Experience‐based learning: a model linking the processes and outcomes of medical students' workplace learning

Abstract

The core condition for clinical workplace learning is 'supported participation', the various outcomes of which are mutually reinforcing and also reinforce students' ability to participate in further practice. This synthesis has 2 important implications for contemporary medical education: any reduction in medical students' participation in clinical practice that results from the patient safety agenda and expanded numbers of medical students is likely to have an adverse effect on learning, and the construct of 'self-directed learning', which our respondents too often found synonymous with 'lack of support', should be applied with very great caution to medical students' learning in clinical workplaces.