Learning opportunities in the clinical setting (LOCS) for medical students: A novel approach

Introduction: Graduate-entry medical programmes (GEP) have been introduced into many UK universities. Their shortened 4-year programme may restrict exposure to the clinical environment. The GEP at Swansea University has introduced Learning Opportunities in the Clinical Setting (LOCS), a novel approa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMedical teacher Vol. 33; no. 4; pp. e193 - e198
Main Authors Noor, Saqib, Batra, Sunil, Byrne, Aidan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Informa UK, Ltd 01.04.2011
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Clinical experience
College students
Educational Opportunities
Feedback
Health education
Humans
Learning
Medical schools
Medical students
Personal development
Preceptorship - trends
Students, Medical - psychology
Teaching Experience
Teaching Methods
Undergraduate students
United Kingdom
Universities
United Kingdom > UK
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Summary:Introduction: Graduate-entry medical programmes (GEP) have been introduced into many UK universities. Their shortened 4-year programme may restrict exposure to the clinical environment. The GEP at Swansea University has introduced Learning Opportunities in the Clinical Setting (LOCS), a novel approach, allowing students to choose half day sessions from a list which aimed at bringing experiential clinical learning to first and second year students on the course. Methods: During the academic years 2007-2008 and 2008-2009, student feedback was collected anonymously online with the options 'very useful', 'useful' or 'not useful' followed by a free text box space to feedback their experience. The text was assessed using qualitative analysis methodology. Results: A total of 730 LOCS feedback comments were analysed, 422 were recorded as 'very useful' (58%), 276 were 'useful' (38%) and 32 'not useful' (4%). Students' feedback were divided into positive (1330) and negative (152) comments. Positive themes were broadly divided into four categories: Positive Teacher experience, Positive Clinical experience, Relevance to the course and significant Personal Development. Conclusion: The LOCS system provides an efficient method of providing students with a choice of additional learning opportunities which has proved popular and, in the opinion of students, educationally effective.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
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ISSN:0142-159X
1466-187X
DOI:10.3109/0142159X.2011.557413