Patsy Stark

Teaching and learning in the clinical setting: a qualitative study of the perceptions of students and teachers

Objective  To describe the perceptions of medical students and clinical teachers of teaching and learning in the clinical setting.

Learning for real life: patient-focused interprofessional workshops offer added value

Objectives  This paper reports relevant findings of a pilot interprofessional education (IPE) project in the Schools of Medicine and Healthcare Studies at the University of Leeds. The purpose of the paper is to make a contribution towards answering 2 questions of fundamental importance to the development of IPE. Is there a demonstrable value to learning together? What types of IPE, under what circumstances, produce what type of outcomes?

Discovering professionalism through guided reflection

Doctors need to identify and understand the professional behaviours of both themselves and others. In order for students to think critically about these issues we encouraged them to use the tenets of the General Medical Councils Duties of a Doctor as a framework in which to reflect on the actions of healthcare professionals at work. Although the critical incident technique is a well-known process for encouraging reflection, little is known about its usefulness for assessment purposes in this setting. We aimed to discover the validity, feasibility and educational impact of the critical incident as an assessment method for first year students undertaking guided reflection in the context of their first exposure to multi-professional health and social care experiences. First year medical students submitted two critical incidents they had observed during multi-professional health and social care attachments and an evaluation of their experiences. Students engaged in the reflective cycle on the professional behaviours of others providing evidence of a varied range of situations. With adequate preparation, junior students are able to reflect on social and healthcare experiences using the Duties of a Doctor as a framework. Critical incidents are a valid and feasible method for assessing students’ reflections on professionalism, with good educational impact.

What Do Medical Students Understand By Research And Research Skills? Identifying Research Opportunities Within Undergraduate Projects

Background: Undergraduate research exposure leads to increased recruitment into academic medicine, enhanced employability and improved postgraduate research productivity. Uptake of undergraduate research opportunities is reported to be disappointing, and little is known about how students perceive research. Aim: To investigate opportunities for undergraduate participation in research, recognition of such opportunities, and associated skills development. Method: A mixed method approach, incorporating student focus and study groups, and documentary analysis at five UK medical schools. Results: Undergraduates recognised the benefits of acquiring research skills, but identified practical difficulties and disadvantages of participating. Analysis of 905 projects in four main research skill areas – (1) research methods; (2) information gathering; (3) critical analysis and review; (4) data processing – indicated 52% of projects provided opportunities for students to develop one or more skills, only 13% offered development in all areas. In 17%, project descriptions provided insufficient information to determine opportunities. Supplied with information from a representative sample of projects (n = 80), there was little consensus in identifying skills among students or between students and researchers. Consensus improved dramatically following guidance on how to identify skills. Conclusions: Undergraduates recognise the benefits of research experience but need a realistic understanding of the research process. Opportunities for research skill development may not be obvious. Undergraduates require training to recognise the skills required for research and enhanced transparency in potential project outcomes.

Benefiting from clinical experience: the influence of learning style and clinical experience on performance in an undergraduate objective structured clinical examination.

To assess the relationship between clinical experience, learning style and performance in an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in medical students at the end of their first clinical year.

Developing an outcome-focused core curriculum

Background  Many UK medical schools have modified their curricula to meet the requirements of the General Medical Council and other external agencies. In particular, efforts have been focused on increasing integration and reducing factual overload through the definition of a core curriculum. Various approaches to curriculum change have been adopted in an attempt to meet such demands.

Readiness for self‐directed change in professional behaviours: factorial validation of the Self‐reflection and Insight Scale

Context  Self‐reflection, the practice of inspecting and evaluating one’s own thoughts, feelings and behaviour, and insight, the ability to understand one’s own thoughts, feelings and behaviour, are central to the self‐regulation of behaviours. The Self‐Reflection and Insight Scale (SRIS) measures three factors in the self‐regulation cycle: need for reflection; engagement in reflection, and insight.

Lessons from medical students’ perceptions of learning reflective skills: A multi-institutional study

Background: A core competency during undergraduate medical training is the development of reflective learning. The current literature is limited to demonstrating how reflective learning has been implemented or the approaches to its development. There is a lack of insight into students’ perceptions of reflection and the factors that support development of reflective practice. Bridging this gap may provide insight into how reflective learning within the curriculum can be better developed to increase engagement from learners. Methods: Eight focus group interviews with second year students from four UK medical schools were held. Results were thematically analysed. Key findings: Students have a high level of understanding of the purpose of reflection in practice but they perceive that there is a tension between public and private reflections. Assessment of the reflective process was perceived to be useful for developing reflective skills but grading of their reflective writing was not considered to be useful. Staff who champion the development of reflective skills and mentor students were perceived to play key roles in aiding the development of reflective skills. Appropriate experiences were seen to be a key part of developing reflective skills. Conclusion: These findings highlight potential ways to revise and improve engagement with the reflective learning components of undergraduate courses.

Student-selected components in the undergraduate medical curriculum: a multi-institutional consensus on purpose.

Student-selected components (SSCs) are an established part of undergraduate medical curricula in the UK. Implementation has been against a background of differing educational approaches to curricular change, together with a lack of clarity about their purpose, relationship with the core curriculum and contribution to overall assessment. This has resulted in a diversity of programmes with perceived differing importance between medical schools. This paper documents the approach used by a consortium of medical schools with diverse curricula to develop consensus on the educational purpose and learning outcomes of SSCs. Agreement on common purposes and outcomes was achieved, and consensus documents are reported. These may be valuable for other medical schools implementing any form of student-selected project work. This work will now be the starting point for further work on producing recommendations for assessment of SSCs, which will be applicable across different medical schools.

Developing an education and assessment framework for the Foundation Programme.

Aim  To develop an education and assessment framework for the second year of the Foundation Programme (F2).