The impact of multifaceted educational structuring on learning effectiveness in a surgical clerkship

Workplace learning

This critical review found Dutch research to be strong at the undergraduate and residency levels and more or less absent in continuing medical education. It confirms the importance of coaching medical students, giving constructive feedback, and ensuring practice environments are conducive to learning though it has proved hard to improve them. Residents learn primarily from experiences encountered in the course of clinical work but the fine balance between delivering clinical services and learning can easily be upset by work pressure. More intervention studies are needed. Qualitative research designs need to be more methodologically sophisticated and use a wider range of data sources including direct observation, audio-diaries, and text analysis. Areas for improvement are clear but achieving results will require persistence and patience.

Instructiveness of feedback during clerkships: influence of supervisor, observation and student initiative

BACKGROUND

Several authors assume that the supervisor's role, observation of behaviour and students' active participation are important factors in the instructiveness of feedback.

AIM

This study aims to provide empirical evidence for these expectations.

METHODS

For two weeks, 142 clerks from eight hospitals recorded for each individual feedback event: who provided the feedback, whether the feedback was based on observation of behaviour, who initiated the feedback moment and the perceived instructiveness of the feedback. Data were analysed with multilevel techniques.

RESULTS

The perceived instructiveness of feedback provided by specialists and residents did not differ significantly. However, both were perceived to be more instructive than feedback from nursing and paramedical staff (beta(specialists) = 0.862, p < 0.01; beta(residents) = 0.853, p < 0.01). Feedback on behaviour that had been directly observed was reported to be more instructive than feedback on behaviour that had not been observed (beta(observed) = 0.314, p < 0.001). Feedback which stemmed from student initiative or a joint initiative was experienced to be more instructive than feedback which ensued from the supervisor's initiative (beta(student) = 0.441, p < 0.01; beta(joint) = 0.392, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

The expectations concerning the influence of observation and student initiative on the instructiveness of feedback were confirmed in this empirical study. Expected differences in instructiveness between feedback from specialists and residents were not confirmed.

Workplace-based assessment as an educational tool: AMEE Guide No. 31

BACKGROUND

There has been concern that trainees are seldom observed, assessed, and given feedback during their workplace-based education. This has led to an increasing interest in a variety of formative assessment methods that require observation and offer the opportunity for feedback.

AIMS

To review some of the literature on the efficacy and prevalence of formative feedback, describe the common formative assessment methods, characterize the nature of feedback, examine the effect of faculty development on its quality, and summarize the challenges still faced.

RESULTS

The research literature on formative assessment and feedback suggests that it is a powerful means for changing the behaviour of trainees. Several methods for assessing it have been developed and there is preliminary evidence of their reliability and validity. A variety of factors enhance the efficacy of workplace-based assessment including the provision of feedback that is consistent with the needs of the learner and focused on important aspects of the performance. Faculty plays a critical role and successful implementation requires that they receive training.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a need for formative assessment which offers trainees the opportunity for feedback. Several good methods exist and feedback has been shown to have a major influence on learning. The critical role of faculty is highlighted, as is the need for strategies to enhance their participation and training.

Clinical clerkships: students can structure their own learning

In clinical clerkships, student learning is often unstructured and diverse. Even when curriculum objectives are explicit, they are seldom used by students to guide their learning. Student-determined learning objectives may help students to structure their learning. This study aimed to assess whether students can use this method to meet widely differing learning needs within the general practice clerkship and considered the relationship of student objectives to overall curriculum objectives. Students allocated a 5-week clerkship in general practice from April 2000 to April 2001 were required to set and meet personal learning objectives within a supportive learning environment. They recorded the strategies they used, how well objectives were met and which curriculum objectives they met. Objectives were categorised using a hierarchical system. A total of 143 (85%) students recorded 1549 objectives. Four categories accounted for 1092 (70%) of objectives: Consultation Skills; Study of Diseases; Practical Procedures, and Therapeutics. Otherwise the range of objectives set was wide, encompassing all curriculum objectives. A total of 1043 objectives were rated as satisfactorily or highly satisfactorily met and 185 (12%) were not met at all. Strategies that students used to meet objectives included clinical experience with doctors but also with practice-based nurses. Students were able to use student-determined learning objectives to meet a diverse range of learning needs within the general practice clerkship. The objectives set reflected the breadth of curriculum objectives. This method allows students to address gaps in their knowledge in a clerkship where teaching is largely based on opportunistic contact.

Disentangling clinical learning experiences: an exploratory study on the dynamic tensions in internship

Clinical practice is an essential component of medical training, but not all internships yield the appropriate and expected learning results. We report on an exploratory study of the learning process during internship in undergraduate medical education. We hypothesised that learning experiences in clinical practice are determined by characteristics of the interns, characteristics of the training setting and the meaningful interactions between them. As the study focused on the perceptions and interpretations of both interns and their supervisors of interns' experiences in practical training, qualitative research methods were used for data collection and analysis. This consisted of student shadowing, complemented by informal and semistructured interviews with both interns and supervisors. Analysis revealed 5 components that constitute learning experiences in clinical internship. These components represent dynamics in the clinical environment that constantly require students to (re-)define and (re-)position themselves: the agenda of the internship (working versus learning); the attitude of the supervisor (evaluator versus coach); the culture of the training setting (work-orientated versus training-orientated); the intern's learning attitude (passive versus proactive), and the nature of the learning process (informal versus formal). The model of components and tensions offers a conceptual framework to analyse and understand students' learning during internship. It not only contributes to a grounded theoretical conceptualisation of clinical learning, but may also be used in efforts to improve the quality of learning during internship, as well as the level of support and supervision.