Supportive but Stressful: Medical Students Experiences of Doctor's Industrial Action

Abstract

Objectives Over the last year, there have been multiple periods of strike action by both junior doctors and consultants. These have had a major impact on patient care, leading to over 1 million rescheduled appointments.1 Industrial action has also impacted medical students who often are advised not to attend clinical placement during strike days. For students doing shorter placements, such as paediatrics and child health, this impact may be even more significant. We wanted to understand medical student's experiences of strike action, the impact these had on their learning, and what meas ures they thought may help to mitigate this. We hoped this knowledge may help us to improve the teaching and support provided to this cohort of students, as they continue their studies, and future students if further strike action is announced. Methods We surveyed students who have undertaken Child Health placements over the last 3 months. We asked about experiences of strike action, its impact on students learning and asked about what mitigations they found most helpful. We asked free text questions to gain qualitative data about experiences. Surveys were sent to students via email sent by the university administrative staff. Free text responses were analysed for key emerging themes using a framework analysis approach. Consent was taken from students for their anonymised responses to be shared. Results Surveys were sent to 148 medical students; there were 23 responses. 100% of respondents reported that their placements had been disrupted due to doctor's industrial action. Whilst many students wanted to re-iterate their support for junior doctors strikes, 19/23 (83%) students reported that the strikes had a moderate or major (very significant) impact on their learning. The main impacts included . Missed time on placement and clinical exposure: 'I lost almost two whole weeks of a five week placement in paediatrics.' . Reduced opportunities to get key skills signed off: 'More pressure to get sign-offs which means less freedom to join placement activities that I am interested in or might be very valuable to my learning.' . Not feeling part of the team: 'Difficulty getting to know the team.' . Additional stress: 'This put a lot of pressure on and caused a lot of stress.' The mitigations that students found most helpful were: . Extra teaching sessions with a clinical focus . Reduced expectations for skills sign offs . Acknowledgements that strikes are stressful for students Conclusion Industrial action has a significant impact on student learning and experiences in child health. Understanding the impacts of the strikes and the mitigations that students find most helpful will be key in supporting current and future students.