The clinical skills experience of rural immersion medical students and traditional hospital placement students: A student perspective

Abstract

Background: Recent decades have seen an international trend for the development of undergraduate medical programmes in rural locations. These have been considered educationally equivalent alternatives to traditional hospital-based programmes. A pilot Rural Medical Immersion Programme (RMIP) was launched at the University of Otago. Aims: To examine the clinical skills experience of RMIP students and to compare it to that of fifth-year students based in the traditional, often urban and hospital-based, rotations. Methods: An online questionnaire was completed by 23 medical students: six RMIP students and 17 hospital-based students. Students rated their level of experience in a variety of skills and their self-perceived competence for performing these skills after their fifth year. Total experience and confidence was compared using Mann-Whitney U test, as were subsets of skills. Results: There was no difference found in the total clinical skills experience and confidence between RMIP and traditional students. RMIP students reported greater experience of patient examination and patient education skills; traditional students reported greater experience and confidence in investigation and interpretative skills. Conclusion: Clinical skills experience of the RMIP students is at least equivalent to that of their peers in the tertiary hospital setting. However, attention may be needed in the development of 'investigative and interpretative skills' for rural immersion students.

Longlook: initial outcomes of a longitudinal integrated rural clinical placement program

“…These findings are consistent with prior studies that have shown comparable assessment performance for cohorts of rural students 18 and confirms the immense value of longitudinal integrated rural clinical placements in teaching students core clinical skills. 19 The comparability of clinical skills assessment is also consistent with previous studies. 20 Research into the efficacy of rural longitudinal integrated clerkships in South Australia and Canada has demonstrated the educational value in continuity of care, longitudinal exposure and participation in care.…”

Involving Medical Students in Providing Patient Education for Real Patients: A Scoping Review

“…1 ). In total, five non-randomized controlled trials, 22 , 25 , 34 , 35 , 38 four uncontrolled before-and-after studies, 26 , 30 , 33 , 37 eight post-intervention survey or interview studies, 23 , 24 , 27 – 29 , 31 , 32 , 39 and one case series study 36 were included.

Figure 1 PRISMA flow diagram showing the number of records and studies identified during the search process, screened for relevance, assessed for eligibility and included in the synthesis.

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“…Geographically, 12 studies were performed in the USA, 22 – 24 , 26 – 28 , 30 – 32 , 36 – 38 three in the European Union, 25 , 34 , 39 and one each in Canada, 29 New Zealand, 35 and Singapore. 33 …”

“…The studies described the following: medical students providing patient education during clerkships aimed at learning to provide patient education; 26 – 28 , 31 , 35 medical students providing patient education courses or other types of teaching to patients and family members; 24 , 25 , 29 , 30 , 32 medical students supporting patients in the context of treatment; 22 , 38 , 39 medical students performing patient education to reach underserved communities; 23 , 33 , 37 and medical students providing patient education in a student-run clinic or teaching clinic 34 , 36 (Table 1 ).…”

Medical Training for Rural Recruitment: Insufficient as Stand-alone Approach

“…Initiatives like the Rural Heroes Project 2015 launched by the World Organization of Family Doctors [5] reveal a rather individualistic and narrow-minded approach to solve the increasing need for rural practitioners. In addition, promoters of rural practice use to stress the fact that graduates trained in rural settings tend to rate themselves as better prepared for rural family practice than urbantrained physicians [6,7]. Likewise, rural practitioners organisations and their representatives repeatedly claim for primary health care (PHC) and family practice as the far most important but continuously underrated medical disciplines.…”