A comparison of medical students’ perceptions of their initial basic clinical training placements in ‘new’ and established teaching hospitals

Figures & data

Table

Practice points
• Undergraduate medical students perceive variation in their initial clinical experience at the level of the teaching hospital, teaching firm and individual consultant teachers.
• The new teaching hospital was generally perceived to deliver a better educational experience than the established teaching hospitals.
• Students undergo a substantial period of adjustment during their initial experience of the hospital as a learning environment.
• Whilst student experience might be improved by interventions aimed at teaching organisations and individual teachers, interventions aimed at the students themselves may have more impact. This required further examination.

Box 1. Focus group topics

Student aspirations for Year III

Relationship between aspirations and hospital attachment

Experience of teaching, teachers and teaching content

Experience of teaching firms

Experience with patients

Experience of examinations and assessments

Perception of comparative experience of other students

Other topics as deemed appropriate by the participants

Table 1.  Focus group composition by gender and ethnicity

	A	B	C	D	E	Total
Male (n)	3	3	3	4	1	14
Female (n)	4	3	6	2	4	19
White (n)	6	4	8	4	3	25
BME* (n)	1	2	1	2	2	8

*Black and minority ethnic group.

Table 2.  Emergent themes from the focus group discussions

	Unit of perceived variation
Main emergent themes	Teacher	Firm	Hospital
Student perceptions of teaching and the teaching environment
Structured teaching (amount/cancellations)	√	√	√
Enthusiasm of teachers	√	–	√
Grade of teacher	–	√	√
Specialty of designated firm/s	–	√	–
Number of students per firm	–	–	√
The new hospital learner
Syllabus/learning objectives	NA	NA	NA
Self-directed hospital learning	NA	NA	NA
Tutor assessments and feedback on progress during attachments	NA	NA	NA
OSCEs	√*	–	√**

√ variation present at this level.

– no variation present at this level.

NA theme not discussed in relation to variation by teacher, firm or hospital.

* referring to examiners rather than teachers.

** participants in one focus group felt that the OSCE format at one hospital differed substantially to that at other hospitals.