How to … Implement a Successful Medical Student–Staff Partnership Project

TL;DR

This paper shares insights on how to successfully implement student-staff partnerships in medical education by addressing key challenges like time, hierarchy, and expertise.

Contribution

The paper introduces a practical guide for implementing student–staff partnerships in medical education by identifying and addressing four key barriers.

Findings

Four key barriers to successful partnerships include lack of time, emotions and hierarchy, lack of awareness of professional identity formation, and ineffective use of student expertise.

Reflective practice in partnerships offers valuable learning and personal development opportunities for both students and staff.

Sharing experiences and strategies helps educators overcome challenges in student–staff partnerships.

Abstract

Student–staff partnerships, where students work as equal partners alongside staff, are a powerful process to develop learning and teaching in higher education. However, within undergraduate medical education, there are multiple challenges that restrict medical students' and staff's ability to engage in partnership work. We draw on our experiences of a successful medical student–staff partnership in summer 2023 to identify four key barriers to successful partnerships: lack of time, emotions and hierarchy, lack of awareness of professional identity formation and ineffective use of student expertise. By naming and exposing these challenges and sharing our experiences and tips on how they can be overcome, we provide educators with a comprehensive guide to implementing successful student–staff partnership within the undergraduate medical education setting. We conclude that reflective practice in partnerships provides a valuable opportunity for learning and personal development for both staff and students.

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