Power of Transforming Insight to Goal Setting
Students who are able to evaluate themselves and set personally meaningful goals might be more intrinsically motivated to meet these goals. A number of students mentioned that the videorecording and communication analysis helped them identify goals for their clinical rotation. “It was great to really sely-evaluate and find out areas of focus to develop in clinical, “I was able to evaluate my communication skills and pick out what to work on,” were examples of this theme. Putting plans into action is the next step in becoming proficient in communication. Another student who had completed the clinical rotation remarked, “I was able to see what I needed improvement in and have worked on those thing during clinical.”
Many students valued the TAs’ suggestions on how to empathize with a patient or teach a medical principle in an appropriate way’ free of complex medical terms or jargon. Students shared that they were unaware of their weaknesses, such as saying “umm” frequently or inappropriate body language. Watching their performance as a third-party spectator allowed students to more deeply evaluate their communication style.