Widening Participation in Medicine: The Impact of Medical Student-Led Conferences for Year 12 Pupils

Figures & data

Table 1 Demographics Used as WP Flags

Attends a high priority school identified by MPM

Participant self-identifies as having a disability

Current or previous resident in local authority care

Lives in a high priority area identified by POLAR3

Eligible for free school meals

Parents did not attend university

Refugee or asylum seeker status

Abbreviations: WP, Widening Participation; MPM, Manchester Prioritisation Model; POLAR3, Participation of Local Areas classification groups.

Table 2 Participant Questionnaire

Rate your personal levels of confidence in the following areas from a scale of 0–10, 0 being no confidence, 10 being complete confidence. Circle the most appropriate answer.
Performing Medical Research*	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Presenting at a Medical Conference	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Making a Positive Impact with my Career	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Being able to become a Doctor	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Public Speaking	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Overall Confidence*	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10

Notes: *In these areas on the pre-conference questionnaire, participants were asked to estimate their level of confidence before they obtained a ticket for the conference. This was done as it was expected that the support participants received from the medical student organisers prior to the conference would have affected their confidence in these areas.

Table 3 Confidence Data for Both Conference A and Conference B

Area	A/B	n	Pre-Conference		Post-Conference		Increase in Mean (95% CI)	Effect Size	p-value
			Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Performing Medical Research	A	74	5.32	2.32	7.11	2.44	1.78 (1.21–2.36)	0.75	<0.01
	B	95	4.68	2.45	6.81	2.47	2.13 (1.44–2.81)	0.87	<0.01
Presenting at a Medical Conference	A	75	5.45	2.44	8.41	1.61	2.96 (2.38–3.54)	1.43	<0.01
	B	96	4.73	2.47	6.92	2.67	2.19 (1.42–2.95)	0.85	<0.01
Making a Positive Impact with my Career	A	74	6.53	2.10	8.64	1.21	2.11 (1.67–2.55)	1.23	<0.01
	B	96	6.88	1.98	8.40	1.50	1.52 (1.00–2.04)	0.87	<0.01
Being Able to Become a Doctor	A	75	6.59	2.01	7.99	1.95	1.41 (0.92–1.90)	0.71	<0.01
	B	96	6.91	1.95	7.66	1.73	0.75(0.24–1.26)	0.41	<0.01
Public Speaking	A	75	6.13	2.41	8.17	1.85	2.04 (1.50–2.58)	0.95	<0.01
	B	96	6.55	2.14	8.14	1.85	1.58 (1.05–2.11)	0.79	<0.01
Overall Confidence	A	75	6.41	2.09	8.16	1.77	1.75 (1.26–2.24)	0.90	<0.01
	B	96	6.71	1.91	8.21	1.73	1.50 (1.02–1.98)	0.82	<0.01

Notes: Effect size = Cohen’s d effect size, which equates to increase in mean divided by pooled standard deviation: 0.2 ≤ small effect size; 0.5 ≤ medium effect size; 0.8 ≤ large effect size. p-value = result of the paired t-test: the probability of the change in mean confidence being due to chance. Data is displayed to two decimal places.

Abbreviations: n, Number of questionnaires with both pre- and post-conference data completed; A, Conference A Data; B, Conference B Data; SD, Standard Deviation; CI, Confidence Interval.