Perceptions of Fourth-Year Medical Students on Writing and Presenting Case Reports

Abstract

Background Writing and presenting case reports has educational benefits for medical students by providing them a platform for involvement in scholarly activities and promoting scientific writing and critical thinking. This study assesses medical students' perceived benefits, challenges, and barriers regarding the process of writing and presenting case reports. Methods A qualtrics survey was emailed to 225 fourth-year medical students of the Medical College of Wisconsin. All of the questions in the survey were focused on obtaining the students' perceptions of factors facilitating the writing or presenting of case reports, its benefits, and the perceived challenges and barriers to writing and presenting case reports. Responses were obtained on a five-point Likert scale. We performed conventional quantitative analysis on all the responses and analyzed the data as respective proportions. A comparison between the responses of those who have and have not presented case reports previously was performed using a chi-square test or Fischer exact test. Results Of the 84 medical students who completed the survey, 67% said they have not written or presented case reports in regional or national meetings. Ninety-nine percent of the total students believed ('agreed' or 'strongly agreed') that finding a good mentor was an important factor in facilitating the process of writing and presenting case reports, and 98% perceived finding an interesting case as equally important. The top three perceived benefits of writing or presenting case reports included improving scientific-writing skills (95%), enhancing curriculum vitae (CV) and securing residency positions (93%), and improving presentation skills (90%). The main perceived barriers to writing or presenting case reports included lack of formal training (74%) and lack of a mentor (71%). In a subgroup analysis, 95% of students who have never previously written or presented a case report, versus 79% of students who have done so, perceived that a lack of formal training and/or a lack of a mentor were major barriers to writing or presenting case reports (p=0.054). Conclusion Our study shows that the majority of M4s reported that they have not written or presented any case reports and that writing case reports has multiple educational values with considerable barriers. Our findings highlight the importance of good mentorship and formal training in case report writing.

Keywords: barriers; case report writing; medical students; mentorship.

Figure 1. Pie chart showing the survey results performed on fourth year medical students based on whether they have written/presented case reports in any regional or national meetings.

Figure 2. Bar chart showing lack of mentor/formal training as the major barriers to writing/presenting case reports as perceived (agreed or strongly agreed) by the students who have written/presented case reports vs. those who have not.