The One Minute Learner: Evaluation of a New Tool to Promote Discussion of Medical Student Goals and Expectations in Clinical Learning Environments
Miriam Hoffman, MD; Molly Cohen-Osher, MD
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The transition from pre-clerkship to clerkship curriculum in medical school presents many challenges to students. Student roles and supervising physicians’ expectations vary widely. Efforts to ease this transition have included third-year orientations, skills sessions, field-specific training, and peer-to-peer communication/support. We developed a new tool, called The One Minute Learner (OML), to promote and structure discussion of student goals and expectations and empower student ownership of learning. The OML can be used quickly and easily by students and faculty to facilitate integration of medical students into the clinical setting. This paper describes the OML and reports evaluation of its effectiveness through student evaluations. |
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METHODS: We compared student responses to two end-of-clerkship questions for the academic year before the OML was implemented to the first year of implementation. Students rated their orientation to their roles and responsibility and rated the communication of what was expected of them. |
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RESULTS: The percentage of students rating these highly increased dramatically: for “I was oriented to my responsibilities and role,” the percentage rating it highly (4–5 on a 5-point Likert scale) increased from 47% to 82%. For “Expectations of my role were communicated to me clearly” the percentage rating it highly increased from 66% to 89%. |
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CONCLUSIONS: The OML is a new tool that can promote and structure a proactive discussion between student and teacher about goals and expectations, leading to better integration of students into the variety of clinical setting in which they rotate. |
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(Fam Med 2016;48(3):222-5.) |
The transition to the clinical setting from the traditionally classroom-focused pre-clerkship curriculum can be difficult for medical students.1-4 Students rotate through many clinical settings; they must quickly adjust, learning their roles and what is expected of them. This can be challenging for many students3 and can cause cognitive overload, which can negatively impact their ability to focus on clinical learning.5 Prior efforts to address this include clinical-immersion courses, third-year and clerkship-specific orientations,5-7 as well as clinical skills and field-specific training.6,7 Students also use peer-to-peer communication, telling their peers about expectations, roles, the clinical environment, communication, feedback, and strategies for success.4,8,9
This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a new tool, the One Minute Learner (OML),10 that can facilitate the transition of learners into the clinical setting by promoting and structuring a proactive discussion between students and teachers about goals and expectations. It can be used in any clinical setting or specialty and with any level of learner. In contrast to prior efforts to help students integrate into the clinical setting, the OML is a discipline-neutral tool that empowers students to proactively promote these discussions with their supervisors in any clinical setting.
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