Raising Awareness of Mistreatment Policies and Reporting Procedures Using a Novel Medical Student Mobile Application

Abstract

Background: Reports of mistreatment are an important first step to improving medical students’ learning environment. Students may not report mistreatment due to a lack of awareness of institutional policies, reporting procedures, or for fear of reprisal. Aim: We sought to determine if a medical school cross-platform mobile application (app) could be used to improve students’ awareness of mistreatment policies and procedures. Setting and Participants: Participants in this intervention included Drexel University College of Medicine (DUCOM) medical students, faculty, and Student Affairs Deans. Program Description: We created the DUCOMpass© app to make mistreatment policies and procedures more readily available and to ease mistreatment reporting for medical students. Program Evaluation: To determine the efficacy of the app at raising mistreatment awareness, we analyzed our institutional Graduation Questionnaire data before and after the introduction of the app (from 2016 to 2023) as compared with the national average. We verified our students’ self-reported data with app usage data. Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the first instance of a medical school mobile app being implemented to successfully address medical student mistreatment awareness and reporting. We found that reaching students in a familiar and easily accessible mode(s) of communication is a catalyst for lasting change. NIH Trial Registry: Not applicable.