Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
More is better: students describe successful and unsuccessful experiences with teachers differently in brief and longitudinal relationships.
Clerkship experiences that structure student-teacher continuity may promote learning differently than brief student-teacher relationships. The authors compared students' successful and unsuccessful teaching experiences in brief and longitudinal relationships. ⋯ Clerkship students in brief relationships learn to adapt to teachers' preferences and questioning to facilitate their participation and knowledge acquisition; longitudinal students experience collaborative interactions focused on their development as care providers. In longitudinal relationships, students gain confidence to influence their own learning and modify circumstances to meet their learning needs. These findings suggest that medical students' clinical experiences may be enhanced by deliberately structuring longitudinal attachments to supervisors.