Abstract
Identifying fundamental elements of learning in a simulated clinical setting using a Delphi technique.
Name: Jessica Young1, Martyn Williamson1, Ben Daniel Motidyang2, Jim Ross1, Tony Egan1
Origin: 1University of Otago, Dunedin School of Medicine, Dunedin, New Zealand 2University of Otago, Higher Education Development Centre, Dunedin, New Zealand
Introduction/background:
The Safe and Effective Clinical Outcomes (SECO) clinic simulation was designed to allow medical students to learn from adopting the doctor role in a high fidelity environment. This study was prompted by the depth of students’ reflections on their learning experiences in the SECO clinic. The data for the analysis comprise the 55 codes generated from a thematic analysis of 50% of all 4th year medical students’ reflective essays in 2011, 2012 (n=77).
Aim/objectives:
To use an online consensus Delphi technique to validate the student learning themes derived from previous SECO research.
Methods:
Eleven international faculty were provided with code definitions and asked to assign the codes to the most appropriate of the six original themes or to suggest new themes. We defined consensus as more than 50% of participants agreeing on the assignation. The second round required participants to indicate if they agreed or disagreed that the codes were a good fit within each theme. Any new themes were included in round two.
Results:
There was 100% agreement on the six original themes - professional identity, self-awareness, outcomes/safe practices, learning setting, clinical ability, relationships – and majority agreement on the suggested theme engagement/motivation.
Discussion
The themes could be regarded as educational outcomes achievable in a clinical setting or simulation. The codes under each theme could be thought about as enablers, definers or triggers for the outcome. We are interested in how these can be operationalised in other settings?
Conclusions:
The themes appear to us to represent some fundamentals of clinical learning.