Senior student goal setting during subinternship: a mixed-methods study.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education Research
• Graduate Medical Education
• Pediatric Training

Background:

• Subinternship curricula aim to foster self-directed learning for residency.
• Little is known about the alignment between senior medical students' learning goals and residency expectations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine senior medical students' self-directed learning goals during a Pediatric Subinternship.
• To assess how these goals align with the 6 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competencies.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods study analyzed 188 self-directed learning goals from 57 senior medical students.
• Goals were categorized by the 6 ACGME competencies and by specificity (general vs. specific).
• Statistical analyses compared goal categories across clinical sites and time of year.

Main Results:

• Over half (56.3%) of goals focused on patient care; goals for professionalism and systems-based practice were infrequent.
• A large majority (72%) of goals were general in nature.
• Goals from newborn nursery and NICU sites were more specific than those from general inpatient rotations.

Conclusions:

• Most senior medical student goals for pediatric subinternships are general and patient-care focused.
• Students may require support in formulating specific learning goals across all 6 ACGME competencies.
• Integrating student learning goals into transition-to-residency curricula could improve effectiveness.