Interest in neurology during medical clerkship in three Nigerian medical schools

Background  

This study sought to ascertain perception of Nigerian medical students of neurology in comparison with 7 other major medical specialties. To also determine whether neurology was the specialty students consider most difficult and the reasons for this and to appraise their opinion on how neurosciences and neurology were taught in their different universities.     

Teaching appropriate interactions with pharmaceutical company representatives: The impact of an innovative workshop on student attitudes

Background  

Pharmaceutical company representatives (PCRs) influence the prescribing habits and professional behaviour of physicians. However, the skills for interacting with PCRs are not taught in the traditional medical school curriculum. We examined whether an innovative, mandatory workshop for third year medical students had immediate effects on knowledge and attitudes regarding interactions with PCRs.     

Using a formative simulated patient exercise for curriculum evaluation

Background  

It is not clear that teaching specific history taking, physical examination and patient teaching techniques to medical students results in durable behavioural changes. We used a quasi-experimental design that approximated a randomized double blinded trial to examine whether a Participatory Decision-Making (PDM) educational module taught in a clerkship improves performance on a Simulated Patient Exercise (SPE) in another clerkship, and how this is influenced by the time between training and assessment.     

Undergraduate technical skills training guided by student tutors – Analysis of tutors' attitudes,tutees' acceptance and learning progress in an innovative teaching model

Background  

Skills labs provide a sheltered learning environment. As close supervision and individual feedback were proven to be important in ensuring effective skills training, we implemented a cross-year peer tutor system in our skills lab of internal medicine that allowed intense training sessions with small learning groups (3–4 students) taught by one student tutor.     

Pandemic influenza preparedness: an ethical framework to guide decision-making

Background  

Planning for the next pandemic influenza outbreak is underway in hospitals across the world. The global SARS experience has taught us that ethical frameworks to guide decision-making may help to reduce collateral damage and increase trust and solidarity within and between health care organisations. Good pandemic planning requires reflection on values because science alone cannot tell us how to prepare for a public health crisis.     

Computer-based teaching is as good as face to face lecture-based teaching of evidence based medicine: a randomised controlled trial

Background  

At postgraduate level evidence based medicine (EBM) is currently taught through tutor based lectures. Computer based sessions fit around doctors' workloads, and standardise the quality of educational provision. There have been no randomized controlled trials comparing computer based sessions with traditional lectures at postgraduate level within medicine.     

Evidence based post graduate training. A systematic review of reviews based on the WFME quality framework

Background

Educators in allied health and medical education programs utilize instructional multimedia to facilitate psychomotor skill acquisition in students. This study examines the effects of instructional multimedia on student and instructor attitudes and student study behavior.

Methods

Subjects consisted of 45 student physical therapists from two universities. Two skill sets were taught during the course of the study. Skill set one consisted of knee examination techniques and skill set two consisted of ankle/foot examination techniques. For each skill set, subjects were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group. The control group was taught with live demonstration of the examination skills, while the experimental group was taught using multimedia. A cross-over design was utilized so that subjects in the control group for skill set one served as the experimental group for skill set two, and vice versa. During the last week of the study, students and instructors completed written questionnaires to assess attitude toward teaching methods, and students answered questions regarding study behavior.

Results

There were no differences between the two instructional groups in attitudes, but students in the experimental group for skill set two reported greater study time alone compared to other groups.

Conclusions

Multimedia provides an efficient method to teach psychomotor skills to students entering the health professions. Both students and instructors identified advantages and disadvantages for both instructional techniques. Reponses relative to instructional multimedia emphasized efficiency, processing level, autonomy, and detail of instruction compared to live presentation. Students and instructors identified conflicting views of instructional detail and control of the content.     

Attitudes toward statistics in medical postgraduates: measuring,evaluating and monitoring

Background

In medical training, statistics is considered a very difficult course to learn and teach. Current studies have found that students’ attitudes toward statistics can influence their learning process. Measuring, evaluating and monitoring the changes of students’ attitudes toward statistics are important. Few studies have focused on the attitudes of postgraduates, especially medical postgraduates. Our purpose was to understand current attitudes regarding statistics held by medical postgraduates and explore their effects on students’ achievement. We also wanted to explore the influencing factors and the sources of these attitudes and monitor their changes after a systematic statistics course.

Methods

A total of 539 medical postgraduates enrolled in a systematic statistics course completed the pre-form of the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics ?28 scale, and 83 postgraduates were selected randomly from among them to complete the post-form scale after the course.

Results

Most medical postgraduates held positive attitudes toward statistics, but they thought statistics was a very difficult subject. The attitudes mainly came from experiences in a former statistical or mathematical class. Age, level of statistical education, research experience, specialty and mathematics basis may influence postgraduate attitudes toward statistics. There were significant positive correlations between course achievement and attitudes toward statistics. In general, student attitudes showed negative changes after completing a statistics course.

Conclusions

The importance of student attitudes toward statistics must be recognized in medical postgraduate training. To make sure all students have a positive learning environment, statistics teachers should measure their students’ attitudes and monitor their change of status during a course. Some necessary assistance should be offered for those students who develop negative attitudes.

     

Teaching statistics to medical students using problem-based learning: the Australian experience

Background  

Problem-based learning (PBL) is gaining popularity as a teaching method in UK medical schools, but statistics and research methods are not being included in this teaching. There are great disadvantages in omitting statistics and research methods from the main teaching. PBL is well established in Australian medical schools. The Australian experience in teaching statistics and research methods in curricula based on problem-based learning may provide guidance for other countries, such as the UK, where this method is being introduced.     

Co-teaching: Exploring an Alternative for Integrated Curriculum

Purpose

Currently, the curriculum of medical education is compartmentalized which makes achieving the expected outcome, a real challenge. Co-teaching, an existing concept in education, however, may be used in medical education for integrating the applied component while basic concepts are being taught. The hypothesis, “can co-teaching be an alternate for an integrated curriculum?” was explored in this study. Therefore, the present study was designed to compare the outcomes of co-teaching with the existing teaching methodology owing to the absence of integrated curriculum.

An innovative approach to developing the reflective skills of medical students

Background  

Development of the reflective skills of medical students is an acknowledged objective of medical education.     

Teaching surgery, radiology and anatomy together: the mix enhances motivation and comprehension

Purpose  

Preclinical and clinical topics are often separated in medical education. For example, surgery and radiology are often taught much later than anatomy. The aim of this study was to establish and to evaluate an interdisciplinary course combining these closely related subjects to enhance medical comprehension.     

Effects of a refugee elective on medical student perceptions

Background  

There are growing numbers of refugees throughout the world. Refugee health is a relatively unstudied and rarely taught component of medical education. In response to this need, a Refugee Health Elective was begun. Medical student perceptions toward cultural aspects of medicine and refugee health before and after participation in the elective were measured.     

Predictors of locating women six to eight years after contact: internet resources at recruitment may help to improve response rates in longitudinal research

Background  

The ability to locate those sampled has important implications for response rates and thus the success of survey research. The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of locating women requiring tracing using publicly available methods (primarily Internet searches), and to determine the additional benefit of vital statistics linkages.     

Teaching clinical informatics to third-year medical students: negative results from two controlled trials

Background  

Prior educational interventions to increase seeking evidence by medical students have been unsuccessful.     

Gender plays no role in student ability to perform on computer-based examinations

Background  

To see if there is a difference in performance when students switch from traditional paper-and-pencil examinations to computer-based examinations, and to determine whether there are gender differences in student performance in these two examination formats.     

Training tomorrow’s doctors to explain ‘medically unexplained’ physical symptoms: An examination of UK medical educators’ views of barriers and solutions

Objective

Co-occuring physical symptoms, unexplained by organic pathology (known as Functional Syndromes, FS), are common and disabling presentations. However, FS is absent or inconsistently taught within undergraduate medical training. This study investigates the reasons for this and identifies potential solutions to improved implementation.

CPR in medical schools: learning by teaching BLS to sudden cardiac death survivors – a promising strategy for medical students?

Background  

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training is gaining more importance for medical students. There were many attempts to improve the basic life support (BLS) skills in medical students, some being rather successful, some less. We developed a new problem based learning curriculum, where students had to teach CPR to cardiac arrest survivors in order to improve the knowledge about life support skills of trainers and trainees.     

Relationship of creative projects in anatomy to medical student professionalism, test performance and stress: an exploratory study

Background  

The anatomy course offers important opportunities to develop professionalism at an early stage in medical education. It is an academically significant course that also engenders stress in some students.     

Western medical ethics taught to junior medical students can cross cultural and linguistic boundaries

Background  

Little is known about teaching medical ethics across cultural and linguistic boundaries. This study examined two successive cohorts of first year medical students in a six year undergraduate MBBS program.