{"id":4524,"date":"2023-11-27T17:25:24","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T16:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=4524"},"modified":"2023-11-27T17:25:24","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T16:25:24","slug":"reflections-on-a-staff-student-partnership-teachable-moments-in-ethics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2023\/11\/27\/reflections-on-a-staff-student-partnership-teachable-moments-in-ethics\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on a staff-student partnership: teachable moments in ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jennifer O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n

Context<\/strong><\/p>\n

In early February 2022, my colleague and I embarked upon a programme of research examining our shared interest in patient healthcare involvement<\/a>. As lecturers at the University of Glasgow School of Medicine, we identified a unique opportunity to establish a staff-student research partnership. The underlying rationale was that our student partners may engage with our target demographic \u2013 incoming year 1 medical students \u2013 more effectively. We also anticipated that the partnership would support the development of our student partners\u2019 graduate attributes<\/a> in the research context. Our study \u2013 examining the attitudes of incoming members of the medical profession towards patient involvement in healthcare – was recently published in the Journal of Medical Ethics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Process<\/strong><\/p>\n

We extended an invitation to Year 2 students enrolled on a Student Selected Component (SSC)<\/a> on \u2018Patient Perspectives in Research\u2019, of which four students accepted. We held a preliminary meeting with our four student-partners in which we explained the general research process, expectations and commitments. Once in agreement, we collaborated on the survey content, the active stage of collaboration wound down. Student-partners retained access to all collaborative files and had the opportunity to engage in data analysis and literature reviews as the manuscript was prepared as their study commitments allowed.<\/p>\n

Reflections<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the outset, I was enthusiastic about our planned staff-student partnership, however, I remained pragmatic about the potential limitations. Given the intense nature of the medical curriculum, I was aware that there may be barriers to our partners\u2019 ongoing involvement. Furthermore, I was concerned that students may lose interest given the lengthy, and often, disheartening road to publication. However, upon reflection, such concerns were largely unfounded and I found the partnership to be a highly rewarding experience.<\/p>\n

Our student partners\u2019 input to the research design was highly valuable \u2013 we were able to prove to reviewers and future readers that our questions were developed with the target demographic truly in mind.\u00a0 In terms of contribution to the literature, we believe this is the first study of its kind in the United Kingdom to look at medical student attitudes to patient involvement in healthcare and research. And, as such, we hope it will serve as the basis for future research in this area.<\/p>\n

Whilst there were some instances where communications between parties slowed \u2013 such as during the long summer months when students engage with their university email accounts less frequently \u2013 such instances had minimal impact upon the overall process. Over the 20 month period from research conception to publication, I adopted a policy of minimal email communications to avoid overwhelming students. As a result, I only corresponded as necessary to facilitate the research process. To offset any potential loss of interest, I sought to use communication points to engage our student-partners by fully explaining each stage of the process. This gave rise to several key teachable moments which are particularly pertinent in ethics education.<\/p>\n

By providing a real-time opportunity to take student partners through the research process we were able to examine potential ethical issues relating to:<\/p>\n