Dealing with Academic Difficulty in Medical School: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Some students struggle through medical school and do not have the confidence to seek help. This pilot study sought to explore the challenges and needs of medical students experiencing academic difficulty. Semi-structured interviews and online surveys were used to collect data from an academic advisor and thirteen medical students who had experienced academic difficulty. Unexpected academic failure and the loss of self-efficacy contributed to students hiding their academic difficulty and avoiding available support systems. Despite the sampling limitations, the findings of this pilot study have value in giving direction to future research. Programs that will change the current attitudes to academic difficulty, normalising access to support and encouraging early intervention, are needed to build the capacity for excellence among these students.

Factors leading to the academic failure of undergraduate medical students - Predict early to prevent

“…4 Critical thinking plays a role and hesitation for asking help adds to low performance. 14 , 20 Our findings tally with other studies except reflective practice needs focus which was minimal in the failing students.…”

“…4 Critical thinking plays a role and hesitation for asking help adds to low performance. 14,20 Our findings tally with other studies except reflective practice needs focus which was minimal in the failing students. Theme: Personality, Psychological Make-up: Positive personality traits, emotional balance, motivation, and positive self-efficacy are reported as factors leading to positive outcome in academics while high-stress levels lead to negative outcome.…”

“…Family and the institution play a role in academic performance. 20 Negative impact of family varies, one study mentions 81.5% 6 the other 5.2%. 4 Our findings could not detect a significant negative impact.…”

“…Theme: Essentials for Learning: Poor time management and self-regulation as a major factor for poor performance has been mentioned in different studies. 5,19,20 Pinyopornpanish et al found 79.3% low performance is due to individual factors in which absenteeism was a prominent cause. 4 Critical thinking plays a role and hesitation for asking help adds to low performance.…”

Academic Achievement and Delay: A Study with Italian Post-Graduate Students in Psychology

“…The model is employed with two main theoretical approaches: a systemic one (Biggs & Tang, 2007), and a phenomenographic approach, the Student Learning Perspective (Lo & Marton, 2012;Prosser et al, 2005;Tight, 2016). Although there is interest in the different theoretical approaches in exploring the variation in study performance, much of the literature is mainly focused on the environmental and learning process variables that positively influence study outcomes and much less on those related to learning difficulties (Malau-Aduli et al, 2020). Moreover, despite the importance of understanding the factors behind academic problematic paths, several studies have focused much more on implied psychological variables in academic procrastination or bad habits (waste of time, addictions, use of mobile phone, etc.)…”