The Teddy Bear Effect: Supplementing Medical Education Through Volunteering

This research demonstrates the efficacy of medical student volunteering programs in improving students' paediatric confidence. Furthermore, it demonstrates students' perceived increase in general healthcare communication skills, which is transferable to all specialties.

Of the 187 students who attended a training session, 157 (84%) filled out baseline data surveys. Students were then free to attend TBH sessions over the year. Follow-up surveys were electronically sent to volunteers three times over the year, to assess changes in paediatric confidence among volunteers as TBH involvement increased.

Surveys collected data including: number of TBH visits attended, previous paediatric exposure, current paediatric confidence (subjective 1-10 scale), current perceived comfort of children with volunteer (subjective 1-10 scale), as well as direct questions asking if TBH involvement has increased paediatric confidence and healthcare-related communication skills.

41 students who completed baseline data filled out valid surveys at one or more later time points. If volunteers completed multiple follow-up surveys over the year, the last one completed was denoted as TFinal for comparison to TBaseline.

Survey responses showed a significant mean increase in paediatric confidence as a result of TBH involvement of 17.65% (see table 1). This remained significant when selecting for only those students currently studying postgraduate medicine (16.72%). Upon further stratification, medical student volunteers who had never participated in a paediatrics rotation reported a larger mean increase in confidence (21.45%).

When asked directly, 92% of responders reported an increase in paediatric confidence and 74% reported an increase in their perception of children’s comfort with them. Further, 85% reported an improvement to their general healthcare-related communication skills.

本研究证实了医学生志愿服务项目可有效提升学生的儿科（paediatric）诊疗自信心。此外，该研究还表明，学生自感其通用医疗沟通能力有所提升，且该能力可迁移至所有医学专科领域。

在参与培训课程的187名学生中，有157名（占比84%）填写了基线数据调查问卷。随后，学生可在一年内自由参与TBH相关志愿活动。研究团队在一年内通过电子方式向志愿者发送了三次随访问卷，以评估随着志愿者参与TBH项目频次增加，其儿科诊疗自信心的变化情况。

本次调研收集的问卷数据包括：参与TBH志愿活动的次数、既往儿科相关接触经历、当前儿科诊疗自信心（采用1-10分主观评分量表）、当前对儿童与志愿者相处舒适度的自感程度（同样采用1-10分主观评分量表），以及直接询问TBH参与是否提升了其儿科诊疗自信心与医疗相关沟通能力的问题。

完成基线调查的学生中，共有41名在后续至少一个时间点提交了有效问卷。若志愿者在一年内完成了多份随访问卷，则以其最后提交的那份作为最终随访数据（TFinal），用于与基线数据（TBaseline）进行对比分析。

问卷反馈结果显示，参与TBH项目后，学生的儿科诊疗自信心平均提升了17.65%（详见表1），该结果在仅纳入当前就读医学研究生的样本中仍具有统计学显著性（提升幅度为16.72%）。进一步分层分析显示，此前从未参与过儿科轮转的医学生志愿者，其自信心的平均提升幅度更大，达21.45%。

当被直接询问时，92%的受访者表示其儿科诊疗自信心有所提升，74%的受访者认为自己与儿童相处的舒适度感知有所改善。此外，85%的受访者表示其通用医疗沟通能力得到了提升。