Twelve tips for medical students to enhance clinical skills learning during disrupted placements

Abstract

Disruption to healthcare settings can present a significant challenge to traditional, face-to-face models of learning in medical education. Reductions in undergraduate medical students’ clinical exposure, whether due to periods of increased healthcare demand, localised service changes or infectious disease outbreaks, are likely to result in fewer opportunities to develop key clinical and practical skills. Proficiency in these skills is often essential to progression and future practice, creating a broad incentive for students to develop techniques to maintain and refine their clinical skills during disrupted placements. These tips, based on our experiences as senior medical students, are intended to help students on disrupted placements to engage in reflective practice, discover ways to facilitate further opportunities for clinical skills learning, and to make the most of clinical skills learning opportunities that they do receive.

Keywords:

• Clinical skills
• communication skills
• practical procedures
• e-learning/computers
• simulation

Disclosure statement

The authors do not have any declarations of interest to report.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jai Prashar

Jai Prashar, BSc, is a fifth-year medical student at University College London with interests in digital health, artificial intelligence and medical education.

Chavini Ranasinghe

Chavini Ranasinghe, BSc, is a fifth-year medical student at University College London with interests in academic paediatric medicine and medical education.

Chirag Bussa Rao

Chirag Bussa Rao, BSc, is a fifth-year medical student at University College London with interests in surgery and medical education.