Measuring health sciences students' attitudes toward persons with disabilities: Is one scale better than another?

Negative attitudes toward persons with disabilities (PWDs) can lead to stigmatization and exclusion, underscoring the need for effective tools to measure and address such attitudes in educational settings. This study compares the psychometric properties of two scales used to assess attitudes toward PWDs among health science learners: the Multidimensional Attitudes Scale Toward Persons with Disabilities (MAS) and the Attitudes and Perspectives Toward Persons with Disabilities Scale (APPD). This research examines the internal consistency, factor stability, factor replicability, and convergent validity of these scales across different measurement occasions using data from second-year Medical (n = 102) and Doctor of Physical Therapy (n = 39) students.

Integration of Disability Awareness Improves Medical Students' Attitudes Toward People with Disabilities.

Unlabelled: Persons with disabilities (PWD) often require special accommodations and more comprehensive healthcare yet frequently have encounters with physicians who are unprepared to provide tailored and complete care. A multipronged disability awareness curriculum for second-year medical students was implemented, including content on disability etiquette, patient-centered and interprofessional learning sessions for individuals with physical disabilities and intellectual and developmental disabilities, and a debriefing session with physiatrists. The objective of this study was to utilize a mixed methods approach to evaluate the disability awareness curriculum in undergraduate medical education (UME).

Come Roll with Me: An Interprofessional Experience to Promote Disability Awareness.

One in four American adults have a disability, which makes people with disabilities the largest minority group in the United States (U.S.).

Seating and Wheeled Mobility Clinicians Contribute to the Wound Care Team.

Many know that the wound care team consists of physicians and nurses with specialized training. Many may not know of physical therapists (PT) or occupational therapists (OT) with training in seating and wheeled mobility who address skin injuries in people who are full-time wheelchair users. PTs/OTs address the fit and use of their wheelchair to their body and look at their daily function while looking for causes of skin injury otherwise not seen and can help prevent them in the future.