Medical Students' Socialization Tactics When Entering a New Clinical Clerkship: A Mixed Methods Study of Proactivity

"Discovering shine through feedback seeking"---feedback seeking among new graduate nurses: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Feedback is critical to improving practitioners' clinical practice and professional growth. Although they are still considered junior practitioners, their feedback-seeking experiences have yet to be investigated. This study aimed to understand the fundamental thoughts and experiences of new graduate nurses regarding feedback-seeking and to identify the main factors that influence their feedback-seeking behaviors.

METHODS

Conducting a descriptive phenomenological study, semi-structured in-depth interviews with newly graduated nurses from four hospitals in Zhejiang Province, China, face-to-face or via video call in the hospital conference room through purposive and snowball sampling. Interview data were evaluated using Colaizzi's 7-step phenomenological data analysis. The COREQ checklist was followed.

RESULTS

A total of 15 new graduate nurses were interviewed as a sample, and 13 categories emerged from our data. They were categorized into four central elements: (1) perceptions and attitudes, (2) drivers, (3) dilemmas and needs, and (4) transformation and growth.

CONCLUSIONS

This study found that new graduate nurses have various needs but face dilemmas in the feedback-seeking process. Nursing managers should be proficient at providing positive leadership, collaborating with clinical mentors to foster an atmosphere where new graduate nurses may obtain honest, transparent, and fair feedback, and exercising caution when providing negative feedback.

How to coach student professional development during times of challenges and uncertainties

BACKGROUND

What we teach our (bio)medical students today may differ from the future context under which they will operate as health professionals. This shifting and highly demanding profession requires that we equip these students with adaptive competencies for their future careers. We aimed to develop a framework to promote and facilitate professional development from day one, guided by self-awareness and self-directed learning.

APPROACH

Based on self-directed, transformative and experiential learning, patient involvement and teamwork, we developed a 3-year longitudinal personal-professional development (LPPD) program in the (bio)medical sciences undergraduate curriculum to stimulate self-driven professional development in a variable context. Through group meetings and individual coach consultations, students address topics such as self-awareness, self-directed and lifelong learning, collaboration, well-being and resilience. To drive learning students receive extensive narrative feedback on an essay assignment.

EVALUATION

Experiences and outcomes were evaluated with questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Students and coaches value personal and professional development in a safe learning environment that encourages self-exploration, diversity and connection. Over time, students show more self-awareness and self-directedness and increasingly apply trained skills, resulting in professional identity formation. Students need more clarification to understand the concept of assessment as learning.

IMPLICATIONS

With the generic content of a longitudinal program embedded in a meaningful environment, the personal and professional development of students can be facilitated and stimulated to face future challenges. When translating to other curricula, we suggest considering the complexity of professional development and the time expenditure needed for students to explore, experiment and practice. An early start and thorough integration are recommended.

Psychological safety in European medical students' last supervised patient encounter: A cross-sectional survey

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the association between European medical students' psychological safety in and experiences from their last supervised patient encounter.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A cross-sectional online survey among European medical students. Bivariable and multivariable linear regression was used to explore the associations between the dependent variable psychological safety and independent variables concerning students' experiences from their last supervised patient encounter.

RESULTS

A total of 886 students from more than 25 countries participated. The variables most strongly associated with psychological safety were supervisor coaching and modelling behaviour, adjusted beta 0.4 (95%CI 0.3 to 0.5) and 0.1 (95%CI 0.1 to 0.2) per unit respectively on a one-to-five-point scale, and studying in Northern Europe, adjusted beta 0.4-0.5 compared to other regions. There was a weak negative association (reduced score on psychological safety) for being supervised by a medical doctor with <5 years' experience and a positive association for student confidence. Student gender, student seniority, speciality, whether peers were present, number of previous encounters with the supervisor and supervisor articulation and exploration behaviour were not associated in multivariable analysis.

CONCLUSION

Coaching might be a good primary focus to improve supervision practices, as participation with feedback is known to be beneficial for learning and coaching was strongly associated with psychological safety. Supervisors in western, eastern, and southern Europe might have to work harder to create psychological safety than their northern colleagues.