Table 4 Themes identified by students regarding TOSBA with selected student quotes
What worked well about TOSBA | What could be improved about TOSBA |
|---|---|
• The opportunity to be supervised and receive feedback. | • The provision of more feedback particularly written. |
‘The feedback provided. Allows students to improve in areas before the end of rotation exam.’ | ‘Not enough feedback. I would appreciate some constructive criticism.’ |
• It enabled application of theoretical knowledge and skills. | • The identification of topics in advance. |
‘It allowed for critical clinical thinking with background knowledge to be applied in a ‘real life’ setting, which is in essence replicating what will be asked of us once we qualify.’ | ‘Having an overall structure for the 8 weeks would be good i.e. having a set topic list to cover – this way you could better prepare and get more out of the TOSBA.’ |
• Its clinical focus and use of real patients. | • More distribution of TOSBA during the rotation. |
‘The roles of differential diagnosis, management, investigations etc. were excellent as they required you to put your theory into practice and apply it to the patient in front of you, instead of learning off reams of information from a book, it made you think like a doctor instead of a student.’ | ‘I had almost all my TOSBAs at the beginning of the rotation with very little knowledge, making it difficult to discuss investigations / management. If they had been a little more evenly spaced we could have time to improve.’ |
• It highlighted the standards expected and was a gauge of learning. | |
‘Gave an idea of what was expected of students.’ | |
• Its interactive learning approach. | |
‘It is a forum that is discussion based- so for me the learning style was perfect.’ | |
• The ability to learn from other students. | |
‘Small group guided learning allowed for exposure to other students’ strengths and made it possible to apply these qualities to your own work.’ | |
• Its encouragement of learning throughout the rotation. ‘Continual learning.’ | |
• The quality and variety of facilitators. | |
‘The variety of instructors was great, gave you a different perspective on topics.’ |