Using action learning sets to support students managing transitions into the clinical environment in a UK medical school

This paper reports on a Curriculum Innovation Project to empower
third-year Undergraduate Medical students to recognise learning
opportunities in their clinical placements and to proactively use
them to develop their understanding and practice. The project
created action learning sets (ALS) in response to the challenges
students face when trying to engage in work-based learning. In
particular, how changes to clinical working patterns affect student
learning, principally their participation within clinical teams.
Learning sets were conducted in 2 teaching hospitals, involving
20- year, 3 medical students over a 10-week period. The students
met for one and a half to two hours each week and between
meetings engaged in agreed activities and reflections. The project
was independently evaluated using student interviews
triangulated with facilitators’ systematic reflections on the sessions
and student written reflections. ALS were found to provide a
valuable and atypical approach to support students through the
transition from Academic to Clinical learning settings and lay the
foundations for a lifelong learning practice. This included
supporting students to ask effective questions, develop
participation in practice, present and identify themselves as
emergent professionals, reflect upon and manage critical incidents
and engage in both self-directed and collaborative learning.