The goal of better medical student preparation for clinical practice drives curricular initiatives worldwide. Learning theory underpins Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) as a means of safe transition to independent practice. Regulators mandate senior assistantships to improve practice readiness. It is important to know whether meaningful EPAs occur in assistantships, and with what impact. Final year students at one UK medical school kept learning logs and audio-diaries for six one-week periods during a year-long assistantship. Further data were also obtained through interviewing participants when students and after three months as junior doctors. This was combined with data from new doctors from 17 other UK schools. Realist methods explored what worked for whom and why. 32 medical students and 70 junior doctors participated. All assistantship students reported engaging with EPAs but gaps in the types of EPAs undertaken exist, with level of entrustment and frequency of access depending on the context. Engagement is enhanced by integration into the team and shared understanding of what constitutes legitimate activities. Improving the shared understanding between student and supervisor of what constitutes important assistantship activity may result in an increase in the amount and/or quality of EPAs achieved.

中文翻译：

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英国的助学金如何为医学生的研究生实践提供帮助？想想 EPA。

让医学生更好地为临床实践做好准备的目标推动了全球范围内的课程计划。学习理论支撑可信赖的专业活动（EPA），作为安全过渡到独立实践的手段。监管机构要求提供高级助理职位以提高实践准备程度。了解助学金中是否出现有意义的 EPA 及其影响非常重要。英国一所医学院的最后一年学生在为期一年的助教期间，保留了六个为期一周的学习日志和音频日记。进一步的数据还通过采访学生时和担任初级医生三个月后的参与者获得。该数据与来自其他 17 所英国学校的新医生的数据相结合。现实主义方法探索什么对谁有效以及为什么有效。32名医学生和70名初级医生参加。所有助学金学生均表示参与了 EPA，但所进行的 EPA 类型存在差距，委托程度和访问频率取决于具体情况。通过融入团队和对合法活动的共同理解来增强参与度。提高学生和导师之间对重要助学活动的共同理解可能会提高 EPA 的数量和/或质量。