Secondary care clinical supervisors’ views on the tensions between education and service delivery in medical student clinical placements

Purpose Increased external scrutiny on medical education has led to a need to ensure that clinical placements are delivering high quality education in an increasingly high pressure environment. Clinical supervisors provide the oversight of education delivered to undergraduate medical students in the clinical environment yet their views are seldom sought. This piece of work seeks to explore their views on the tension between delivery of education and patient care to support the development of placement based education.

Materials and Methods This study utilised interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The study involved interviews with nine clinical supervisors in medical specialities with a mix of age and gender.

Results Conflicts between need of care provision and student education were highlighted and potential solutions including the students themselves were explored with variable views on potential and any possible benefit. Supervisors perceived a need for closer dialogue between the Medical School and the Hospital Trusts themselves.

Conclusion Supervisors have developed pedagogical methodologies in line with current best practice developed, through necessity, in a high pressure clinical environment. More needs to be done to maintain quality in an increasingly pressurised care environment.