Clinical clerkships: students can structure their own learning

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• General Practice Training

Background:

• Clinical clerkships often feature unstructured student learning.
• Explicit curriculum objectives are rarely used by students to guide their learning process.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess if student-determined learning objectives can structure learning and meet diverse needs in general practice clerkships.
• To examine the relationship between student-set objectives and broader curriculum goals.

Main Methods:

• Students in a 5-week general practice clerkship set and pursued personal learning objectives.
• Learning strategies, objective achievement, and curriculum objective alignment were recorded.
• Objectives were categorized using a hierarchical system.

Main Results:

• 143 students set 1549 objectives, with "Consultation Skills," "Study of Diseases," "Practical Procedures," and "Therapeutics" being the most common categories.
• The range of student objectives encompassed all curriculum objectives.
• 1043 objectives (88%) were met satisfactorily or highly satisfactorily; 185 (12%) were not met.

Conclusions:

• Student-determined learning objectives are a viable method for structuring learning in general practice clerkships.
• This approach enables students to address knowledge gaps and meet varied learning needs effectively.
• Student objectives align well with the breadth of the general practice curriculum.