Navigating soft skills: Qualitative study exploring undergraduates’ perspectives on an e- portfolio pilot at Alexandria Faculty of Medicine

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Medical Education Department, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University

2 Clinical Pharmacology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

Abstract

Introduction:
Soft skills are becoming increasingly important in the medical curriculum to improve patient care, professional practice, and physician well-being. E-portfolios serve as a teaching and assessment tool supporting the development of soft and reflective skills. An elective course covering the key soft skills of leadership, communication and conflict management was introduced at the Alexandria Faculty of Medicine, and a paper-based e-portfolio was piloted as an assessment tool. This study explored the learning experiences of final year medical students following participation in the elective course. assessment tool.

Methods
This qualitative study, grounded in social constructivism, used focus group discussions with eight cohorts of final-year medical students during the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 academic years. After completing the elective course, students participated in online focus groups. Sessions were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and inductively analyzed using Atlas.ti software to identify emerging themes.



Results
Eight focus groups were conducted with 92 final year medical students from eight elective cohorts, representing 56% of those invited. The inductive analysis revealed four key themes: the perceived value of soft skills and their importance in clinical practice; the assessment of soft skills, with concerns about the subjectivity; the language of the e-portfolio with reported difficulties in written reflections; and the digital format of the e-portfolio, with mixed feedback on usability.


Conclusions
Final year students value the integration of soft skills into the curriculum and recognize the role of the e-portfolio for their assessment. E-portfolios can be effectively implemented in resource-limited settings where expensive software solutions may be unfeasible.

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