‘Let's work together to pass medical school’: a qualitative study of medical student attitudes to teamwork, competition and collaboration

ORCID

Abstract

Teamwork is vital to all types of work, and graduates of higher educationprogrammes must be prepared to contribute to a wide variety of professionalteams. This is especially true in healthcare, where graduates willwork in multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) under considerable pressure. Thisstudy is a follow-up to a previous study, where we described how competitionbetween students is a barrier to constructive teamwork. Since then, wehave made considerable enhancements to our transferable skills curriculum,moved away from norm referencing, and there have been national changesto the way that graduate Foundation training places are allocated. Here wepresent findings from a qualitative study of students from all six stages ofour medical degree programme (5 years plus predegree foundation year).We explored whether there had been changes in how students perceivedthe importance of teamwork, their own teamwork development and howthey collaborated with their peers. Following analysis of in-depth,semi-structured interviews, five themes emerged: (a) competition betweenstudents; (b) importance of teamwork; (c) what makes effective teamwork;(d) preparing for work in MDTs; and (e) recommendations for teamworkeducation. Competition between students was perceived as both positiveand negative, but there has been a shift since our last study towards collaboration,with students now more willing to help each other succeed. Studentsalso show more insight into their teamwork development, and wereable to discuss what aspects of the programme, and higher education morebroadly, were most valuable in helping them develop.

Publication Date

2024-11-07

Publication Title

FEBS Open Bio

ISSN

2211-5463

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10.1002/2211-5463.13915" data-hide-no-mentions="true">

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