Learning from clinical supervision – a qualitative study of undergraduate medical students’ experiences

INTRODUCTION: Clinical supervision is necessary to ensure students’ learning and patient safety. There is limited research on how medical students’ actions play into the dynamic of learning from clinical supervision. We aimed to explore undergraduate medical students’ experiences with learning from clinical supervision, focusing on students’ actions and interactions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with medical students at two English and four Norwegian universities. The main topics were students’ experiences with clinical supervision, what students’ felt helped them learn, and how they acted. Transcribed interviews were analysed thematically. RESULTS: 22 students participated. The actions participants described performing during supervision ranged from staying quiet to initiating active participation. They described that learning was more likely to take place when they took initiative, acted on opportunities to participate, and focused their attention on learning. When they did not feel safe, they were more likely to stay quietly in the background. When participants felt concerned for patients’ welfare their attention shifted away from learning. While if they were appropriately confident, they engaged in learning. CONCLUSION: Feelings of safety, patients’ being cared for, and confidence impacted on students’ actions and thus learning. Our findings suggest that when students feel psychologically safe, they are more likely to act and interact during clinical supervision. One way to improve psychological safety is to foster relationships between students and supervisors.