Summary : This is a single observer review and analysis of student feedback regarding teaching delivery and formative assessment of medicine department received from a batch of students finishing their degree and on their way to finish the final hurdle of the university. The validity of this anonymized feedback appeared high as students had fearlessly opened their heart outs and well addressed our negatives as we had ensured that we were properly blinded to their identity.
The entire feedback in images of their hand written notes can be accessed here:https://37swetha.
The feedback has been analyzed and problem statements identified as well as solutions planned.
Single observer analysis :
Clearly there is a gross mismatch with the departmental vision for the students learning and the students own vision of what their learning should be like and this post is to try and bridge this colossal gap.
The departmental vision is to create physicians who are competent to understand a patient's problem through a proper clinical data capture (history, examination and investigations) and draw an optimal management plan tailored to the patient's requirements and ensure adequate follow up to support the patient's illness journey.
The students vision apparent from the feedback is to pass their exams safely and learn standard clinical skills that may not require the apparently humongous effort that they are having to put in compared to other subjects in their career journey.
Also they are unable to sink their teeth into the kind of clinical skills we demand from them as they believe they haven't been taught anything and so we shouldn't expect them to know anything.
Our current reading of this batch and most prior batches is that there are 5-10 students who can cope with the efforts necessary and the large majority is getting bulldozered and stressed out.
Bottom line is lack of time as against a tremendous demand for efforts that appears unrealistic to the majority.
Students want medicine to be broken down into bite sized conceptual chunks that may have palpable black and white outcomes but if we try to do that we will end up showing them an unreal picture of Medicine. What they are witnessing now through their own efforts to log a case is real medicine which is unfortunately disturbing as the messy real world of Medicine often is. However if we discount this discomfort now we shall only be delaying it and cause irreparable damage to their psyche when they are forced to face real medicine at a later date.
What are the changes that the department can make from their side given the limited amount of time ?
We can start the rounds after their last theory class at 10:15 AM sharp and students will need to assemble by each patient's bedside while we show them clinical skills during the rounds and then unfortunately we will still need to waste a lot of time trying to understand our real patient requirements that may feel like a waste now to students but will feel more useful with passage of time as they gain more competency in understanding patient requirements listening to their non linear narratives.
What we need from the students?
We need them to become active learners and transform from the passive learner role most of them have been forced into due to various reasons largely related to schooling. We need them to do their case based assignments and ask us questions at every step (asynchronously online) so that we can help them to create an impact on us and our patients.
Ultimately it's this ability of theirs to create an impact on our learning ecosystem is what is most valuable and essentially what we are trying to assess.
The online learning portfolios containing the case logged work of each medical student, are largely a platform for the medical students to demonstrate the impact of their learning on our department and patients in a manner that makes them become a valuable member of our team. This can enable us to demonstrate a clear correlation between their learning outcomes and patient outcomes.
The way forward will not be easy but overcoming difficult paths can lead to better and greener pastures.
Did the students provide valid feedback?
The feedback collected from the students appears very valid as they have fearlessly addressed our negatives as we ensured that we were properly blinded to their identity 👇
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