What Aspects of Patient Affect Medical Students? A Qualitative Analysis of the Experiences of Medical Students at General Medical Ward and Clinic / 医学教育

ABSTRACT

<B>Objective:</B> To identify the usefulness of critical-incident reports for reflective learning and for classifying the types of experiences that medical students regarded most memorable during clinical clerkship at general medical ward and clinic.<BR><B>Design:</B> Descriptive qualitative study using the critical-incident technique.<BR><B>Setting:</B> General medical ward and clinic of a university hospital.<BR><B>Participants:</B> Fifth-year medical students that took part in the clinical care of patients during the clerkship from October 1, 1996 to September 31, 1997.<BR><B>Measurements and Main Results:</B> Ninety-five reports were collected over one year and subjected to the analysis. Reports were classified for seven major themes, with a mean of 1.85 themes per narrative. As for the distribution of themes, 68 reports (72%) dealt with biomedical topics, 45 (47%) with communication with patients and families, 26 (27%) with personal feelings, 19 (20%) with the physician's role, 11 (12%) with ethics, 7 (7%) with psychosocial subjects, and 1 (1%) with recognition of alternative medicine. Reports from men and women contained a similar mean number (men 1.82; women 2.09) and distribution of themes.<BR><B>Conclusions:</B> Medical students have divergent meaningful experiences on non-biomedical themes as well as biomedical issues during their general medicine rotation.