Opening the Curtains on Medical Students' Engagement With Ward Rounds: A Qualitative Study

TL;DR

This study explores how medical students engage with ward rounds and how their experiences and learning evolve over time.

Contribution

The study applies work-based learning theory to examine medical students' evolving engagement with ward rounds and suggests strategies for improvement.

Findings

Students' perspectives on ward rounds shift from learning from doctors to learning to be doctors as they progress through training.

Students tend to engage passively on ward rounds, though this decreases as they approach graduation.

Despite recognizing ward rounds' potential, students express dissatisfaction and suggest ways to improve their educational experience.

Abstract

Introduction

Ward rounds are a key component of medical students’ clinical training, yet there is inadequate research on students’ learning in this setting. Although ward-based learning has been widely studied, research focused specifically on medical students’ experience on ward rounds with explicit utilization of educational theory remains limited. The study addressed this gap through its aims of exploring medical students’ perspectives and engagement on ward rounds, examining how these may change over time, and considering how students' learning experience could be improved, while drawing explicitly upon work-based learning theory. The overarching research question was: How do medical students engage with ward rounds, and what strategies could enhance their educational experience?

Methods

Qualitative exploration was carried out at a large UK medical school. Eleven individual semi-structured interviews, each lasting 30-60 minutes, were conducted over Microsoft Teams with students in the final three years of the program. Transcripts underwent inductive thematic analysis, following Braun and Clarke’s framework, assisted by NVivo software (QSR International, Melbourne, Australia). Social-cultural learning theories shaped topic guide development and were utilized as sensitizing concepts during analysis.

Results

This study suggested that students’ perspectives on, and educational experience of, ward rounds evolve as they progress through years three to five, revealing a shift from learning from doctors to learning to be doctors and highlighting different views on how learning occurs in the workplace. Students appeared to engage more passively than actively on ward rounds, although this decreased as they advanced toward graduation. Despite recognizing the great educational potential of ward rounds, all students expressed some dissatisfaction, which led them to offer suggestions for improvement.

Conclusion

Ward rounds remain an underutilized pedagogy with scope for more meaningful student engagement. Enhancing communication and alignment between medical schools, placement providers, doctors, and students, while adopting a socio-cultural approach, could maximize ward round learning and better bridge the university-workplace gap.

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