“I loved it, absolutely loved it” a qualitative study exploring what student podiatrists learn volunteering as part of an interprofessional medical team at a marathon
Abstract
Background:
Final year podiatry students volunteer annually as part of the wider interprofessional medical team
at both the Brighton and London Marathon race events, supervised by qualified podiatrists, allied health professionals
and physicians. Volunteering has been reported to be a positive experience for all participants and a way of
developing a range of professional, transferable, and where appropriate, clinical skills. We sought to explore the lived
experience of 25 students who volunteered at one of these events and aimed to: i) examine the experiential learning
reported by students while volunteering in a dynamic and demanding clinical field environment; ii) determine
whether there were elements of learning that could be translated to the traditional teaching environment in a preregistration
podiatry course.
Methods:
A qualitative design framework informed by the principles of interpretative phenomenological analysis,
was adopted to explore this topic. We used IPA principles to enable analysis of four focus groups over a two-year
period to generate findings. Focus group conversations were led by an external researcher, recorded, independently
transcribed verbatim and anonymised prior to analysis by two different researchers. To enhance credibility, data analysis
was followed by independent verification of themes, in addition to respondent validation.
Results:
In total, five themes were identified: i) a new inter-professional working environment, ii) identification of
unexpected psychosocial challenges, iii) the rigors of a non-clinical environment, iv) clinical skill development, and v)
learning in an interprofessional team.
Summary:
Throughout the focus group conversations, a range of positive and negative experiences were reported
by the students. This volunteering opportunity fills a gap in learning as perceived by students, particularly around
developing clinical skills and interprofessional working. However, the sometimes-frantic nature of a Marathon race
event can both facilitate and impede learning. To maximize learning opportunities, particularly in the interprofessional
environment, preparing students for new or different clinical settings remains a considerable challenge.
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Date
2023-02-20Author
Otter, Simon
Whitham, Deborah
Riley, Paula
Coughtrey, James
Whitham, Sophia