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In the literature, a distinction is made between low-level concerns and what is regarded as fitness to practise concerns. The General Medical Council expects all UK medical schools to have a transparent process in place about how concerns about its medical students are identified monitored and responded to. However, internationally, there is currently no well-established consensus on what is good practice in managing low-level concerns. Furthermore, currently, there is little information on how the UK medical schools vary in the processes they implement to monitor and respond to low-level concerns of their students. An online survey was developed and informed by the literature and sent to all UK medical schools to better understand their low-level concerns process. Of 39 medical schools invited, 25 participated. The data indicate variations between medical schools in the processes implemented. These variations can potentially influence the quality of the data; for example, whether there is a named person co-ordinating concerns between medical schools and placement providers. Furthermore, the data identify primary-care-based learning as offering missed opportunities where low-level concerns could be picked up. Key areas identified within the data for further work include how to quality assure that processes are equitable and how to bring more consistency to what sanctions are common and how these are decided up on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality Improvement skills are deemed essential for future clinical practice of doctors by professional regulatory bodies. This paper presents the challenges of a curriculum development initiative to ensure that all medical students have involvement with a quality improvement project during a general practice placement in their fourth year. The curriculum development is described within a 'Plan-Do-Study-Act' framework. The learning is presented as a reflective discussion with conclusions and recommendations on how potential current barriers to implementing authentic participation in quality improvement projects for undergraduate medical students might be met. The key barriers include lack of opportunities within the curriculum structure to allow sufficient time for authentic quality improvement projects and a lack of confidence amongst placement tutors to support medical students with quality improvement projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the self-reported factors that influence the academic performance of ethnic minority (EM) medical students. It states that EM students were likely to have diminished sense of belonging to the medical school student community than Caucasian students. It mentions that EM students feel they have been treated differently due to skin color.

The article discusses the development of case-based learning (CBL) for assessment of medical ethics and law (MEL) into the Student Selected Component (SSC) programme within the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) course in Great Britain. It mentions the goal of the CBL to address the poor integration of MEL with other parts of the curriculum as a key weakness within medical schools' curricula. It also notes the key lessons to improve the implementation of the approach.

Background: A core competency during undergraduate medical training is the development of reflective learning. The current literature is limited to demonstrating how reflective learning has been implemented or the approaches to its development. There is a lack of insight into students' perceptions of reflection and the factors that support development of reflective practice. Bridging this gap may provide insight into how reflective learning within the curriculum can be better developed to increase engagement from learners. Methods: Eight focus group interviews with second year students from four UK medical schools were held. Results were thematically analysed. Key findings: Students have a high level of understanding of the purpose of reflection in practice but they perceive that there is a tension between public and private reflections. Assessment of the reflective process was perceived to be useful for developing reflective skills but grading of their reflective writing was not considered to be useful. Staff who champion the development of reflective skills and mentor students were perceived to play key roles in aiding the development of reflective skills. Appropriate experiences were seen to be a key part of developing reflective skills. Conclusion: These findings highlight potential ways to revise and improve engagement with the reflective learning components of undergraduate courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN IN THIS AREA Action research has been successfully employed in many areas of education and healthcare research, usually on small-scale projects. Iterative, spiral cycles of research facilitate continuous quality improvement. WHAT THIS WORK ADDS. A case study is described whereby modified action research (AR) methods were used to develop an undergraduate medical curriculum in cultural studies. A key finding was that the full participant involvement of 'pure' action research would have benefited the research. SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH The application of AR methodology to medical education needs to be further explored, especially with reference to the potential for systematic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Belongingness is a key factor that influences learner development and wellbeing, but no previous research has been performed to evaluate perceived belongingness in medical students whilst on their placements. Method: The Belongingness Scale-Clinical Placement Experience (BES-CPE) for nursing students was adapted for use with medical students. Following a face validity assessment, 490 undergraduate medical students in years three to five at a UK university were invited to participate and 302 completed the adapted questionnaire. The factor structure was explored using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Results: A three-component structure was identified (Esteem, Connectedness, and Efficacy), which was aligned to the original theoretical model underpinning the scale, and the instrument had high internal consistency. Four items were discarded and the final adapted version had a total of 30. Conclusions: The adapted BES-CPE instrument for medical students in our sample of UK undergraduate medical students had an appropriate factor structure and high internal consistency. This context-specific instrument can be used for future research as a valid instrument to measure the role of belongingness in medical education and to support developing belongingness in medical students during clinical placements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The UK Department of Health is considering a single, generic multi-source feedback (MSF) questionnaire to inform revalidation. Method: Evaluation of an implementation pilot, reporting: response rates, assessor mix, question redundancy and participants'' perceptions. Reliability was estimated using Generalisability theory. Results: A total of 12,540 responses were received on 977 doctors. The mean time taken to complete an MSF exercise was 68.2 days. The mean number of responses received per doctor was 12.0 (range 1--17) with no significant difference between specialties. Individual question response rates and participants'' comments about questions indicate that some questions are less appropriate for some specialities. There was a significant difference in the mean score between specialities. Despite guidance, there were significant differences in the mix of assessors across specialties. More favourable scores were given by progressively more junior doctors. Nurses gave the most reliable scores. Conclusions: It is feasible to electronically administer a generic questionnaire to a large population of doctors. Generic content is appropriate for most but not all specialties. The differences in mean scores and the reliability of the MSF between specialties may be in part due to the specialty differences in assessor mix. Therefore the number and assessor mix should be standardised at specialty level and scores should not be compared across specialties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Professional self-identity is a ‘state of mind’ – identifying one's-self as a member of a professional group. Delayed professional self-identity is a barrier to successful transition from student to professional. Current trends in medical education limit student doctors’ legitimate peripheral participation and may retard their developing professional self-identity compared with other health and social care students. Aims: Develop a tool to monitor the development of professional self-identity to operate across the different health and social care professions and evaluate the tool with student doctors before wider data collection. Method: Content analysis of relevant curricula, mapped to professional standards documents, defined initial content. Field tests across 10 professional groups refined questionnaire items. A cross-sectional study on 496 student doctors evaluated validity on the basis of internal structure and relationships with external variables. Results: The 9-item questionnaire indicates a three-factor structure reflecting ‘interpersonal tasks’, ‘generic attributes’ and ‘profession-specific elements’. Students with greater previous experience of health or social care roles, and students with a more positive attitude to qualification had significantly more advanced scores than their peers. Scores advanced through the curriculum showing step changes after the start of clinical attachments. Conclusions: The data provides sufficient evidence of validity with student doctors to justify wider data collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]