Individualising psychiatry clerkships to medical student career choice

Abstract

What problems were addressed? The multiple mini-interview (MMI) is a multi-station interview consisting of eight to 12 stations, each of which lasts 8-10 minutes. A standardised scenario at each station evaluates a single facet of competence or a personal trait through the interviewer-interviewee interaction. It provides a valid, reliable and defensible approach to medical student selection. However, the MMI is insufficient for evaluating interpersonal skills, which are crucial for the medical practitioner.What was tried? This study added a group interview to seven MMI stations in medical student admission interviews at the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Taiwan, in order to strengthen the evaluation of applicants' interpersonal skills, and to construct a more holistic and valid medical student admission interview.In 2011, NCKU interviewed 122 people who applied for admission to its medical programme. A total of 33 interviewers participated in the interviews. They all received at least 7 hours of training that aimed to establish an interview blueprint and scoring criteria, which would increase inter-rater consistency.Based on the mission and philosophy of the Department of Medicine at NCKU, the seven stations evaluated the following competencies and personal traits: empathy; respect for life; crisis management; initiative; insightfulness; integrity, and communication skills. At the group interview, a 5-minute video was played, after which four standardised questions were used to stimulate group discussion. Each group consisted of six or seven interviewees and three interviewers who monitored and evaluated the interviewee peer discussion.Based on statistical analyses, the correlations between each of the seven MMI stations and the group interview were all positive, ranging from 0.15 to 0.42. The correlation coefficients were all significant (all p < 0.05), the only exception being that for station 5 (insightfulness) (p = 0.10). Cronbach's alpha for the seven MMI stations was 0.54. When data for the group interview were added to the analysis, Cronbach's alpha for the MMI combined with the group interview rose to 0.63.What lessons were learned? The combination of the MMI with the group interview improved the validity of the medical student selection interview. In test item selection, the primary concern is to design and choose items that increase internal consistency first, and convergent and discriminatory validity secondly. 1 The interviewee-interviewee peer discussion in the group interview is quite different from the interviewer-interviewee interaction in MMI stations. The positive correlations between the MMI stations and the group interview, then, can be taken as a good indication of convergent validity. It means the MMI stations and the group interview measured similar competencies in accordance with the mission and philosophy of the Department of Medicine at NCKU.Furthermore, the inclusion of the group interview with the MMI raised Cronbach's alpha from 0.54 to 0.63. This proves that the combining of ...

Exploring the factors influencing clinical students’ self-regulated learning

“…It also seems important to offer more tailored learning opportunities and the supports necessary for students to self‐regulate their learning as students are known to have different needs . A way of doing this might be to individualise clerkship assignments in a manner aligned with students' future career choices; this method showed promise in a recent small‐scale study . Another suggestion refers to the more thorough assessment of the needs of individual students because it is unlikely that one solution will work for all students.…”

“…50 A way of doing this might be to individualise clerkship assignments in a manner aligned with students' future career choices; this method showed promise in a recent small-scale study. 51 Another suggestion refers to the more thorough assessment of the needs of individual students because it is unlikely that one solution will work for all students. Future research might investigate whether the administration of an existing measurement tool for SRL can provide the information necessary to create a more tailored learning experience.…”

Going beyond ‘good enough’ teaching in psychiatric training

“…Giving individualised feedback and also asking for feedback to adapt one's own teaching would continually enhance quality (Sluijsmans 2003). A personal narrative explaining what it is like to live the life of a psychiatrist might be an effective way of improving recruitment, as the student or trainee could picture working in the profession themselves (Hashmi 2014; Berkhout 2015).…”

“…It should be maximised by offering students more tailored learning opportunities and support based on recognising each learner's needs, personal goals and narrative (Sandars 2009; Berkhout 2015). Perhaps this could be aligned to future career aims (Hashmi 2014). If students cannot relate to external goals set by the curriculum, it will deter SRL (Berkhout 2015).…”