title: Dealing with emotions: medical undergraduates' preferences in sharing their experiences.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patient care evokes emotional responses such as uncertainty, grief and pride in medical students. There is a need for opportunities to share and express such emotions because they influence students' professional development and well-being. There is a trend towards introducing mentor programmes into medical curricula. It remains unknown whether students are willing and able to share their emotional experiences within this formal setting. We set out to explore how medical students share their emotional experiences and why.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used thematic analysis, including purposeful sampling, parallel processes of data collection and constant comparative analysis, maintaining an audit trail for validation purposes. The study had a constructivist, interactional design and used Goffman's dramaturgical theory as an interpretive framework. Nineteen students participated in individual, semi-structured interviews.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants' narratives revealed a preference for sharing emotional experiences away from people who might expect them to uphold formal behaviour. They deliberately decided with whom to share their emotional experiences. Participants had a preference to talk to fellow students working in the same department, or family and friends outside medical school.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Participants found it difficult to uphold behaviours that they thought patients, preceptors or the organisation expected of them as future doctors. In adjusting their behaviour to meet those expectations, they became attuned to how to best present themselves based on the people present. This influenced how they chose which emotional experiences to share with whom.
authors.affiliation: Department of Evidence Based Education, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Joy M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: de Vries-Erich
authors.affiliation: Centre for Medical Education, Queens University Belfast, Belfast, UK.|University of Maastricht, Maastrich, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dornan
authors.affiliation: Department of Evidence Based Education, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tobias B B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Boerboom
authors.affiliation: Center for Research & Innovation in Medical Education, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: A Debbie C
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Jaarsma
authors.affiliation: Department of Evidence Based Education, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Helmich
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008611:Mentors / Q000523:psychology; D033262:Narration; D010379:Peer Group; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011361:Professional Competence; D066269:Social Theory; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult