International Journal of Collaborative Research on Internal Medicine & Public Health

Teaching Fellows in undergraduate medical education -the student’s perspective

Background: Currently there is a lack of data exploring the value added by Clinical Teaching Fellow posts over teaching led by regular working clinicians.

Aim: To explore the perceptions of medical students regarding the value attached to having fulltime Teaching Fellows to deliver undergraduate medical education.

Method: A total of 521 clinical year medical students from the University of Leicester were asked to complete an online questionnaire.

Result: 375 medical students responded to the questionnaire (72%). Forty five percent of students felt that full time clinicians did not have adequate time to teach, as opposed to 22% that felt otherwise, this result was statically significant (p value <0.0001). There was a demand amongst medical students to have doctors, with a clinical background, employed to teach, particularly because Teaching Fellows were more reliable in delivering high quality teaching (82%)(p value <0.0001). However, only a minority (21%) felt that formal teaching qualifications were required to deliver the best teaching. There was a mixed opinion regarding the cost-effectiveness of such full time posts.

Conclusion: This study highlights the need for Clinical Teaching Fellows as perceived by medical students. However, issues such as financially sustaining these roles on a large scale nationally and the need for formal qualifications in teaching to deliver effective medical education need to be analyzed further

Author(s):

Hashim Z, Miller A., Fahim N., Sam M

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