Recommendations for undergraduate medical electives: a UK consensus statement

Abstract

Introduction Many doctors, across grades and specialities, supervise or advise students and juniors undertaking elective placements. Electives form part of medical curricula on a worldwide scale. The Medical Schools Council (MSC) Electives Committee in the UK identified a gap in the current literature in relation to provision of comprehensive recommendations for the design and management of undergraduate elective programmes. Electives afford many known benefits for medical and other health care students, but the context, and risks (impacting potentially on patient, public and student well‐being) are usually different from those associated with ‘home’ clinical placements. Aim The aim is to share experiences and good practice within UK Medical Schools, and inform and inspire others involved with similar programmes across the globe. Method This paper reports the results of the formation of a sub‐group to draft a set of recommendations, drawing on the reported experiences of academic elective leads across all UK schools, and including input from the MSC, and the student group Medsin (to capture the learner voice). The final document was the result of a national consultative process of four iterations. The end document was approved at school level, e.g. by curriculum committee, by each of the participating schools. Recommendations The recommendations consolidate the experiences of 30 participating UK medical schools. The consultation process generated 17 pre‐departure recommendations, seven during elective recommendations, 11 post elective recommendations and a further four recommendations relating to infectious disease. Conclusion We believe developing elective programmes using collective recommendations will provide a basis for a safer and more structured approach to a medical elective without losing the uniqueness and creative experiences valued by participants. Issues relating to undergraduates leaving their home school to experience medicine in a new context or country replicate across sites, so many recommendations will be transferable internationally.

The global variation of medical student engagement in teaching: Implications for medical electives

“…The General Medical Council (GMC) of the UK recognises this and requires the graduating medical student to be a "teacher for other learners in the multi-professional team" [1]. In high-income countries (HICs), medical students are often involved in the provision of teaching and with the increasing popularity of overseas medical electives, there are anecdotal reports of visiting students being asked to provide teaching while on their elective [2][3][4]. Whether such practice is ethical remains up for debate [5].…”

“…To help address this, we conducted an international survey of medical students to address three key questions relating to their overall experience of teaching (1) Do medical students teach? (2) What is the pattern of medical student teaching? (3) Do medical students receive educator training?…”

Host physician perspectives to improve pre-departure training for global health electives

“…In this issue, Wiskin et al . provide a UK Consensus Statement on recommendations for programmes sending undergraduates to participate in global health medical electives in low‐resource settings.…”

“…provide a UK Consensus Statement on recommendations for programmes sending undergraduates to participate in global health medical electives in low‐resource settings. In the guidelines, the authors request that programmes and students should consider ‘the extent to which their presence is a resource burden or asset to their hosts’ during pre‐departure training …”

“…These issues largely stem from a lack of communication between institutions, host physicians and students. Although the UK Consensus Statement provides an excellent framework for improving the experiences of all stakeholders, it is notable that the guidelines were created by universities and their students alone . Programme directors and students should work closely with host physicians to develop pre‐departure training.…”