The positive impact of students in general practice clerkships in rural Germany: diverging views of students, general practitioners, and practice assistants in a prospective survey.

BACKGROUND

Recruiting and retention of teaching practices is challenging. Although GP teaching physicians are predominantly intrinsically motivated, the time required for teaching is often cited as a barrier. Practice teams could benefit, if the students' learning in practice is optimized in such a way that there is also a noticeable positive impact in daily work. To inform this, we explored students', general practitioners' (GPs) and practice assistants' (PAs) views on the positive impact that students could have during a general practice clerkship (GPC). We asked participants and teaching practices of the "Excellent Summer", a GPC project in rural Bavaria.

METHODS

Based on a qualitative survey, we developed a questionnaire with 12 items rating the potential benefits of students in practice. Students, GPs and PAs gave their subjective assessment of the benefits on a 4-point Likert scale. The students completed the questionnaire before and after their clinical traineeship. The assessments of the three groups were compared using variance analysis, the pre-post assessment among students using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

RESULTS

44 students, 59 GPs and 29 PAs (100% response rate) responded. Initially, the students rated their support in routine tasks and their influence on cultural attitudes higher than GPS and PAs. GPs and PAs rated students´contribution through up-to-date knowledge and the stimulation of self-reflection higher than students themselves. They similarly saw enjoyment with teaching and sharing experiences as bigger than students. MFAs perceived the influence of students in a similar way to the GPs, but saw the benefit of students for patient care more positively. During the clinical traineeship, the students' assessment approached that of the practice team in some aspects.

CONCLUSIONS

Differing expectations can be addressed with customized preparation and instructions for students and practice teams and optimize benefits of students´ activities. Positive impact of students´ clerkships can facilitate recruiting and retainment of teaching practices.