong Kong.