Teaching physical diagnosis in the nursing home: a prospective, controlled trial

The nursing home as a learning environment: dealing with less is learning more

PURPOSE

Despite the imperative to develop adequate competence in caring for the growing demographic of elderly patients with complex health care problems, nursing homes are underused as learning environments for the education of future doctors; thus, the authors aimed to gain more insight into the characteristics of the nursing home as a learning environment.

METHOD

Approaching the nursing home as a learning environment from a predominantly sociocultural perspective, the authors carried out five focus group interviews (December 2011 through February 2012) with 36 family medicine and elderly care medicine residents during their nursing home placements. Data analysis was an iterative process following a grounded theory approach. The software ATLAS.ti supported data analysis.

RESULTS

The authors identified 23 themes in five categories regarding the nursing home as a learning environment: organization, medical opportunities, communication, teamwork, and supervision. Working and learning in a nursing home was characterized by "dealing with less" (i.e., fewer resources), yet the residents reported that dealing with less resulted in "learning more." Family medicine and elderly care residents from different backgrounds differed in their perceptions and specific learning needs.

CONCLUSIONS

To the authors' knowledge, this study is one of the first to identify characteristics of the nursing home as a learning environment. The main challenge in the nursing home is dealing with less, which, according to the residents in the present study, often leads to learning more. To ensure that learning really happens, the authors call for high-quality supervision to support learners in the nursing home environment.

Early clinical experience: do students learn what we expect?

CONTEXT

Early clinical experience is thought to contribute to the professional development of medical students, but little is known about the kind of learning processes that actually take place. Learning in practice is highly informal and may be difficult to direct by predefined learning outcomes. Learning in medical practice includes a socialisation process in which some learning outcomes may be valued, but others neglected or discouraged.

OBJECTIVES

This study describes students' learning goals (prior to a Year 1 nursing attachment) and learning outcomes (after the attachment) in relation to institutional educational goals, and evaluates associations between learning outcomes, student characteristics and place of attachment.

METHODS

A questionnaire containing open-ended questions about learning goals and learning outcomes was administered to all Year 1 medical students (n = 347) before and directly after a 4-week nursing attachment in either a hospital or a nursing home. Two confirmatory focus group interviews were conducted and data were analysed using qualitative and quantitative content analyses.

RESULTS

Students' learning goals corresponded with educational goals with a main emphasis on communication and empathy. Other learning goals included gaining insight into the organisation of health care and learning to deal with emotions. Self-reported learning outcomes were the same, but students additionally mentioned reflection on professional behaviour and their own future development. Women and younger students mentioned communication and empathy more often than men and older students. Individual learning goals, with the exception of communicating and empathising with patients, did not predict learning outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Students' learning goals closely match educational goals, which are adequately met in early nursing attachments in both hospitals and nursing homes. Learning to deal with emotions was under-represented as a learning goal and learning outcome, which may indicate that emotional aspects of medical students' professional development are neglected in the first year of medical education.

Emotional learning of undergraduate medical students in an early nursing attachment in a hospital or nursing home

BACKGROUND

Entering medicine for the first time is highly impressive for students, but we know little about the actual emotional learning processes taking place.

AIMS

We aimed to get more insight into expectations, experiences and emotions of students during their first clinical experiences in a hospital compared to a nursing home.

METHODS

We carried out a qualitative and a quantitative survey by administering questionnaires about expectations, impressive experiences and learning activities within two cohorts of first-year medical students before and after a 4-week nursing attachment.

RESULTS

Despite different expectations, students reported similar experiences and learning activities for the nursing home and the hospital. Most impressive events were related to patient care, being a trainee, or professional identities being challenged. Students in nursing homes most often referred to their own relationships with patients. Students expressed different emotions, and frequently experienced positive and negative emotions at the same time.

CONCLUSIONS

Rewarding experiences (not only difficult or stressful events) do matter for medical professional development. Students need to learn how to deal with and feel strengthened by the emotions evoked during clinical experiences, which should be supported by educators. The nursing home and the hospital seem to be equally suited as learning environments.

Geriatric medical education in Israel

In this article we will focus on geriatric medical education in Israel and will review our experience in this field. A coordinated effort of the Ministry of Health and the Israeli Medical Association led to the establishment of a modern geriatric system and to the recognition of geriatrics as a medical specialty in the early 1980s. All four Israeli medical schools joined this effort by introducing geriatrics in the undergraduate studies. Several innovative models for teaching geriatrics to medical students and for postgraduate training have been developed and implemented. The growing body of skills and knowledge available, and their application for competent care of the elderly, constitute a compelling impetus for the further development of a high-quality geriatric medical education.