Faculty perspectives on facilitating medical students' longitudinal learning: A mixed-methods study.

INTRODUCTION: Medical students' longitudinal care of patients supports clinical learning and promotes patient-centredness. The literature presents little empirically derived guidance for faculty to facilitate students' longitudinal learning and care. Informed by the conceptual framework of relational learning, this study investigated faculty perspectives about longitudinal teaching, their strategies for facilitating students' longitudinal learning and perceived barriers and enablers. METHODS: Using a convergent mixed-methods approach at a single academic medical centre, the authors conducted a survey and two focus groups in 2018-2019 with faculty members teaching in three longitudinal clinical courses. Quantitative analyses included descriptive statistics and chi-square tests. Qualitative content analysis described deductive categories and identified inductive themes. RESULTS: Forty-three eligible faculty (69%) completed the survey. Ninety-one percent (n = 39) reported that teaching in a longitudinal model enhanced their experience as preceptors. Faculty described activities students performed to provide longitudinal care: spending time with patients independently (n = 38, 88%), making follow-up phone calls (n = 35; 81%) and participating in home- and community-based visits (n = 20, 47%), among others. Twelve faculty participated in two focus groups. Deductive analysis characterised strategies for facilitating students' longitudinal learning and barriers and enablers. Strategies included "encouraging students to follow patients," "faculty adaptability," "offering guidance and setting expectations," and "careful patient selection." Barriers included scheduling limitations, and enablers included student initiative. Inductive analysis identified two themes: faculty goals for students and faculty benefits from teaching. Goals included meaningful engagement with patients and their illness over time. Benefits from teaching included personal gratification, mentorship, and holistic student assessment. DISCUSSION: Our survey and focus group findings demonstrated positive faculty attitudes and experiences, characterised faculty goals and approaches, and identified elements of the educational context that hindered or facilitated longitudinal teaching and learning. This study's faculty perspectives build upon prior investigations of students' and patients' perspectives, offer teaching strategies, and may guide faculty development.

Discharge Day: A Case-Based Interprofessional Exercise About Team Collaboration in Pediatrics.

Introduction: Interprofessional education, which gives medical students the opportunity to learn from, with, and about other health professionals, is an essential component of the undergraduate medical education curriculum. Nonetheless, deliberate and sustained integration of interprofessional education into the undergraduate medical learning experience can be challenging, especially within the clinical setting. Methods: We implemented a 75-minute, interactive, collaborative, case-based conference focusing on an interprofessional clinical challenge in a pediatric setting. Medical students on their pediatrics core rotation and trainees within social work, nursing, pharmacy, and nutrition explored the concept of a team, reflected on roles, and considered how interprofessional collaboration could influence patient outcomes. Results: One hundred ninety-two health professions students participated in 15 sessions at three sites over a 10-month period (September 2017-July 2018). After each session, participants completed a session evaluation. They gave high ratings to the effectiveness and relevance of the experience and the case vignette. Responses to open-ended questions revealed that students had learned the importance of leveraging the expertise of team members and had resolved to speak up when faced with an interprofessional challenge in the future. Discussion: This case-based session is a logistically feasible and positively received opportunity for health professions students to discuss interprofessional collaboration. It could be adapted for a variety of learner populations and academic environments and could be incorporated into existing curricula.