Twelve tips for surgeons to maximise medical student learning in the operating theatre.

Theatre-based learning is an essential component of undergraduate surgical education and offers a wide range of learning opportunities. However, studies have demonstrated that medical students have not always benefited from this holistic learning environment due to many reasons, including intimidation, hierarchies within the surgical environment and fear of making mistakes. The lead surgical educator's approach is an important influence on the experience and learning of their medical students. These twelve tips are aimed at surgical educators with undergraduate teaching responsibilities. This guidance is based upon evidence from literature and established theories of teaching and learning, supplemented by qualitative interviews with surgeons and medical students. The resulting tips were checked and refined by surgical teaching fellows. These learner-centred tips provide guidance on thorough induction, managing mutual expectations and approaches that optimise teaching and learning in the operating theatre. They are designed to support surgical educators in improving their students' engagement and learning experiences in this setting.

An online discussion between students and teachers: a way forward for meaningful teacher feedback?

BACKGROUND: Student evaluation is an essential component in feedback processes in faculty and learner development. Ease of use and low cost have made paper evaluation forms a popular method within teaching programmes, but they are often seen as a formality, offering variable value towards the improvement of teaching. Students report poor motivation to engage with existing feedback tools whilst teachers describe receiving vague, contradicting, or irrelevant information. We believe that feedback for teachers needs to be a two-way process, similar to feedback for students, for it to be effective. An online feedback tool has been implemented for third-year medical students from Imperial College London to promote open discussion between teachers and students. The feedback tool is accessible throughout students' clinical attachment with the option of maintaining anonymity. We aim to explore the benefits and challenges of this online feedback tool and assess its value as a method for teacher feedback. METHODS: Qualitative data was obtained from both volunteer third-year medical students of Imperial College London and Clinical Teaching Fellows using three focus groups and a questionnaire. Data was analysed through iterative coding and thematic analysis to provide over-arching analytical themes. RESULTS: Twenty-nine students trialled this feedback tool with 17 responding to the evaluative questionnaire. Four over-arching themes were identified: reasons for poor participation with traditional feedback tools; student motivators to engage with 'open feedback'; evaluative benefits from open feedback; concerns and barriers with open feedback. CONCLUSION: This feedback tool provides a platform for two-way feedback by encouraging open, transparent discussion between teachers and learners. It gives a unique insight into both teachers and peers' perspectives. Students engage better when their responses are acknowledged by the teachers. We elaborate on the benefits and challenges of public open feedback and approaches to consider in addressing the self-censorship of critical comments.

COVID-19: experience and development of simulation for training in a London District General Hospital.

The world is facing an unprecedented crisis in the form of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Clinicians and their working environments are under considerable pressures that have not previously been encountered. Consequently, clinicians have had to change their practice significantly to enable safe care for their patients, whilst ensuring their own safety. The majority of COVID-19 simulation to date has been either virtual or in-situ, with the aim of training specific departments. With this in mind, as the Hillingdon Hospital Education Team, we developed a simulation that would provide generic training on COVID-19 for staff across our Trust in various departments and roles. Our aim was to teach staff how to manage patients whilst protecting themselves during this pandemic.

Holistic feedback approach with video and peer discussion under teacher supervision.

BACKGROUND: High quality feedback is vital to learning in medical education but many students and teachers have expressed dissatisfaction on current feedback practices. Lack of teachers' insight into students' feedback requirements may be a key, which might be addressed by giving control to the students with student led feedback practices. The conceptual framework was built on three dimensions of learning theory by Illeris and Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and scaffolding. We introduced a feedback session with self-reflection and peer feedback in the form of open discussion on video-recorded student performances under teacher's guidance. The aims of this qualitative study were to explore students' perception on this holistic feedback approach and to investigate ways of maximising effective feedback and learning. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data which were evaluated using a thematic analytical approach. The participants were third year medical students of Imperial College London on clinical placements at Hillingdon Hospital. RESULTS: Video based self-reflection helped some students to identify mistakes in communication and technical skills of which they were unaware prior to the session. Those who were new to video feedback found their expected self-image different to that of their actual image on video, leading to some distress. However many also identified that mistakes were not unique to themselves through peer videos and learnt from both model performances and from each other's mistakes. Balancing honest feedback with empathy was a challenge for many during peer discussion. The teacher played a vital role in making the session a success by providing guidance and a supportive environment. CONCLUSIONS: This study has demonstrated many potential benefits of this holistic feedback approach with video based self-reflection and peer discussion with students engaging at a deeper cognitive level than the standard descriptive feedback.