Learning Through Experiences: Medical Students’ Reflection on a Brief Community Hospital Placement
Abstract
Background and objective: Learning and teaching of Community Medicine 3, subject for the 4th year medical students, had never been systematically assessed to reflect students’ learning. Thus, an overview evaluation is needed. This study aimed to assess students’ views about learning contents and learning experiences after one-week training program in community hospital context.
Method: A qualitative research was conducted by using the students’ written reflection regarding with learning experiences of one-week training in a community hospital. In addition, focus group discussion was done to evaluate their views on learning objectives. Data collection was performed in 2014.
Result: There were 50 written reflections of the 4th year medical students in 214. We found that medical students had learned most in 4 content areas including hospital administration and referral system, health promotion, disease prevention and health education, roles of physician in primary care, and adaptation to work in the community hospital. Unexpectedly, students said that they had not learned and practiced about the basic clinical skills and procedures.
Conclusion: The assessment of medical students’ learning experiences of one-week training program in community hospitals by using written reflection and focus group discussion indicated that students had learned mostly about doctors’ roles and primary care service but not much about clinical skills.
