Understanding the educational value of first-year medical students' patient encounter data

Background: Many medical schools use patient-encounter logs to track students' clinical experiences, but few have investigated the student-user perspective to understand how students enter, review, and use patient-encounter information. Aims: This study examines first-year medical students' use of a web-based tracking system and whether students thought logging patient-encounters was educationally valuable. Methods: This mixed-methods study uses data from student encounter log entries, a focus group with first-year students, and a survey. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics for quantitative data, qualitative content analysis of students' free-response entries in the logs, and thematic analysis for focus group and survey responses. Results: Most students logged at least one encounter (90%), but used the system substantially less than expected. Focus group and survey data indicated that students found minimal educational value in the encounter tracking system as designed, but identified several ways in which the system could be improved to better support their learning. Suggestions included clearer guidelines for use, better integration into the curriculum, a mentoring process, and provision of benchmarks or target number of specific encounter types. Conclusion: Student-user perspectives are crucial in optimizing information collected through patient-encounter tracking systems, and can improve both the functionality and the educational value of such systems.