Students’ perceptions of early patient encounters in a PBL curriculum: A first evaluation of the Maastricht experience

Diemers, Agnes; Dolmans, Diana; Santen, Marijke van; Luijk, Scheltus J. van; Janssen-Noordman, Ameike M B; Scherpbier, Albert

doi:10.1080/01421590601177990

Cited by 60 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The results show that the year's 3-5 medical students appreciated the clinical relevance and applications or usefulness of their early exposure to simulated examiner/examinee roles through peer/life model physical examination and palpation towards the development of clinical skills and good professional attitudes. This is consonant with the report that early patient contact which is similar to exposure to peer/life model physical examination and palpation, enhances medical students learning and the integration of theory and practice (Dornan & Bundy 2004;Littlewood et al 2005;Diemers et al 2007;Smithson et al 2010). This helps students to develop appropriate attitudes and skills for clinical practice (Littlewood et al 2005), and makes for a smoother transition into the clinical environment in the later years of their training (Radcliffe & Lester 2003) because of early exposure to professional socialisation (Dornan & Bundy 2004;Goldie et al 2007).…”

Section: T I Chinnah Et Alsupporting

confidence: 58%

Students’ views on the impact of peer physical examination and palpation as a pedagogic tool for teaching and learning living human anatomy

Chinnah¹,

Bere²,

Collett³

2010

Medical Teacher

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Background: Modern medical education teaching and learning approaches now lay emphasis on students acquiring knowledge, skills and attitudes relevant to medical practice. Aims: To explore students' perceived impacts of using hands-on approaches involving peer/life model physical examination and palpation in teaching and learning living human anatomy on their practice of physical examination of real patients. Methods: This study used exploratory focus groups and a questionnaire survey of years 3-5 medical students. Results: The focus group discussions revealed new insights into the positive impacts of the hands-on approaches on students' clinical skills and professional attitudes when dealing with patients. Students' exposure to the hands-on approaches helped them to feel comfortable with therapeutically touching unclothed patients' bodies and physically examining them in the clinical environment. At least 60% of the questionnaire survey respondents agreed with the focus group participants on this view. Over 75% also agreed that the hands-on experiences helped them develop good professional attitudes in their encounter with patients. Conclusions: This study highlights the perceived educational value of the hands-on approaches as a pedagogic tool with a positive impact on students' clinical skills and professional attitudes that helps in easing their transition into clinical practice.

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Section: T I Chinnah Et Alsupporting

confidence: 58%

Students’ views on the impact of peer physical examination and palpation as a pedagogic tool for teaching and learning living human anatomy

Chinnah¹,

Bere²,

Collett³

2010

Medical Teacher

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“…It helps students to apply theoretical knowledge to real patient problems when making the transition from preclinical to clinical training (20,31,32) and thus offers valuable preparation for clerkships (13). In the 1993 recommendations of the UK General Medical Council (GMC) for undergraduate medical education and those of the National Agency for Higher Education in Sweden in 1997, early patient contact was accompanied by an increased contribution to teaching by GPs (10,30).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Abramovitch et al emphasized that ECE has to be differentiated from early exposure to clinical skills in school settings in the early years of medical training (16). Early clerkships in internal medicine and surgery in the third year of the curriculum have also been called ECE (28), and early patient encounters are undertaken in the third year of the teaching outpatient clinic at University Hospital Maastricht (20).…”

Section: Problems Of Definitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The terms used to define the concept of gaining early practical experience are also rather different and include early patient experience, early patient contact (10,14,15), early integrated patient contact (15), early clinical exposure (16,17), early clinical experience (7,11), early practical experience (13,18), early clinical contact (12,19), learning from early experience (1), early studentÁpatient contact (13), and early patient encounter (20). Although there is no consensus on the definition of ECE in the literature, it can be defined as an ''authentic human contact in a social or clinical context that enhances learning of health, illness and/ or disease, and the role of the health professional'', occurring in the early or preclinical years of undergraduate education (21).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early clinical exposure in medical curricula across Europe: An overview

Başak¹,

Yaphe²,

Spiegel³

et al. 2009

European Journal of General Practice

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Background: Many faculties of medicine now include programmes using early clinical exposure (ECE) to introduce medical students to important topics in medicine. Objective: To sketch the landscape of ECE in Europe, describing existing courses. Methods: A survey questionnaire was developed by the Basic Medical Education Committee of the European Academy of Teachers in General Practice (EURACT). This survey used the key informant interviews method, with EURACT Council members serving as key informants by filling in the questionnaire and gathering descriptive data on ECE programmes in their own countries. Results: We asked representatives of 32 EURACT member countries to complete the questionnaire in 2006. We received responses from 21 countries, and the programmes of 40 medical schools from 16 countries were included in the study. Thirty-two medical schools implemented ECE starting in the first year. The duration of ECE programmes ranged from 2 weeks to 2 years. The length of each session varied from 2 hours to a full day. Primary care played an important role in ECE. ECE programmes were implemented with a wide range of objectives.Conclusion: ECE is a new and rewarding trend in European medical schools, and general practice/family medicine (GP/FM) departments are widely involved in these teaching activities. This could help establish GP/FM departments in some countries that still do not have them in their medical schools.

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“…Recently, Maastricht Medical School introduced real patient encounters in Year 3 of their preclinical medical PBL curriculum. A first evaluation of the preclinical real patient contacts indicated that according to the students the encounters enhanced integration of theory and practice (Diemers et al 2007). The limitations of that study were, however, that it elicited only superficial information about the effects of the implementation of preclinical patient contacts on students' learning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ opinions about the effects of preclinical patient contacts on their learning

Diemers

Dolmans

Verwijnen

et al. 2007

Adv in Health Sci Educ

Self Cite

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Several reasons have been given why students should have contacts with real patients early in the undergraduate medical curriculum, i.e., in the preclinical phase. However, it is not clear exactly what effects early patient contacts have with regard to knowledge construction and the development of clinical reasoning skills. We sought students' views of the effects of preclinical real patient contacts on their learning, knowledge construction and development of clinical reasoning. Twenty-four students in the third and last preclinical year of a 6-year undergraduate medical programme were divided into three focus groups which met twice, after which saturation was reached. The discussions were recorded and transcribed. Summaries of the discussions were approved by the students after some modifications. Atlas-ti software was used to create a coding framework resulting in identification of main themes and sub themes. Early patient contacts motivate students to study, help them understand the impact of illness on patients' lives, and enhance professional socialisation and memory processes. Students distinguish between analytic and non-analytic clinical reasoning in connection with real patients. Analytic reasoning involves clinical and basic science knowledge. Non-analytic reasoning involves pattern recognition and is made possible by experiential learning from different patient contacts. The students indicate that seeing real patients early in their training has several positive effects on their learning. The contacts enhance knowledge construction and 123Adv in Health Sci Educ (2008) 13:633-647 DOI 10.1007 clinical reasoning. Although our results will have to be validated by quantitative, observational and experimental research, they imply that educational benefits are to be gained from real patient contacts in the preclinical phase of medical education.

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Students’ perceptions of early patient encounters in a PBL curriculum: A first evaluation of the Maastricht experience

Cited by 60 publications

References 14 publications

Students’ views on the impact of peer physical examination and palpation as a pedagogic tool for teaching and learning living human anatomy

Students’ views on the impact of peer physical examination and palpation as a pedagogic tool for teaching and learning living human anatomy

Early clinical exposure in medical curricula across Europe: An overview

Students’ opinions about the effects of preclinical patient contacts on their learning

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