Abstract
BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many medical students were deployed as vaccinators. This study set out to capture the lived experience of students at a London-based mass vaccination site, understand what they learned, how this learning compared to their experience of usual medical education and how any identified benefits might be leveraged in a post-pandemic context.
METHODS: Student vaccinators (n = 8) were recruited from the vaccine clinic workforce and invited to complete semi-structured interviews about their experiences. Thematic analysis was conducted on interview transcripts to identify significant concepts, which were interpreted in the context of available literature.
FINDINGS: Participants' experiences aligned broadly with the undergraduate curriculum. However, many also identified hidden curriculum areas developed through their work as vaccinators, including professionalism, self-regulating learning and ethical decision-making.
DISCUSSION: The need for adequate support, whilst promoting autonomy, was highlighted as vital in supporting professional identity formation within a community of practice, benchmarking clinical knowledge and performance, and in support of student wellbeing, in the face of challenging real-world clinical encounters.
CONCLUSION: Increased entrustment of clinical activity could be implemented in primary and secondary care settings to reproduce the benefits experienced by student vaccinators in front-line roles during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further work might consider how to maximise these benefits and increase inclusion and participation.
Original language | English |
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Article number | e13642 |
Journal | The clinical teacher |
Early online date | 26 Aug 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 26 Aug 2023 |