Evaluating Unstructured Clinical Teaching During Rotations: How Medical Students' Experiences in Paediatrics and...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Learning Environments

Background:

• Clinical learning is vital for medical students' practical skill development.
• Variability in clinical settings poses challenges for consistent teaching and patient exposure.
• Previous research on factors influencing student perceptions of clinical rotations yielded mixed results.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of student evaluations of clinical teaching, beyond structured events, on perceived learning goal achievement.
• To analyze how factors like teaching quality and patient interaction influence student perceptions in paediatric and gynaecology rotations.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of student evaluations from paediatric and gynaecology rotations at Tampere University Medical School (2021-2022).
• Evaluations assessed clinical teaching quality, patient examination opportunities, and procedure performance.
• Linear regression model used to determine the influence of independent variables on the achievement of learning goals.

Main Results:

• High mean scores (above 5 on a 7-point scale) were reported for all evaluated aspects, including achieving learning goals (5.6 paediatrics, 5.7 gynaecology).
• All assessed factors significantly correlated with perceived learning goal achievement.
• "The use of time was meaningful" emerged as the most influential factor.

Conclusions:

• Medical students generally perceive successful achievement of learning goals during clinical rotations.
• The perceived meaningful use of time is a critical determinant of students' satisfaction with their learning outcomes in clinical settings.