Page 49 - Medical students’ self-regulated learning in clinical contexts

Method
Design
We posi on ourselves in a construc vist paradigm, believing that reality is subjec ve, context-speci c and that there is no ul mate truth.24 We carried out a qualita ve study borrowing on methods from grounded theory methodology in order to do a systema c analysis of par cipants’ perspec ves on rela onships in uen al in their engagement in SRL, using purposive sampling and itera vely gathering and analyzing data un l theore cal su ciency was reached.25 We chose an individual approach for the data collec on to create a safe environment in which students would feel free to elaborate on their personal experiences.
The research group consisted of researchers with varied experiences and backgrounds to enhance interpreta on and understanding of our ndings using mul ple perspec ves. The rst author (JB) is a recently graduated MD and a PhD-candidate in health professions educa on. All other authors have PhD’s in health professions educa on and have di erent backgrounds, including elderly care medicine (EH), obstetrics/ gynecology (PT), psychology and psychometrics (CvdV) and veterinary medicine (AJ).
Se ng
We recruited medical students from one large Dutch medical school with entering cohorts of 350 students per year. The medical curriculum includes a preclinical phase (year 1-3) and a clinical phase (year 4-6). The clinical phase consists of rota onal clerkships ranging from 3 to 16 weeks. During these clerkships, medical students par cipate in a wide range of ac vi es regarding pa ent care. All students are supported similarly, and are closely supervised. Students are usually supervised by residents when learning in wards, delivery rooms and emergency rooms, and consultants in outpa ent clinics, opera ng theatres, public-health ins tu ons, nursing homes and general prac ces. Both residents and consultants provide forma ve feedback using mini-CEX-like forms, but only consultants provide a nal summa ve assessment at the end of a clerkship. Generally, three to ten students are enrolled in a clerkship simultaneously but they infrequently collaborate except when learning in the wards and during formal educa onal mee ngs.
Par cipants
To ensure a wide variety in experiences, the par cipants were purposively sampled regarding age, gender, experience, and current clerkship. We included students who were enrolled in di erent clerkships, and included students who were in di erent
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How clinical medical students perceive others to in uence their self-regulated learning
Chapter 3