scholarly journals First-Year Medical Student Experiences Adjusting to the Immediate Aftermath of COVID-19

Author(s):  
Mark D. Slivkoff ◽  
Catherine Johnson ◽  
Sean Tackett
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon R. Turner ◽  
Jonathan White ◽  
Cheryl Poth ◽  
W. Todd Rogers

Introduction. The preparation of medical students for clerkship has been criticized, both in terms of students’ ability to understand their new role as clinical trainees and in their ability to carry out that role. To begin to address this gap, this paper reports the experiences of students in a shadowing program aimed at enhancing the preparedness of medical students for clinical training. The study examined a novel program, the Resident-Medical Student Shadowing Program, in which first-year medical students at the University of Alberta shadowed a first-year resident during clinical duties over the course of eight months. Methods. A study was conducted to assess the experiences of 83 first-year medical student participants who shadowed a first-year resident intermittently for one year. Student and resident participants’ experiences were explored using semistructured interviews. Results. Students and residents experiences indicate that participation increased students’ understanding of the clinical environment and their role within it and introduced them to skills and knowledge needed to perform that role. Students reported that a close relationship with their resident enhanced their learning experience. Conclusion. This study demonstrates that a low-cost program in which first-year students shadow residents may be a useful tool for helping prepare students for clerkship.


Author(s):  
Laurence Biro ◽  
Kaiwen Song ◽  
Joyce Nyhof-Young

Purpose: Patients identifying as sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) face healthcare barriers. This problem is partly due to medical training.1 We evaluated first year medical student experiences during a novel four-hour seminar, in which students answered discussion questions, participated in peer role-plays, and interviewed two standardized patients Method: A constructivist qualitative design employed audio-recorded and transcribed student focus groups. Using generic content analysis, transcripts were iteratively coded, emergent categories identified, sensitizing concepts applied, and a thematic framework created. Results: Thirty-five students (71% female) participated in five focus groups. Two themes were developed: SGM bias (faculty, standardized patients [SPs], students, curriculum), and Adaptive Expertise in Clinical Skills (case complexity, learner support, skill development). SPs identifying as SGM brought authenticity and lived experience to their roles. Preceptor variability impacted student learning. Students were concerned when a lack of faculty SGM knowledge accompanied negative biases. Complex SP cases promoted cognitive integration and preparation for clinical work. Conclusions: These students placed importance on the lived experiences of SGM community members. Persistent prejudices amongst faculty negatively influenced student learning. Complex SP cases can promote student adaptive expertise, but risk unproductive learning failures. The lessons learned have implications for clinical skills teaching, learning about minority populations, and medical and health professions education in general.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 238212051985204
Author(s):  
Erik Langenau ◽  
Sarah B Frank ◽  
Sarah J Calardo ◽  
Michael B Roberts

Introduction: Shadowing a physician is an observational experience which includes a student observing a licensed healthcare provider caring for patients. Shadowing is commonly done by students before and during medical school, but little is known about the nature or extent of these extra-curricular observational experiences. Objective: We hypothesized that shadowing experiences were common yet variable. We investigated the prevalence, nature, and perceived value of medical student experiences with shadowing physicians (both before and during medical school). Methods: This survey-based study was non-experimental with a cross-sectional convenience sample of osteopathic medical students about their shadowing experiences before and during medical school. The survey was sent to all matriculated osteopathic medical students (OMS1-4) for the 2017 to 2018 academic year from two medical schools: Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) (1084 total students) and PCOM-Georgia (554 total students). The final survey instrument included three sections: demographics (6 questions), pre-medical shadowing experiences (21 questions), and medical student shadowing experiences (24 questions). Results: Respondents (357) identified themselves as OMS1 (96), OMS2 (89), OMS3 (73), OMS4 (95) and other (2, OMS5) with enrollment at PCOM-Philadelphia (242) and PCOM-Georgia (115). Among survey respondents, 339 (95.5%) reported shadowing a physician as a pre-medical student, and 110 (30.8%) reported shadowing (outside of their required clinical rotations) a physician during medical school. Requirements to participate were inconsistent; fewer than 50% of shadowing experiences required Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) training, proof of vaccination, or purified protein derivative (PPD) documentation. In addition to observation, pre-medical and medical students, respectively, participated in history taking (44 [13%], 47 [42.7%]), physical examinations (45 [13.3%], 44 [40%]) and procedures (13, [3.8%], 20 [18.2%]) during their shadowing experiences. Motivations to participate in shadowing varied between pre-medical and medical student experiences, but both groups mentioned their desire to learn more about a particular discipline, obtain letters of recommendation, and gain patient care experience. Students recommended both pre-medical (273 [80.5%]) and medical school (93 [84.5%]) shadowing to future students. Conclusion: Shadowing remains a common and important tool for students to learn about patient care, medicine and careers. The nature of each shadowing experience and participation requirements are quite variable. Measures to ensure patient safety, confidentiality, liability and supervision are inconsistently applied. Promoting guidelines, as well as codes of conduct, for shadowing could serve as a helpful resource for students, academic advisors and supervising clinicians.


2016 ◽  
Vol 91 (9) ◽  
pp. 1257-1262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Skochelak ◽  
R. Brent Stansfield ◽  
Lisette Dunham ◽  
Michael Dekhtyar ◽  
Larry D. Gruppen ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabella Maria de Freitas Faria ◽  
Carolina B. Moura ◽  
Mariana Graner ◽  
Maria Luíza Cazumbá ◽  
Marcela Bittencourt ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
pp. 146978742090838
Author(s):  
Ella R Kahu ◽  
Catherine Picton

The transition from school to university is challenging and a greater knowledge of the first-year student experience will enable staff to better support their students. University- and government-run student surveys fail to capture the depth and breadth of the first-year experience and so qualitative research is needed to get a more nuanced and holistic understanding of students’ lives. The study described in this article used a photo elicitation method. We asked students to choose four images that represented their first year at university. The data – the chosen photographs and the students’ explanations of their choices – were thematically analysed, focusing in particular on the diverse metaphors students used to depict three dimensions of their experiences: life, university and learning. The findings highlight the dual nature of the transition to university – learning to be a university student and learning to be an adult – as well as the challenges and stresses of that process. The lack of agency that students felt is evident. The students likened their journey to a rollercoaster and talked of not being able to keep up with the fast-moving curriculum. They depicted themselves as passive acquirers of knowledge. The findings offer new ways for staff to understand the challenges that potentially disrupt student engagement in the first year. Both students and staff could benefit from recognising the metaphors in their thinking and, potentially, seeking new metaphors that might reveal different and more positive ways of experiencing the first year in higher education.


2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 1087-1094 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Leiper

“Eye-opening,” “disheartening,” and “inspiring” are some of the words used by law students who met in 2008–2009 to discuss their mosaic of experience in the field doing public interest work. These students had returned from placements under the first mandatory public interest requirement to be introduced in a Canadian law school (the Osgoode Public Interest Requirement, OPIR). OPIR arose from questions about the relationship between what is learned in law school and what is required to be a professional. Academics have challenged each other to do more to instill an “ethos of professionalism” during law school. Others have suggested that law students who do not receive exposure to the world outside the walls of the law school carry an “idealized conception of the profession” and are often unaware of the many practice contexts available to them. Others have warned that if ethical and professional responsibilities are not modeled and articulated for students, that teaching only the “law of lawyering” does not prepare students for becoming ethical lawyers. Teacher-educator Lee Shulman has bluntly accused law schools of “failing miserably” at connecting its lessons in how to “think like a lawyer” with how to “act like a lawyer.” For years, there have been similar concerns raised about the decline of professionalism among lawyers, both in Canada and in the U.S. A survey of Osgoode graduates revealed that students wanted more opportunities to engage with the community and to experience non-traditional forms of law practice. Osgoode Hall Law School grappled with many of these questions, and in 2007 it approved changes to the curriculum, including a new first year Ethics course (Ethical Lawyering in a Global Community, ELGC) and OPIR. In addition to the more traditional first year mandatory course load, Osgoode Hall law students must also complete ELGC, a minimum of 40 hours of public interest work and then engage in a discussion or written exercise reflecting on their experiences. These reflections are a valuable lens for seeing the profession and the administration of justice through the eyes of first and second year law students. Their experiences remind us in the profession that learning can flow in both directions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 265
Author(s):  
Chambers ◽  
Salter ◽  
Muldrow

First-year students who enter college pursuing a STEM degree still face challenges persisting through the STEM pipeline (Chen, 2013; Leu, 2017). In this case study, researchers examine the impact of a utilitarian scientific literacy based academic intervention on retention of first-year students in STEM using a mixed methods approach. A sample (n = 116) of first-year students identified as at-risk of not persisting in STEM were enrolled in a for credit utilitarian scientific literacy course. Participants of the semester long course were then compared with a control group of first-year students identified as at-risk of persisting in STEM. A two-proportion z test was performed to assess the mean differences between students and participants of the course were given a survey to gauge student experiences. Quantitative results (φ 0.34, p < 0.05) indicate that the utilitarian scientific literacy course had a statistically significant impact on retention among first-year students at-risk of persisting in STEM. Moreover, qualitative data obtained from participant responses describe internal and external growth as positive outcomes associated with the intervention.


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