Time spent on clerkship activities by students in relation to their perceptions of learning environment quality

• Published in: Medical education 2009-07, Vol.43 (7), p.674-679
• Main Authors: Van Hell, Elisabeth A, Kuks, Jan B M, Cohen-Schotanus, Janke
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Clinical Clerkship - standards; Clinical Clerkship - statistics & numerical data; Clinical Competence - standards; Competency-Based Education - methods; Competency-Based Education - standards; Curriculum; Education, Medical, Undergraduate - methods; Education, Medical, Undergraduate - standards; Health participants; Humans; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; Netherlands; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Students, Medical - psychology; Time Factors
• ISSN: 0308-0110; 1365-2923
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03393.x

Context  Students’ perceptions of their learning environment are of great importance to their learning process. In this study we assessed the time allocated by students to clerkship activities and the relationship between students’ allocations of time and their perceptions of the quality of their clinical learning environment. Methods  Participants were 133 undergraduate students from eight hospitals taking part in four clerkship rotations. All students recorded the time they spent on eight clerkship activities over 2 weeks and completed the Postgraduate Hospital Educational Environment Measure (PHEEM). Partial correlation analyses were undertaken to examine the relationship between the amount of time students spent on each activity and their PHEEM scores. Results  Students spent nearly 8 hours a day on clerkship activities. Most time was spent on observing doctors (40%), followed by participating in consultations without direct supervision (12%). The time students spent on observing doctors (r = 0.206, P