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The development and evaluation of a personal learning log for Senior House Officers
Author(s) -
Kelly Diane R
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
medical education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1365-2923
pISSN - 0308-0110
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2923.1999.00258.x
Subject(s) - checklist , multiple choice , intervention (counseling) , medicine , accident and emergency , medical education , scope (computer science) , obstetrics and gynaecology , nursing , significant difference , family medicine , psychology , medical emergency , computer science , pregnancy , biology , cognitive psychology , genetics , programming language
Object To develop and evaluate the effect of having a personal learning log on Senior House Officers knowledge and confidence. Methods A multiple choice paper and a confidence checklist for two hospital specialties were developed to assess knowledge and confidence. These were administered to a control group and to an intervention group who had the learning log. Both groups completed an evaluation at the end of the post. Setting The study took place in Accident & Emergency and Obstetric & Gynaecology posts in Greater Glasgow and Lanarkshire. Subjects 79 Senior House Officers in Accident & Emergency and 78 Senior House Officers in Obstetrics & Gynaecology. Results The mean scores in the MCQ and the mode in the confidence checklist increased significantly in both specialties during the post, but there was no significant difference between the control and intervention groups. Forty two learning logs were returned at the end of the study and analysis of these revealed that there was great scope for learning but few documented the specific learning achieved. Evaluation of the posts revealed that some improvements had taken place in teaching and assessment frequency, however, there was scope for further improvement. Conclusion While the problems of hospital training are well documented, an attempt to improve the situation using a learning log did not have a statistically significant impact on SHO knowledge or confidence. A six‐month hospital post appears to present many opportunities for learning but these are not exploited. It is suggested that three things are needed. Firstly, active participation by and personalized feedback from a senior member of staff, with training where needed. Secondly, protected time for tutorials with a planned system of formative assessment, and thirdly, a more positive approach to learning by both SHOs and consultants. Once this occurs, a learning log may have a more significant impact on training.