How valuable are online tutor-led small group teaching of prescribing knowledge and skills, and interpreting investigation results for geographically dispersed final year medical students on a primary care clinical attachment?

Problem

General practitioners (GP) spend considerable time prescribing medicines and interpreting laboratory investigations; these crucial parts of primary care are often invisible to students. Our literature review confirmed this and highlighted a deficit of undergraduate teaching in these areas in primary care. We devised teaching sessions to develop these skills in prescribing and interpretation of clinical results during a final year primary care placement.

Approach

We constructed two online primary care case-based teaching tutorials relating to prescribing and investigation of disease for final year medical students. Scenarios were aligned to United Kingdom curricular and assessment standards with a robust peer-review process for content and standard. Case-based discussions, single-best answer questions and short answer questions were offered, with resources on the virtual learning platform. Teaching was delivered by faculty GP tutors to small groups. Sessions were evaluated using a mixed methods approach in the form of a written digital feedback survey with Likert scales and free text.

Findings

43 (17%) of 253 student attendees responded to the survey, with 86% of respondents pre-preparing for the session. 65% and 63% of respondents respectively rated the investigation and prescribing tutorials to be of high or very high value in preparing for Foundation practice. 72% and 78% of respondents, for investigation and prescribing tutorials respectively, rated the sessional content to be of sufficient or high academic challenge, and over 90% of respondents thought both tutorials should be continued. 62% of respondents appreciated teaching by the University whilst on remote clinical placement.

Consequences

This new online teaching delivers enhanced student knowledge, skills, and preparation for postgraduate practice and is highly valued by students. Learner challenge, prospectively mapped to UK graduation standards, was judged to be appropriate. The online tutorial format with Virtual Learning Environment material facilitates sustainable reproduction without detracting from clinical placement time.  Student interaction with the institution during remote placement is an added benefit, helping to promote student-institution association.