Medical Students’ Credibility Judgments of Patients as Feedback Providers in Project-Based Learning

Abstract

Patient feedback on medical students’ work and behaviour can be a valuable contribution to their learning process. For being effective, students need to actively engage with this feedback. Feedback engagement can be influenced by students' perceptions of the credibility of the feedback provider, in this case the patient. The aim of this study was to identify how medical students perceive the credibility of patients as feedback providers and how these credibility judgments are formed. This study was performed during a six-week elective project-based learning course, where students worked in pairs together with a patient in developing audiovisual patient information: knowledge clips. During this course, students received patient feedback on their knowledge clips and cooperation skills. Eleven sixth-year medical students participated in the study. Analysis of semi-structured interviews indicated that students’ overall credibility judgments were positive. The degree of credibility that students assigned to the patient varied throughout the course and varied between students. Remarkably, credibility judgments also varied between students who worked together with the same patient. Multiple factors influenced and changed students’ credibility judgments over time, both positively and negatively. The most important factors students mentioned were: the role of being patient and thus belonging to the target group and having experiential knowledge, the feedback message, and trust in the patient's motives and openness when providing feedback. Some factors that students mentioned are related to the educational environment, which educators can modify to positively contribute to students’ credibility judgments.