Table 4 Themes of Clerkship Director perceptions of transitional year with shortened clerkship lengths (n = 8)
From: One change, different effects: the impacts of reducing clerkship length
Negative Effects | Positive Effects | Neutral Effects |
|---|---|---|
Educational experience less cohesive | Accelerated adoption of changes that addressed identified problems | Changed assessment methods in anticipation of changed clinical experiences |
Overall quality of clinical experience diminished | Adoption of new assessment methods that benefitted students (e.g., weekly quizzes) | Changes in weighting of grading components |
Preceptors less familiar with students because of reduced time | Development of new clinical resources and placements | Time limited nature of transitional year provided reassurance that change was manageable |
Accomplishing educational objectives more difficult | Calendar change facilitated scheduling of introduction to clerkships experiences because of increased availability (occurred in May instead of late June) | Â |
Implementing changes was time consuming | Â | Â |
Shortened time exacerbated pre-existing challenges | Â | Â |