Real-Time Student Feedback on the Surgical Learning Environment: Use of a Mobile Application

OBJECTIVE: Improvements to the medical student surgi-cal learning environment are limited by lack of granular data and recall bias on end-of-clerkship evaluations. The purpose of this study was to identify specific areas for intervention using a novel real-time mobile application. DESIGN: An application was designed to obtain real-time feedback from medical students regarding the learning environment on their surgical clerkship. Thematic analy-sis of student experiences was performed at the conclu-sion of 4 consecutive 12-week rotation blocks. SETTING: Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medi-cal School, Boston, Massachusetts. RESULTS: Fifty-four medical students at a single institu-tion were asked to participate during their primary clerk-ship experience. Students submitted 365 responses over 48 weeks. Multiple themes emerged which were dichot-omized into positive and negative emotions centered on specific student priorities. Approximately half of responses were associated with positive emotions (52.9%) and half with negative emotions (47.1%). Stu-dent priorities included the desire to feel included in the surgical team (resulting in feeling engaged/ignored), to have a positive relationship with members of the team (perceiving kind/rude interactions), to witness compas-sionate patient care (observing empathy/disrespect for patients), to have a well-planned surgical rotation (experiencing organization/disorganization within teams), and to feel that student well-being is prioritized (reporting opportunities/disregard for student wellness). CONCLUSION: A novel, user-friendly mobile application identified several areas to improve the experience and engagement of students on their surgery clerkship. Allowing clerkship directors and other educational lead-ers to collect longitudinal data in real time may allow for more targeted, timely improvements to the medical stu-dent surgical learning environment. ( J Surg Ed 80:817-825. (c) 2023 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)