Preparing medical students for their educational task as physicians: important, desirable and unexplored territory

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Bas P.H. ter Brugge - (Author)
  • Lena Sophia Fegg - , Technical University of Munich (Author)
  • Marjo Wijnen-Meijer - , Institute of Medical Education, Technical University of Munich (Author)

Abstract

Background: Physicians engage in educational activities in daily practice and take over an important role in providing information and transferring knowledge to patients and medical students. Therefore, it is important to focus on methods to develop teaching skills during medical school. Peer-teaching is a teaching method that is connected to different positive learning outcomes. This study aims to investigate the perspective of medical students regarding teaching as a core competency of physicians and peer-teaching as an opportunity to acquire educational skills. The study also aims to examine to what extent medical students are prepared for their teaching role at medical schools. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed by an online survey amongst Dutch medical students from all medical schools across all years of study. In total, 2666 medical students filled out the survey. The survey was part of the annual online survey of the Dutch medical advocacy group (DeGeneeskundestudent) amongst all medical students in the fall of 2017. The data were analysed with descriptive statistics and statistical tests (chi-squared-test and binomial test). Results: The results show that 49% of medical students see teaching as one of the core tasks of a physician. However, only 25% feel well prepared by their medical school for this teaching role. Instead, there are many students who gain experiences and teaching skills on their own outside medical schools. 64% of the respondents agrees that senior medical students can educate junior medical students well. Conclusions: Implementing peer-teaching in the curricular of medical schools could be an effective teaching method to prepare medical students for their future teaching role. It is important that medical schools focus on enhancing educational quality and designing learning environments for best learning outcomes to better prepare medical students for professional life.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number391
JournalBMC medical education
Volume24
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 38594694

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Keywords

  • Competencies, Education, Educational skills, Learning, Medical students, Peer-teaching, Physicians, Teaching