title: Preparing to prescribe: How do clerkship students learn in the midst of complexity?
abstract: Prescribing tasks, which involve pharmacological knowledge, clinical decision-making and practical skill, take place within unpredictable social environments and involve interactions within and between endlessly changing health care teams. Despite this, curriculum designers commonly assume them to be simple to learn and perform. This research used mixed methods to explore how undergraduate medical students learn to prescribe in the 'real world'. It was informed by cognitive psychology, sociocultural theory, and systems thinking. We found that learning to prescribe occurs as a dynamic series of socially negotiated interactions within and between individuals, communities and environments. As well as a thematic analysis, we developed a framework of three conceptual spaces in which learning opportunities for prescribing occur. This illustrates a complex systems view of prescribing education and defines three major system components: the "social space", where the environmental conditions influence or bring about a learning experience; the "process space", describing what happens during the learning experience; and the intra-personal "cognitive space", where the learner may develop aspects of prescribing expertise. This conceptualisation broadens the scope of inquiry of prescribing education research by highlighting the complex interplay between individual and social dimensions of learning. This perspective is also likely to be relevant to students' learning of other clinical competencies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Development and Research, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands. lucymclellan@nhs.net.|University Hospital of South Manchester, Southmoor Road, Wythenshawe, Manchester, M23 9LT, UK. lucymclellan@nhs.net.
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: McLellan
authors.affiliation: Camden, Islington ELiPSE, UCLH and HCA Palliative Care Team, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, Unit D Well House, 23a Benwell Rd, London, N7 7BL, UK.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yardley
authors.affiliation: Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, Barrack Road, Exeter, EX2 5DW, UK.
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Norris
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Development and Research, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anique
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Bruin
authors.affiliation: Manchester Pharmacy School, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
authors.forename: Mary P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Tully
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Development and Research, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands.|Centre for Medical Education, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT7 1NN, UK.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dornan
mesh_terms: D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002983:Clinical Competence; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004777:Environment; D006801:Humans; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Clinical competence; Clinical medicine; Education; Medical students; Prescriptions; Systems theory