Introduction: Lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic had a disruptive effect on medical education when they prevented medical students accessing real patients. To address this, we piloted 35 medical students at home consulting remotely with patients. Method: We evaluated the intervention using qualitative analysis of post-experience interviews with a sample of 13 students and 10 clinical supervisors. Results: The experience was perceived by all those interviewed to be both acceptable and educationally valuable. Data analysis revealed different models of implementation according to type of patients involved (acute, recently treated or expert patients) and type of communication platform used (AccuRx, Microsoft Teams or telephone). Practical and educational challenges were identified in relation to the following elements of the experience: patients consulting with students remotely, students being remotely supervised and students undertaking patient contact from home. Strategies for addressing these challenges were directly suggested by interviewees and also inferred from our analysis of the data. Conclusions: Remotely supervised medical students at home undertaking remote consultations with patients can be acceptable and educationally valuable. The intervention was piloted in a UK graduate entry medical course and so it would be useful to replicate this study in other medical student populations.
BackgroundGP practices deliver vital medical student teaching in the face of increasingly challenging circumstancesAimTo understand the nature and scale of threats to medical student teaching capacity in primary careDesign & settingAn electronic survey of a pre-defined population of 120 East of England GP practices who host medical student placements.MethodThe survey was completed on behalf of the practice by the GP lead for medical student teaching. They were asked to pick (from a list of sixteen) the four main challenges they faced delivering medical student teaching placements, then explain their selection and suggest solutions. Thematic analysis of free text responses was undertaken from an activity theory perspective.ResultsResponses were received from 114 of the 120 practices in the study population (95% response rate). After clinical/practice workload (picked by 92 practices), lack of space in the practice was by far the most commonly selected challenge to delivering placements (picked by 63 practices). Thematic analysis produced a model whereby a practice’s decision to continue hosting students was influenced by level of motivation and burden of teaching, but only if a certain level of resource enablement is present. Analysis of free text responses suggested that space pressures were perceived as being exacerbated by the need to accommodate more clinicians – especially advanced practitioners employed by primary care networks under the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS).ConclusionThis study provides much needed quantitative evidence to support the view that lack of space in GP premises is a major threat to the future of undergraduate general practice.
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