Field Trips as a Novel Means of Experiential Learning in Ambulatory Pediatrics

Abstract

Background Parents and caregivers look to pediatric health care providers for guidance on feeding, safety issues, and child-care products for children, but trainees have infrequent first-hand exposure to child products marketed to parents. Objective To conduct a pilot study to assess an experiential field trip as a novel method of enhancing medical knowledge in ambulatory pediatric feeding and safety. Methods Resident physicians and medical students visited a local children's store, where they took part in an interactive store tour, product discussions, and product demonstrations led by a physician educator. Participants also completed a 20-question pretest and a 20-question posttest related to common ambulatory pediatric feeding and safety issues, based on recent American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) policy statements and practice guidelines. Results Sixty-seven medical students and resident physicians participated in the study. Overall, participants' short-term knowledge significantly increased from 9.9 ± 2.6 to 15.4 ± 2.2 questions correct (P = .001), with statistically significant gains (P < .001) on both the feeding and safety sections of the test. There were no differences in improvement based on participant's student or resident status, residency program type, program year, sex, or parental status. Ninety-five percent of the participants believed that their knowledge was enhanced by this approach, and participants uniformly agreed that this field trip was valuable to their pediatric training and that such field trip sessions should continue. Conclusions The inclusion of experiential learning through an interactive field trip in the curriculum of medical training was acceptable and feasible and showed short-term improvements in knowledge of AAP safety and feeding concepts.

Developing a broad perspective of future work and career in medical students through field trips to a disaster area: a qualitative study

“…The ambiguity of medical students’ specific roles in FT compared to fieldwork may have encouraged them to make sense of the experience from their perspective; in other words, the medical educational effects of fieldwork in disaster areas indicated by past studies, such as psychological growth [ 2 , 6 ], professionalism and increased social responsibility [ 1 , 4 ], may be determined by the presence of specific roles. Our findings on what the medical student gains from FTDA were novel and different from those of FT in general shown by previous studies, such as promoting understanding of the social determinants of health and refining professional knowledge [ 3 , 7 , 8 ].…”

Experiential Learning in Community Oral Health Promotion: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Experiential Aspects

“…The advantages of experiential learning have been reported as facilitating the smooth transition from traditional class room to workplace challenges (Borycki, Frisch, Kushniruk, McIntyre, & Hutchinson, 2012), promoting long-term knowledge retention (Friedland, Rintel-Queller, Unnikrishnan, & Paul, 2012) and skills acquisition (Dacey, Kennedy, Polak, & Phillips, 2014), aiding in critical thinking, and helping students place themselves meaningfully in a large real world (Nnawulezi et al, 2013). A number of experiential learning initiatives have been reported in the dental education research literature.…”

Evaluating the Experience of a Postgraduate and Faculty Study Tour Program in the Field of Mental Health: A Mixed-methods Study

“…Poonruksa 18 found that third-year Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing students who went on a field trip could prepare well for it when given a free hand: their knowledge improved, and they also learnt teamwork and practiced self-directed learning; the gains reflect some similarities with our study. Friedland et al 19 analyzed the reactions of a field trip training in ambulatory pediatric “feeding” and “safety.” They found that short-term knowledge gains were significant; the participants wanted to continue to have the opportunity for this learning method. Hence, good planning, pre-tour briefing, and good communications are essential to any study tour’s success.…”