The quality of student-tutor interactions in the clinical learning environment

We surveyed 403 students in their clinical years for their perceptions of the quality of clinical clerkships. Between 42.6 and 67.0% of tutorials were said to contain positive factors such as a relaxed teaching atmosphere, enthusiasm, a good selection of patients and adequate preparation. Negative features in 18.2-37.2% of tutorials included unreasonable expectations, conflicting information, late arrival, early departure, failure to show up and the display of anger, a patronizing attitude, favouritism or ridicule. While two-thirds of tutors were regarded as friendly and helpful, the remaining one-third were perceived as unconcerned, discouraging, derogatory or hostile. Overall, only half the clinical tutors were rated as effective teachers; more specifically in medicine and psychiatry, less than one-third of consultants were regarded as effective teachers, as compared with some two-thirds of consultants in obstetrics and gynaecology and paediatrics who were so regarded. Almost two-thirds of the students had predominantly positive reactions to interactions with their tutors, in terms of being motivated to learn, enthused about the subject and having their self-confidence increased. Some one-quarter had negative reactions such as indifference, depression, anger, embarrassment and fearfulness. However, the impact of student-tutor interactions was mainly confined to the students' academic well-being, with little effect on their personal-social lives. Finally, one-third of students had experienced at least some form of mistreatment by their tutors, including gender, appearance, religious and racial discrimination, unfair grading and public humiliation. These findings suggest that the clinical clerkship may not be providing an optimal learning environment for medical students.