(C-101) Assessment of a Summer Clinical Immersion Program: Capturing Changes in BME Student Design Confidence

Introduction:: Introduction: Curricular or co-curricular clinical immersion experiences can have positive effects on biomedical engineering (BME) students [1], but only 20-25% of reporting BME programs state they offer such experiences to their undergraduates [2]. These experiences can provide students with opportunities to practice identifying problems, or needs-finding [3], and raise awareness of BME careers [1]. Typically, benefits of BME student participation in clinical immersion experiences are reported from program survey data. Rigorous assessment of student experiences and student work can also help realize the impact of clinical immersion on students and their design abilities. Our work aims to support widespread integration of clinical immersion experiences into BME curricula by highlighting how such experiences can increase student design self-efficacy and prepare them for biomedical engineering project work their senior year.


Materials and Methods:: Materials and Methods: BME undergraduate students participated in a seven-week summer immersion program that included five week-long clinical rotations in different medical departments. Over two summers, a total of twenty BME undergraduates participated. Overall, we used three methods to assess engineering design-related student outcomes: 1) an engineering self-efficacy survey [4], 2) a student program evaluation survey, and 3) thematic analysis of student clinical immersion journal reflections. The Likert-style self-efficacy survey was administered to student participants at the beginning and end of the summer program. This survey measured general engineering self-efficacy in addition to three areas of engineering skills self-efficacy: experimental, tinkering, and design. Changes in student self-efficacy were measured, and paired t-tests were performed to demonstrate statistical significance. With regards to the program evaluation survey, we selected and analyzed three questions related to student comfort toward the engineering design process. Finally, we selected one of fifteen reflection prompts to analyze: “The next time you work on a design project, will this [clinical immersion] experience affect your approach?” We performed thematic analysis on student responses to this prompt to identify common threads in student perspectives.


Results, Conclusions, and Discussions:: Results: Survey results demonstrate that students made significant design self-efficacy gains during our summer immersion program (n=18, paired t-test, p = 0.0073). Additionally, students self-reported that they understand the engineering design process and can refine clinical needs using this process. Furthermore, all twenty students completely agreed that their participation in the clinical immersion program better prepared them for future design courses, namely senior design.

When asked to consider their next design project in reflection journal entries, students identified ways in which their immersion program experience would inform or influence their engineering design approach. Most often, students discussed gaining familiarity with biomedical technologies and increased motivation to develop impactful and economical devices. Students also identified connections between realizing all aspects of patient care (i.e., universal design) and observing patient experience (i.e., empathy). Last, a few students pointed out the importance of communication with a variety of stakeholders. Overall, 64% of student reflections suggested the immersion experience would affect their technical design approach, while 32% identified the importance of non-technical skills.

Discussion & Conclusion: More rigorous assessment of student clinical immersion provides an opportunity to establish how these experiences augment student design confidence as they continue in their BME training. Our results indicate that BME students who complete our summer immersion program become more confident designers with new and broader perspectives. Further, these students felt better prepared for their future design courses like senior capstone. In fact, eight immersion program participants were surveyed after completing their year-long senior capstone, and all eight reported that their capstone experiences benefitted from their immersion experience. From adeptness with user needs statements to talking with medical professionals, our BME undergraduates shared that their confidence in designing, communicating, and teaming increased.

The results from two years of our summer clinical immersion program demonstrate that participants gain design confidence and new perspectives, while establishing professional connections with the field. We will continue to collect data from future program iterations; nonetheless, even our early results demonstrate the value of applying rigorous assessment methods (e.g., validated instruments, research-driven qualitative analysis, etc.) to substantiate the benefits of BME clinical immersion experiences.


Acknowledgements (Optional): :

References (Optional): : [1] M. Kotche, A. E. Felder, K. Wilkens, and S. Stirling, “Perspectives on Bioengineering Clinical Immersion: History, Innovation, and Impact,” Ann. Biomed. Eng., vol. 48, no. 9, pp. 2301–2309, Sep. 2020, doi: 10.1007/s10439-020-02508-x.

[2] K. Billiar et al., “Learning Environments and Evidence-Based Practices in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering,” Biomed. Eng. Educ., vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1–16, Jan. 2022, doi: 10.1007/s43683-021-00062-z.

[3] Guilford, W.H., M. Keeley, B.P. Helmke, and T.E. Allen, Work in Progress: A Clinical Immersion Program for Broad Curricular Impact. Annual Conference & Exposition: final program and proceedings. American Society for Engineering Education, 2019, p. 26640.

[4] Mamaril, N.A., Usher, E.L., Li, C.R., Economy, D.R. and Kennedy, M.S., Measuring Undergraduate Students' Engineering Self-Efficacy: A Validation Study. J. Eng. Educ., 105: 366-395, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20121.