Learning through clinical extramural studies: an observational study.

Background: Veterinary medicine programmes require students to learn in formal educational settings and through workplace experiences. Previous studies have indicated that learning in the clinical workplace can be informal as students participate in daily activities of service provision by veterinary teams. It can be complex however for students to transition from a traditional formal educational setting to learning in the workplace and students must be able to self-regulate their learning. This requires students to set their own learning goals, consider available learning opportunities and to evaluate if intended learning outcomes have been attained. There is a need to identify strategies students undertake to self-regulate their learning in the workplace to design supports to enhance their learning. The aim of this study was to provide a detailed description of how final year veterinary medicine students plan, learn and reflect on their learning in the workplace context of clinical extramural studies (CEMS) prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: An observational repeated cross-sectional design study was conducted with two groups of final year veterinary medicine students in University College Dublin. Data was collected in two stages by analysing student activity records and surveying students in 2017 and 2018. Participants were asked to describe how they planned their CEMS, to describe the types of learning activities they participated in, and describe their reflections of CEMS.

Results: The results are interpreted through the lens of self-regulated learning theory. Analyses of student CEMS activity records indicate that students from both groups primarily participated in small animal / production animal or mixed practice work placements. The majority of respondents of the survey indicated that CEMS was a valuable learning opportunity and they were motivated by placements that would support their future career goals. Financing CEMS placements was a key obstacle to their planning. The majority of respondents indicated varying frequencies of engaging in different types of learning activities and noted that finding suitable placements that facilitated practical skill development and active student learning was a challenge. Implications for veterinary education are discussed.

Conclusions: Student perspectives on planning and learning in the CEMS workplace context yielded important insights into the factors that influence their self-regulatory activities which can help inform future educational interventions to support student learning.