Classrooms to Clinics: A Capstone Preclinical Course Designed from Educational, Social, and Developmental Perspectives on the Transition to Clerkship.

Abstract

Introduction: Transitions to clerkship courses aim to alleviate medical students' concerns about preparing for clerkship rotations. Most focus on reviewing medical knowledge and clinical skills from an educational perspective. However, few are designed from social or developmental perspectives that emphasize self-regulation and social learning habits. This is unfortunate because learners who are unaware of the social and developmental aspects of learning may struggle to transition from a structured classroom environment to a complex and unpredictable clinical learning environment.

Approach: The two-week Classrooms to Clinics (C2C) course at the University of Virginia School of Medicine serves as a capstone to the preclinical curriculum that helps ease students' transition to the clerkship year. From the educational perspective, it incorporates case discussions that permit review of key concepts and clinical reasoning skills taught in earlier preclinical courses. From the developmental perspective, C2C challenges students to perform workplace tasks authentic to the clinical environment and to recognize best practices for identifying and leveraging learning opportunities within the clinical workflow. From a social perspective, C2C policies encourage students to nurture relationships with peers to facilitate learning and co-learning on clerkships.

Outcomes: Evidence from course evaluations and analysis of students' commentary on the most recent iteration of C2C shows that students recognize and appreciate the educational, developmental, and social perspectives on making a successful transition to clerkships.

Next steps: As next steps, we will address student feedback about Classrooms to Clinics by clarifying how and why it differs from a traditional transitions course in its emphasis on developmental and social learning strategies that facilitate life-long learning. We will also enable clerkship students (and their coaches) to retrospectively review the reflective essays they wrote in C2C so that students can monitor their progress in developing self-regulated learning habits that facilitate a successful transition to the clinical workplace.