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Abstract
Medical education plays a crucial role in shaping future healthcare providers' attitudes, skills, and understanding of underserved populations, including those experiencing homelessness. Summarizing the existing literature on medical students’ perception of People Experiencing Homelessness (PEH) can aid medical educators in developing a curriculum to allow medical students to comprehensively care for this population. The databases Web of Science, ERIC, Psychinfo, Embase and Medline were searched from 1946 to June 2023. Published quantitative and qualitative studies reporting on the perceptions or attitudes of medical students towards PEH were included. The studies were analyzed with descriptive statistics and described narratively. The search identified 1667 studies, with 15 ultimately included. Of the included studies, 66.7% were conducted in the United States of America, 26.7% were conducted in Canada, and 6.7% were completed in the United Kingdom. These studies revealed that medical students' perceptions vary, although most studies found medical students possess positive attitudes towards PEH, albeit feeling uncomfortable in their ability to provide care to this population. Additionally, most studies found when medical students were given educational exposures to PEH, they reported improved attitudes, more positive perceptions, and increased confidence in providing care. These results emphasize the benefits of providing structured educational experiences with PEH to medical students for improving patient care. More regionally diverse research in addition to studies examining the long-term effects of exposure to PEH during medical education on subsequent professional attitudes and behaviours is necessary.
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