We Could Have Done a Better Job: A Qualitative Study of Medical Student Reflections on Safe Hospital Discharge

Patient feedback has increasingly become part of medical students’ training and formative assessment. We conducted a qualitative study using focus groups to explore students’ experiences soliciting patient feedback, including the benefits, challenges, and potential strategies to obtain it. Fifteen medical students participated. Thematic analysis revealed students’ (1) discomfort soliciting feedback and concern of being viewed as self-serving; (2) concerns about eroding patient trust; (3) indifference to nonspecific, positive feedback; and (4) belief that informally solicited feedback is most helpful for their learning. Strategies for soliciting more useful patient feedback included (1) team-based solicitation, (2) empowering patients as teachers, and (3) development of feedback instruments that allow patients to comment on specific student-identified learning goals. Solicitation of patient feedback is challenging for medical students and provokes discomfort. Strategies to integrate patient feedback into medical student training and assessment must attend to students’ needs so the value of patient feedback can be realized.

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Envisioning a socially accountable doctor: a three-axis curriculum emerging from final-year medical student reflections

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South ◽

10.36615/sotls.v2i1.27 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 76

Author(s):

Lionel Green-Thompson ◽

Patricia McInerney ◽

Robert Woollard

Keyword(s):

Medical Student ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Social Accountability ◽

Medical Graduate ◽

Theory Approach ◽

Community Needs ◽

Creative Commons ◽

Progressive Development ◽

Meaningful Relationships ◽

Student Reflections

Social accountability in health professions education is important for the reduction of health disparities. There is a need for the development of curricula which begin to produce graduates who are responsive to community needs. These curricula need to include dialogues with communities, deep reflection and a transformative perspective. This study used a grounded theory approach to explore the perceptions of social accountability amongst final-year medical students. These students grappled with the definition of social accountability but described it as the tension between obligation and a willingness to serve. Five themes regarding social accountability were drawn from the students’ feedback: ‘it’s poorly defined’; ‘web of interconnected relationships’; ‘losing my heart and losing my compassion’; ‘more wide-angled view of things’ and ‘if I don’t go there, then who will go?’. These themes are connected through relational statements of three curricular axes of reflective practice, complexity and meaningful relationships. In each of these axes, participants identified catalysts and detractors for the progressive development of an accountable medical graduate. How to cite this article: GREEN-THOMPSON, Lionel; MCINERNEY, Patricia; WOOLLARD; Robert. Envisioning a socially accountable doctor: a three-axis curriculum emerging from final-year medical student reflections Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, v. 2, n. 1, p. 76-94, Apr. 2018. Available at: Available at: http://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=27 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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