Enhancing medical students’ reflectivity in mentoring groups for professional development – a qualitative analysis

BMC Medical Education

Research Article

Hadass Goldblatt¹  Gabriele Lutz²  Michaela Zupanic³  Marzellus Hofmann³  Nina Pankoke⁴ 

[1] Department of Nursing, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel;Integrated Curriculum for Anthroposophic Medicine (ICURAM), Chair for Medical Theory, Integrative and Anthroposophic Medicine, Department for Health, Faculty of Medicine, Witten / Herdecke University, Gerhard Kienle Weg 4, 58313, Herdecke, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany;Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Herdecke, Herdecke, Germany;Office for Student Affairs, Department for Health, Faculty of Medicine, Witten / Herdecke University, Witten, Germany;Witten / Herdecke University, Witten, Germany;

关键词: Communication, Medical education;    Reflective practice;    Mentoring;    Curriculum development;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12909-017-0951-y

 received in 2017-02-10, accepted in 2017-06-26,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundProfessional competence is important in delivering high quality patient care, and it can be enhanced by reflection and reflective discourse e.g. in mentoring groups. However, students are often reluctant though to engage in this discourse. A group mentoring program involving all preclinical students as well as faculty members and co-mentoring clinical students was initiated at Witten-Herdecke University. This study explores both the attitudes of those students towards such a program and factors that might hinder or enhance how students engage in reflective discourse.MethodsA qualitative design was applied using semi-structured focus group interviews with preclinical students and semi-structured individual interviews with mentors and co-mentors. The interview data were analyzed using thematic content analysis.ResultsStudents’ attitudes towards reflective discourse on professional challenges were diverse. Some students valued the new program and named positive outcomes regarding several features of professional development. Enriching experiences were described. Others expressed aversive attitudes. Three reasons for these were given: unclear goals and benefits, interpersonal problems within the groups hindering development and intrapersonal issues such as insecurity and traditional views of medical education. Participants mentioned several program setup factors that could enhance how students engage in such groups: explaining the program thoroughly, setting expectations and integrating the reflective discourse in a meaningful way into the curriculum, obliging participation without coercion, developing a sense of security, trust and interest in each other within the groups, randomizing group composition and facilitating group moderators as positive peer and faculty role models and as learning group members.ConclusionsA well-designed and empathetic setup of group mentoring programs can help raise openness towards engaging in meaningful reflective discourse. Reflection on and communication of professional challenges can, in turn, improve professional development, which is essential for high quality patient care.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017