Supporting Higher Education—Hospital Transition through Blended Learning

Blended learning is a pedagogical approach which is designed to enhance complementarity between face-to-face and online learning (Dziuban et al., 2004). According to Qian et al.’s (Qian et al., 2016, p. 8) systematic review and meta-analysis “Blended learning appears to have a consistent positive effect in comparison with no intervention and appears to be more effective than or at least as effective as nonblended instruction for knowledge acquisition in health professions.” In line with Hew and Cheung (2014) and Kich (2016), we are not particularly concerned with the mere ratio of delivery modes. What we consider crucial in blended learning is the effectiveness of the pedagogic design in taking advantage of both environments to improve the student–student as well student–teacher interaction and collaboration. Such interaction is crucial in education that focuses on learning outcomes and specifically in competence-based medical education (CBME) which promotes the “integration of knowledge, skills, and behaviors in practice” (Snell and Frank, 2010, Bourgeois et al., 2015). According to the CBME approach, “competence” cannot be reduced to a list of learning objectives or reductionist performance as it implies a broad objective (Snell and Frank, 2010; Parent et al., 2013). The paper describes two research and educational tools that can be instrumental within a blended learning approach in tracking, discussing, and reflecting on the professional development of students in the context of Italian hospitals. The two tools are complementary to each other in offering data that take into account the international frameworks and debate on the identification and description of the competences that health professionals are required to meet. The purpose of this paper is to present two exploratory studies that have a potential for identifying research-based blended learning tools for CBME. The studies focus on the development of a group of medical students’ professional image (in Genova and Rome) during their hospital internship. The paper addresses three related questions: