Bergh, A-M., Bac, M., Hugo, J. et al. (1 more author) (2016) “Making a difference” – Medical students’ opportunities for transformational change in health care and learning through quality improvement projects. BMC Medical Education, 16 (171). ISSN 1472-6920
Abstract
Background Quality improvement is increasingly becoming an essential aspect of the medical curriculum, with the intention of improving the health care system to provide better health care. The aim of this study was to explore undergraduate medical students’ experiences of their involvement in quality improvement projects during a district health rotation. Methods Student group reports from rotations in learning centres of the University of Pretoria in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa were analysed for the period 2012 to 2015. Interviews were conducted with health care providers at four learning centres in 2013. Results Three main themes were identified: (1) ‘Situated learning’, describing students’ exposure to the discrepancies between ideal and reality in a real-life situation and how they learned to deal with complex situations, individually and as student group; (2) ‘Facing dilemmas’, describing how students were challenged about the non-ideal reality; (3) ‘Making a difference’, describing the impact of the students’ projects, with greater understanding of themselves and others through working in teams but also making a change in the health care system. Conclusion Quality improvement projects can provide an opportunity for both the transformation of health care and for transformative learning, with individual and ‘collective’ self-authorship.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 The Author(s). Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
Keywords: | Quality improvement; Transformative learning; District health rotation; Medical education; Self-authorship |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 03 Oct 2016 14:21 |
Last Modified: | 03 Oct 2016 14:21 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12909-016-0694-1 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BioMed Central |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1186/s12909-016-0694-1 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:105413 |