title: Factors affecting medical students' sense of belonging in a longitudinal integrated clerkship.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs) have been shown to be effective educationally and may assist in promoting rural career choices when undertaken in rural communities. Despite these merits, some students find LICs challenging.
  
  
  METHODS
  Students from a regional medical school undertaking a LIC participated in semi-structured interviews. A template approach was used for analysis of the transcripts.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirteen students participated. Three major themes were identified: academic leadership, external (general practice) environment and intrinsic (student) factors. Optimally, a synergistic relationship between factors, facilitated by academic leadership, resulted in a sense of belonging.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings support the concept that there is a highly dynamic interaction between factors determining the experience of students in the LIC. The individual nature of learners and the learning contexts require multi-level academic leadership.
authors.affiliation: MBBS, MFM (Clin), PhD, DRANZCOG, FRACGP, General Practitioner and Roberta Williams Chair of General Practice, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, and a general practitioner, New South Wales.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bonney
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Albert
authors.forename: J Nicky
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Hudson
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Knight-Billington
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D005260:Female; D058006:General Practice; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007857:Leadership; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D010348:Patient Care Team; D012424:Rural Population; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*