Pairing students on the wards: The effect on the clerkship learning environment

Abstract

Background

Medical students are often paired together on clinical teams during their clerkships, but the effect of this practice is unknown. We conducted a survey study to determine student perceptions and attitudes regarding being paired on the same team with a classmate.

Methods

We conducted semi-structured interviews and utilized thematic analysis to develop themes for survey design. We then designed and administered a survey to the graduating class of 2018 at Harvard Medical School.

Results

One hundred students participated in the survey (60% response). The majority of students perceived that pairing impacted their clerkship evaluations. Pairing was perceived to positively impact learning, adjustment to the clerkship, enjoyment, wellness and the overall clerkship experience. However, stress related to grading and evaluation as well as competition for patients were cited as negative impacts. Students in our sample were split on their preferences for working alone or with another student on a clinical team.

Conclusion

Student pairing is a common practice that affects the learning environment in clinical clerkships. Further study of interactions between students on medical teams as well as interventions to raise the positive value of pairing while limiting its negative impact may enhance the clerkship learning environment.

Keywords:

• Clinical
• undergraduate
• medicine
• general

Ethics approval

The study protocol was approved by the institutional review board of Harvard Medical School.

Disclosure statement

The authors do not have any financial interest or benefit that has arisen from this research.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available on Mendeley Data DOI: 10.17632/tn2587rxtt.1

Glossary

Pairing: Being assigned to the same clinical team with another student of the same level for any portion of the clerkship.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Education Innovation and Scholarship which supported funding for gift cards.

Notes on contributors

Krishan K. Sharma

Krishan K. Sharma, MD, MMed, is an Internal Medicine Resident at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Eli M. Miloslavsky

Eli M. Miloslavsky, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.