Development and sustainment of professional relationships within longitudinal integrated clerkships in general...

Longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs) are a relatively new model of clinical medical education, whereby students participate in patient care over time and develop relationships with those patients', their clinicians, and other health care staff involved in the care of those patients. It has been called 'relationship-based education' but, to date, no review has investigated the development and impact of these central relationships within this curricula model.

The aim of this study is to review the literature pertaining to relationships in LICs, specifically to understand how they come about and how they affect learning.

The search strategy systematically explored PubMed, ERIC (EBSCO) and Academic Search Complete, using key words and MESH terms. Original research published in peer-reviewed journals between January 2007 and August 2020 that were written in the English language were included in the review.

After applying set inclusion and exclusion criteria, 43 studies were included in this review. A qualitative thematic analysis was undertaken, and results were synthesised narratively. Four distinct categories were identified: defining relationships in LICs, developing relationships in LICs, relationship maintenance and multi-stakeholder impact.

The longitudinal integrated clerkship model of clinical education facilitates the development of meaningful triangular relationships between student, clinical teacher and patient, which are the central drivers of successful learning within the context of an LIC. These relationships are nested in a set of important supporting relationships involving other supervisors, the medical school and university, the practice clinical and administrative team and peers.