The Elephant in the room: Does giving students the opportunity to share their personal experience of an emotive clinical topic have an impact on the subsequent teaching session.

Conference: 
Talk Code: 
A2.7
Presenter: 
Lily Lamb
Twitter: 
Co-authors: 
Newcastle University

The problem:

I have been a teacher of MBBS students from Newcastle University for 6 years. I have noticed that in teaching sessions where a more challenging topic is being discussed, such as cancer, neurological conditions or mental health, it sometimes feels as though there is an ‘elephant in the room’, a problem that everyone knows about but does not mention as it is easier not to discuss. (Hornby, 2010) Some students seem to disengage, some look visibly emotional, some use dark humour, I feel uncomfortable and the process does not feel holistic or learner centred.

 

The approach:

I undertook a practitioner inquiry to assess an intervention to encourage sharing of personal illness experience. With ethical approval from Newcastle University I asked four third year students to share their own personal experiences of cancer with the group, prior to a teaching session with those students on cancer and palliative care. I then ran a focus group with the students to discuss the impact of the intervention. An independent observer completed a reflective account of the session, and I kept my own reflective log.

 

The learning:

Thematic analysis of the transcripts from the focus group identified several themes including the value of learning from discussing personal experience and lack of previous opportunities to do so, and of the importance of personal illness experience in development of the professional. The observer and teacher logs reflected the enthusiasm and high level of engagement from students during the teaching session following the intervention.

 

Why it matters:

A practitioner inquiry provides clarity on what can be done in complex situations (Baumfield et al., 2012). This simple intervention was positively received, increased student engagement and aligns with principles of Humanist learning theory (Rogers and Freiberg, 1994), (Kolb, 2015). I hope the others involved in primary care medical education research particularly in the area of professional development would be interested in this project.

 

Presenting author: Dr Lily Lamb, Newcastle University, lily.lamb@newcastle.ac.uk, @drlilylamb

 

BAUMFIELD, V. M., HALL, E. & WALL, K. 2012. Action Research in Education : Learning Through Practitioner Enquiry, London, United Kingdom, SAGE Publications.

HORNBY, A. S. 2010. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Oxford, United Kingdom, Oxford University Press.

KOLB, D. A. 2015. Experiential learning : experience as the source of learning and development, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, Pearson Education Ltd.

ROGERS, C. R. & FREIBERG, H. J. 1994. Freedom to learn, New York, Merrill.