Abstract
Introduction The United Kingdom needs to educate more medical students to meet workforcedemands. With static numbers of clinical teachers available, novel and efficientapproaches are required to prepare students for real-life work where doctorsroutinely work with colleagues from different medical schools. This innovativeproject was designed to investigate student attitudes towards inter-universitylearning (IUL), whereby two medical students from different universities learntogether. Materials and methods Thirteen students at Great Western Hospital,Swindon, England, volunteered and were randomlypaired with a student from another university. Pairs completed a 20-minutesimulated clinical scenario and observed three others. Students completed pre- and post-session questionnaires adapted from the Readiness for Inter-ProfessionalLearning scale. Seven students took part in semi-structured interviews whichunderwent thematic analysis. Results Quantitative analysis of post-session questionnaires demonstrated a positiveresponse to IUL. Thematic analysis generated six themes: impact on learning,impact on career, working together, recognising differences, practicalconsiderations, and psychosocial perspectives. Discussion Students enjoyed the social learning opportunity to practise team-working,communication, and role delegation with unknown peers whilst sharing differentclinical approaches. Differences in course structure meant students displayedvarying strengths, although unexpected findings centred around pre-conceptions ofboth universities and social comparison behaviours. Conclusion IUL's strength was deemed to be in non-technical skill development to prepare forreal-life work, ultimately enhancing patient safety. Practicalities to considerinclude session design and psychological safety. IUL provides a novel solution toefficiently educate future healthcare professionals and further work to explore itsbenefits on a wider scale is suggested.
Published Version
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