Medical student perspectives of what makes a high-quality teaching practice

Primary care has seen increasing involvement in undergraduate medical education following recommendation from the GMC in Tomorrow's Doctors. This is also influenced by an increasing number of medical students and changing patterns of health care. The variety of practices involved in delivering undergraduate primary care placements poses a challenge for the quality of these placements. The variety of learners in primary care may also affect this. To reflect this, Cotton et al in 2009 produced a national consensus list of quality criteria for community-based education using a variety of medical education stakeholders. This paper seeks to explore the medical student perspective of what makes a high-quality teaching practice. This study uses focus group interviewing to explore student perspectives of the range of factors that can contribute towards the quality of a primary care placement. Previous research into student perspectives of teaching in primary care has revealed a strong focus on tutor quality. Students in this study again highlighted the important of good GP tutors and organisation of placements. However, one novel finding was the emphasis that students placed on involving patients in teaching and the vital role that they play in this.