Medical students remote consulting from home and from the health centre: A survey of prevalence and supervisor perspectives

A shift to remote consulting characterised the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in general practice which resulted in significant changes in the delivery of medical education. It is unclear whether these changes have been sustained and how they are perceived by faculty. We surveyed a defined po...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medical teacher 2023-07, Vol.45 (7), p.752-759
Main Authors: Darnton, Richard, Amey, Sam, Brimicombe, James
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Change
COVID-19
Data
Family physicians
General practice
Health care management
Health facilities
Innovations
Medical education
Medical students
Pandemics
Personal safety
primary care
Resistance to Change
Simplicity
staff development
Student Participation
Supervisors
undergraduate medical education
work-based learning
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Summary:A shift to remote consulting characterised the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in general practice which resulted in significant changes in the delivery of medical education. It is unclear whether these changes have been sustained and how they are perceived by faculty. We surveyed a defined population of GP practices during April 2022 with questions to elicit estimates of medical student involvement in different types of remote consultation and supervisor ratings of their confidence in supervising different modalities of remote consultation. We performed thematic analysis on free text responses from a 'resistance to change' perspective. A response rate of 96% (n = 115) was achieved. Analysis of quantitative data identified that a significant proportion of student consultations were remote, however there was a large variation between practices. Supervisor confidence was lowest for students consulting from home. Thematic analysis identified ways in which clinical supervisors may perceive the innovation to be at odds with their overriding commitments to safety, simplicity and quality. Remote consultations form a significant proportion of medical student activity in many practices. Some supervisors are reluctant to supervise medical students consulting from home and our findings suggest ways of addressing this so that the benefits of the innovation can be harnessed.
ISSN:0142-159X
1466-187X
DOI:10.1080/0142159X.2022.2158068