ArticleThe Australian journal of rural health2025
The Role of Medical Student Quality Improvement Projects in Health Care: A Scoping Review.
Article in The Australian journal of rural health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAcross Australia, there is considerable variation in the quality of health care and the risk of associated complications. Hence, many patients are receiving poor-quality care. This may be exacerbated in rural and remote areas where the availability of health care is relatively limited. Addressing this requires a multipronged approach that supports the workforce. Involving medical practitioners in medical students' quality improvement (QI) scholarly projects may be one strategy to assist with bridging this gap. The aim of this review was to synthesise the evidence relating to medical students' compulsory curriculum-based quality improvement projects and associated practice outcomes.
methodScoping review of peer-reviewed literature (January 2000-June 2024).
resultsOf the 239 articles, six empirical studies from Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA were included. Half of these were based in community settings and the rest in hospitals. Only one was in a rural setting. The time allocated to projects was between 5 and 12 weeks. Five of the six studies reported that student project recommendations had been implemented. One study reported that the process enhanced doctors' adherence to best practice guidelines. DISCUSSION: Much of the research about the outcomes of medical student curriculum-based projects focuses on research outputs. These relatively short student QI projects are one strategy to improve evidence-based practice while upskilling clinicians. Further work is needed to examine their impact, particularly in rural areas.
conclusionIntegrating medical students into 'real-world' QI health service projects can enhance the quality of health care whilst building the skills of the medical workforce.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.