Medical Student Learning Experience With Attending or Resident Preceptors in the Emergency Department

Objectives The emergency department (ED) provides a unique learning environment for medical students. However, environment, patient, and preceptor factors limit standardized teaching. We explored the most effective educational interactions for fourth-year medical students during an emergency medicine (EM) clerkship designed to allow clinical interaction with both residents and faculty. Methods This is an exploratory, prospective, needs assessment study of objective cards and surveys submitted by medical students as part of their month-long fourth-year clinical rotation at a tertiary care academic ED. Students marked which topics or procedures they had reviewed, and who had precepted them. In an exit survey, students were asked to rate how often they received individualized teaching and whether their educational goals were met when working with residents and attendings. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected anonymously with institutional review board (IRB) exemption. Results Shift card data was collected from 69 of the rotating students. Attendings tended to precept visual diagnostics while residents tended to teach technical procedures. Forty-four students completed the exit survey. Results showed that students felt they received individualized teaching from both attendings and residents (7.9 and 8.0 respectively, p = 0.059). Students felt their goals were met more when reporting to the residents than the attendings but not significantly so (8.6 and 8.0, respectively, p = 0.088). Additional themes were that students wanted more individualized experiences with the attendings and requested more dedicated teaching shifts. Conclusions Fourth-year medical students in the ED felt they received individualized teaching on most shifts. They reported their education goals were met as often when working with residents as with attendings; however, interactions feature different educational content. Clerkship curricula design would benefit from resident and attending-directed teaching experiences to optimize the educational experience in the ED.