Education Commons^™

Simulated Patients’ Perspectives Of And Perceived Role In Medical Students’ Professional Identity Development, Michelle Mclean, Patricia Johnson, Sally Sargeant, Patricia Green

Sally Sargeant

Introduction: Much has been written about medical students’ professional identity formation, the process of “becoming” a doctor. During their training, medical students interact with a range of teachers and trainers. Among these are simulated patients (SPs) who role-play patients, assisting students with their communication, procedural, and physical examination skills. With SPs regularly interacting with students, this qualitative study explored their views of students’ emerging professional identities at one Australian medical school. SPs’ contributions to developing professional identities were also explored.

Methods: Fourteen SPs were interviewed individually or in pairs. After template analysis of the transcripts using a priori themes, a …

‘I Don't Get It’: A Critical Reflection On Conceptual And Practical Challenges In Teaching Qualitative Methods, Sally Sargeant

Sally Sargeant

This article is a reflective piece that concentrates on facilitating student learning styles and reflexivity when teaching qualitative methods. It elaborates specifically on the challenges of deep and surface learning, and managing these differences in conjunction with the practical challenges posed by qualitative research. The introduction of reflexivity to undergraduate students and how this can be conveyed effectively is also discussed in connection with learning how to execute qualitative work. The teaching context was a section on qualitative methods that formed part of a larger research methods module. Student feedback indicates that time constraints and group-work affect the learning process. …