What do medical students think are characteristics of a good ultrasound tutor? A qualitative study.

Walter, Robin; Alt, Leander; Hari, Roman; Harris, Michael (2024). What do medical students think are characteristics of a good ultrasound tutor? A qualitative study. BMC medical education, 24(1), p. 796. BioMed Central 10.1186/s12909-024-05789-1

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PURPOSE

This study was designed to elicit medical students' opinions on the characteristics of a good ultrasound tutor. The results should help educators to create an optimal teaching environment and inform tutor training.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The qualitative study recruited 15 participants from a larger mixed-methods study of 64 medical students who underwent a basic course on abdominal ultrasound taught by faculty and near-peer tutors. During semi-structured interviews, they were asked which characteristics make a good ultrasound tutor. We used inductive thematic analysis to identify the most important categories.

RESULTS

Medical students identified teaching themes and subthemes relating to teaching skills (e.g., course structure, repetition, vocabulary, feedback, guidance of participants), tutors' attitudes (e.g., atmosphere creation, empathy) and knowledge as the crucial components of being a good ultrasound tutor.

CONCLUSIONS

While some of the themes that students identified are generic to medical education, others are specific to ultrasound teaching. Tutors can use our results to assess their own teaching. They should aim to address learning needs, optimise understanding, give adequate feedback, and create a non-threatening atmosphere with empathic interactions. Accounting for the ultrasound-specific setting they should possess the necessary knowledge, provide verbal guidance to their students, and distribute examination time wisely.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Medical Education > Institute of General Practice and Primary Care (BIHAM)
04 Faculty of Medicine > Faculty Institutions > Office of the Dean, Faculty of Medicine > Office of the Dean, Medicine

UniBE Contributor:

Walter, Robin, Alt, Leander Christian, Hari, Roman, Harris, Michael Frank

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 360 Social problems & social services

ISSN:

1472-6920

Publisher:

BioMed Central

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

29 Jul 2024 13:46

Last Modified:

30 Jul 2024 17:09

Publisher DOI:

10.1186/s12909-024-05789-1

PubMed ID:

39049004

Additional Information:

Robin Walter and Leander Alt contributed equally to this work (co-first authorship).
Roman Hari and Michael Harris contributed equally to this work (co-last authorship).

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Evidence-based teaching Qualitative research Tutor characteristics Ultrasound Undergraduate medical education

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/199311

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/199311

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