Students’ learning in clinical practice – a scoping review of characteristics of research in the Nordic countries

ABSTRACT

Rationale

The complex nature of student learning in clinical practice calls for a comprehensive pedagogical framework on how to create optimal learning affordances.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to describe characteristics of conducted research regarding investigated research questions, distribution of different health care student groups, and employed methodological approaches.

Methods

A scoping review was chosen to capture the multifaceted characteristics in the field of learning in clinical practice. Funded local projects were analysed to provide significant core concepts for the literature search. A systematic search and review of articles published 2000–2019 in the Nordic countries was conducted according to PRISMA- ScR (23). The search was made in Medline (OVID), SveMed+ and CINAHL and resulted in 3126 articles. After screening of the titles and abstracts 988 articles were included for further review. The abstracts of all these articles were reviewed against established inclusion and exclusion criteria and 391 articles were included. Characteristics of purposes and research questions were analysed with a qualitative content approach resulting in identified subject areas including significant categories. Health care student groups and methodological approaches were also identified.

Results

Subjects predominating the research were organisation of clinical practice, supervision, and students’ experience followed by interprofessional learning and learning environment. Co-operation, university-clinical setting, and patients’ role were investigated to a small extent. Sparsely occurring subjects were also specific learning outcomes and evidence-based knowledge. Nursing students were involved in 74% of the studies, medical students in 20%, and other professions around 8%. Qualitative approaches were most common.

Conclusion

Health care students’ learning in clinical practice has been researched to a large extent within the Nordic countries and important subject areas are well represented. The research displays a great potential to extract and describe factors to create a pedagogical framework with significant meaning to support students’ learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Clinical practice
• health care students
• Nordic context
• scoping review
• student learning

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr Hanna Lachmann for her valuable contributions in the review process and Gun Brit Knutssön, at Karolinska Institutet, University Library, Stockholm, Sweden for the help with the systematic search.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical vetting in Sweden is conducted by a central and national committee, the Swedish Ethical Review Authority. Review articles where research is not conducted on humans, or animals does not require ethical vetting as per Swedish Ethical Review Act (SFS 2003:460).

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2023.2279347

Notes

1. From: Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG, The PRISMA Group (2009). Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement. PLoS Med 6(6): e1000097. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed1000097. For more information, visit www.prisma-statement.org.

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by ALF, the Regional Agreement on Medical Training and Clinical Research between Region Stockholm and Karolinska Institutet.