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The experience of clinical teachers as well as research results about senior medical students' understanding of basic science concepts has much been debated. To gain a better understanding about how this knowledge-transformation is managed by medical students, this work aims at investigating their ways of setting about learning anatomy. Second-year medical students were interviewed with a focus on their approach to learning and their way of organizing their studies in anatomy. Phenomenographic analysis of the interviews was performed in 2007 to explore the complex field of learning anatomy. Subjects were found to hold conceptions of a dual notion of the field of anatomy and the interplay between details and wholes permeated their ways of studying with an obvious endeavor of understanding anatomy in terms of connectedness and meaning. The students' ways of approaching the learning task was characterized by three categories of description; the subjects experienced their anatomy studies as memorizing, contextualizing or experiencing. The study reveals aspects of learning anatomy indicating a deficit in meaningfulness. Variation in approach to learning and contextualization of anatomy are suggested as key-elements in how the students arrive at understanding. This should be acknowledged through careful variation of the integration of anatomy in future design of medical curricula.

Purpose -This study aims to explore and understand first year nursing students' experiences of learning at a clinical education ward. Design/methodology/approach -The setting is a clinical education ward for nursing students at a department of infectious diseases. A qualitative study was carried out exploring students' encounters with patients, supervisors, students and other health care professionals. A total of 19 students were interviewed. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis investigating both the manifest and the latent content. Findings -The most important components in students' learning are mutual relationships and a sense of belongingness. A mutual relationship between the students and the patients is created and becomes the basis of students' learning. Belongingness means the students' experience of being for real a part of the team taking care of the patients.Research limitations/implications -The study, while linked to a particular teaching hospital, offers insights of more general nature by linking the findings to a theory of transformative learning.Originality/value -This study adds a deeper understanding of students' perspectives of significant characteristics to take into account when organizing clinical practice in health care education. Being entrusted and supported by a team of supervisors to take care of patients at a clinical education ward early in the education program provides an experience of internal and external authenticity. The students learn from, with and through the patients, which contributes to meaningful learning, understanding nursing, and professional development.

Interprofessional training is becoming commonplace in undergraduate medical education. Orthopaedics is considered to be a setting that offers good opportunities for interprofessional training. Curriculum overload is a common problem, which has to be addressed with respect to content. The aim of this study was to assess medical students' experiences of interprofessional care during their orthopaedic training. Over a two-week period, medical, nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy students trained together in teams in an orthopaedic ward (Clinical Education Ward, CEW). A questionnaire was distributed to assess the impact of this new curriculum on medical students. A patient-satisfaction questionnaire was also administered to assess patients' satisfaction with the treatment provided by students at the CEW. In general, the medical students were satisfied with the interprofessional course in the CEW. Of the 178 medical students who took the course, 134 (75%) responded to the questionnaire. Total time devoted to orthopaedics was reported to be between 7 - 44% (mean). The total time regarding medical tasks was reported to be between 57 - 71% (mean). Results from the patient-satisfaction questionnaire showed that patients perceived CEW as highly satisfactory. The medical students reported generally satisfactory experiences of interprofessional orthopaedic training in general. In an interprofessional training context, professional supervision and role modeling takes on added importance, and may be regarded as essential ingredients in helping students to learn effectively within an authentic clinical setting.

BackgroundClinical practice is essential for health care students. The supervisor’s role and how supervision should be organized are challenging issues for educators and clinicians. Clinical education wards have been established to meet these challenges and they are units with a pedagogical framework facilitating students’ training in real clinical settings. Supervisors support students to link together theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. From students’ perspectives, clinical education wards have shown potential to enhance students’ learning. Thus there is a need for deeper understanding of supervisors’ pedagogical role in this context.We explored supervisors’ approaches to students’ learning at a clinical education ward where students are encouraged to independently take care of patients.MethodAn ethnographic approach was used to study encounters between patients, students and supervisors. The setting was a clinical education ward for nursing students at a university hospital. Ten observations with ten patients, 11 students and five supervisors were included in the study. After each observation, individual follow-up interviews with all participants and a group interview with supervisors were conducted. Data were analysed using an ethnographic approach.ResultsSupervisors’ pedagogical role has to do with balancing patient care and student learning. The students were given independence, which created pedagogical challenges for the supervisors. They handled these challenges by collaborating as a supervisory team and taking different acts of supervision such as allowing students their independence, being there for students and by applying patient-centredness.ConclusionThe supervisors’ pedagogical role was perceived as to facilitate students’ learning as a team. Supervisors were both patient- and student-centred by making a nursing care plan for the patients and a learning plan for the students. The plans were guided by clinical and pedagogical guidelines, individually adjusted and followed up.