Impact of supplemental training programs on improving medical students' confidence in providing diabetes self-management education and support.

Background/purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of supplemental diabetes-related training modalities and volunteer activities in increasing first-year medical students' knowledge/comfort in providing diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) to patients.

Methods: A group of medical students developed supplemental diabetes-related training/volunteer programs. The training modalities included an optional 7-session interprofessionally taught Diabetes Enrichment Elective and a 3-hour endocrinologist-led training session intended to prepare students for involvement in an inpatient DSMES volunteer program. The volunteer program provided the students with the opportunity to provide DSMES to patients with diabetes admitted to an academic medical center. Those participating in any of the stated programs were compared to those with no such training regarding confidence in providing DSMES using an optional online survey. The results were analyzed by using Mann-Whitney test and descriptive analyses.

Results: A total of 18 first-year medical students responded to the optional survey with a response rate of ~30% (10 of 33) among participants in any training/volunteer program. First-year medical students who attended any of the offered optional programs had statistically significant higher comfort level in 4 of the 6 areas assessed regarding providing DSMES compared with those with no such training (<0.05), with medium to large effect size (r=0.48-0.59).

Conclusion: This study suggests that the supplemental preclerkship diabetes-specific training modalities/volunteer programs can provide benefit in providing medical students with practical knowledge while improving their confidence in providing DSMES to patients with diabetes.