This section is a reminder of the huge importance of the human dimension on placement - i.e. the relationships between students and students, between students and their GP tutor, between students and patients.
For student engagement and learning on placement, having a sense of belonging matters
Posited as the key variable in whether students persist with their studies and are successful in the Higher Education Academy’s “What works?” student retention and success programme, sense of belonging is strongly associated with academic and social engagement while at university. https://wonkhe.com/blogs/belonging-inclusion-and-mental-health-are-all-connected/
Mattering matters - students need to feel that they matter, and are not just in the way - enhances learning, reduces burnout
“Some of this suffering can’t be avoided,” she acknowledged. “You’ll have a first patient who dies. There will be unexpected bad outcomes. It’s unavoidable. But even in those moments, a student can be of value to the patient or their team and there are ways we can let them know they are valued. We can enhance the experiences of our students by letting them know, ‘We want you to be here, you can contribute, you’re in nursing and medicine because you have qualities that will make you a great nurse or doctor.’ https://www.nursing.virginia.edu/news/mattering/
Getting to know you as GP tutor and your lived experience of practice is central to student learning
Here are some suggestions from our GP tutors on how to build relationship at the start of placement:
Building relationships across students as course mates enables learning and engagement
When asked what would help students feel a greater sense of belonging, developing closer or more friendships was the most popular choice for all respondents (46 per cent) across all demographic categories....“Getting to know people on my course better” was a close second at 42 per cent
... it’s key to create opportunities for peer learning and collaboration from day 1, ... through group activities and assessment – when students interact extensively through their learning, it ‘naturally’ forges stronger links with each other and they create a real ‘community’... it works better to forge those stronger connections and friendships through the natural process of learning, rather than (only) through social interactions outside of the course. https://wonkhe.com/blogs/belonging-inclusion-and-mental-health-are-all-connected/
You can access the 24/25 GP3 Student Guide here: https://sites.google.com/view/24-25-gp3-student-guide/overview
We expect our students to attend all 8 x GP placement days, however we understand that there may be unavoidable challenges which may prevent a placement day from being undertaken.
In the unusual circumstance that the practice are unable to take the students onsite or deliver remote LIVE learning, we have an asynchronous learning task (provided to tutors at the start of the placement) which can be given to the students in advance to complete on the day offsite ('asynchronously'). GP tutors should review each students' work and feedback to them to facilitate their learning.
The asynchronous learning task (which is 'equivalent' to 1 day of learning in the practice) should be given to individual students who miss a day of the placement, unless they are too unwell to complete it.
If a student informs you in advance that they are unable to attend a placement day due to logistical concerns affecting safety or transportation, the asynchronous learning task should be offered as an alternative activity, and must be reviewed by the GP tutor on completion.
Please ensure you read the full guidance on student absence (including for multiple absences) here.
It is important to note that the asynchronous learning task is not a replacement for clinical placements and should only be used in the rare occasions identified above.
If any of your students have successfully completed an asynchronous learning task instead of attending the GP surgery, and you have fed back to the student on their performance, you should tick that the student has 'Attended through remote or asynchronous learning activity' for that placement day on their End of Placement assessment form.
Please note the asynchronous learning task does not replace any of the workplace-based learning that must occur at the practice, it is a method to overcome the issue of attendance only.
Please contact Kate Scurr if you require further guidance k.j.scurr@qmul.ac.uk
GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) & PLAGIARISM
Is using AI plagiarism?
You are able to use AI technology to support your written work, however you must ensure that it is used in a way that does not constitute plagiarism. All work submitted must be your own. AI can provide support in terms of structuring work, making suggestions for topics to include within a body of text, finding relevant literature etc., but should not be used to write the assignment.
QMUL have some guidance on the use of AI - https://www.qmul.ac.uk/library/academic-skills/student-guide-to-generative-ai/ - and there is a module on QMPlus with practical support on how and when to use AI we recommend working through - https://qmplus.qmul.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=21898.
In 2023 the academic misconduct policy was updated to include the following text under the definition of plagiarism:
"Unauthorised or unacknowledged text manipulation which undermines the integrity of an assessment (including the use of paraphrasing software, generative artificial intelligence or machine translation such that the work submitted cannot be considered wholly the student’s own)."