Clerkship students’ use of a video library for training the mental status examination

Abstract

Aim: Fewer patient encounters and diminished bedside teaching pose a challenge to medical students’ opportunity to learn during clinical clerkships in psychiatry. Videos can be used for close examination of signs and symptoms and to increase engagement and recall. A video library holding recordings of psychiatric patients with mental status examinations were prepared. We explored the students’ use of this library during their clerkships.

Methods and materials: The video library was introduced to three rotations of medical students and made accessible on hospital computers. Four students volunteered as key informants and were followed daily throughout the clerkship by the first author, using the ethnographic method of participant observation. At the end of the clerkship, group interviews were conducted with each rotation of students, including the key informants. Twelve students participated in the study. Field notes taken during participant observation and the transcribed interviews were merged in a thematic analysis.

Results: The analysis reveals the students’ autonomous and arbitrary use of the video library. Creatively extending the use of the videos, they scheduled their video sessions according to their individual needs. The students furthermore blended experiences gained from the library and in the ward, thus coping in various ways with the shortcomings of the video library.

Conclusions: The medical students felt they benefited from the simplified learning situation offered by the video library. Their frequent shortcuts through the videos during sessions highlighted weaknesses in the feedback and reflection processes occasioned by the library.

Keywords:

• Psychiatry
• education
• clerkship
• mental status examination
• video

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank the participants (interviewed patients and medical students. A special thanks to Centre for Online and Blended Learning, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, UCPH, for technical and video-editing assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the TRYG FONDEN under Grant [number ID 110879] and University of Copenhagen no grant number is provided.

Notes on contributors

Cecilie Fog-Petersen

Cecilie Fog-Petersen, MA in Ethography, PhD student at University of Copenhagen & Region Zealand, Psychiatry West, Denmark.

Karen Borgnakke

Karen Borgnakke MA, DHA, Professor in Education, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ralf Hemmingsen

Ralf Hemmingsen, MD, DMSc, Dep. of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health, University of Copenhagen, Rigshospitalet, Denmark.

Maria Gefke

Maria Gefke, MD, Senior Resident, Mental Health Center Copenhagen, Gentofte, 2900 Hellerup, Denmark.

Sidse Arnfred

Sidse Arnfred MD, MSc, PhD, DMSc, Professor, Dep. of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health, University of Copenhagen & Region Zealand Psychiatry, Psychiatry West, Denmark.