{"title":"\"Microbiology can be . . . \" Student Competition to Develop Resources about Infectious Diseases that Improve Health Literacy.","authors":"Maria Luisa Marenzoni, Raoul Ciappelloni","doi":"10.3138/jvme-2023-0143","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education emphasizes the importance of communication skills and teamwork for student success in clinical practice. Traditionally, many veterinary curricula lacked standardized formal training in acquiring these essential skills. Effective communication and collaborative teamwork are not only crucial for fulfilling the clinical responsibilities of the veterinary profession but also play a pivotal role in the broader societal context. Veterinarians, in their social role, serve as scientific communicators for the community. This role involves conveying scientific concepts, even complex ones, with a particular emphasis on their significance for public health, reaching a diverse audience. Currently, there is a growing public health necessity to improve health literacy, which refers to the ability to access, understand, appraise, and use information to support healthy choices by society, especially for topics like infectious diseases and vaccination. This became more evident during the global COVID-19 pandemic. This teaching tip describes the development, organization, and broad outcomes of a student competition introduced during a standard veterinary medicine course to design novel resources on microbiology and infectious disease-enhancing health literacy. Three separate events were organized during the academic years 2020-2023. The third-year veterinary medicine students attending the 3-month course on infectious diseases of small animals participated in a student competition aimed at promoting creativity and innovation. Their task was to develop novel resources that delivered informative content to the public concerning microbiology and infectious diseases. Participation was voluntary and students participated in groups of 5-6. Overall, 125 students created 22 projects on microbiology and infectious diseases that were able to enhance health literacy. This approach allowed students to engage with the content and convey foundational knowledge to others in an easily accessible way. This skill of communicating with the public using easy-to-understand language is essential for success in the veterinary medicine profession. The resources produced, such as drawings, comics, games, and videos, constitute informative sources. Thus, they were published online on a scientific journal to disseminate knowledge of infectious diseases to a broader audience.</p>","PeriodicalId":17575,"journal":{"name":"Journal of veterinary medical education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of veterinary medical education","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme-2023-0143","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education emphasizes the importance of communication skills and teamwork for student success in clinical practice. Traditionally, many veterinary curricula lacked standardized formal training in acquiring these essential skills. Effective communication and collaborative teamwork are not only crucial for fulfilling the clinical responsibilities of the veterinary profession but also play a pivotal role in the broader societal context. Veterinarians, in their social role, serve as scientific communicators for the community. This role involves conveying scientific concepts, even complex ones, with a particular emphasis on their significance for public health, reaching a diverse audience. Currently, there is a growing public health necessity to improve health literacy, which refers to the ability to access, understand, appraise, and use information to support healthy choices by society, especially for topics like infectious diseases and vaccination. This became more evident during the global COVID-19 pandemic. This teaching tip describes the development, organization, and broad outcomes of a student competition introduced during a standard veterinary medicine course to design novel resources on microbiology and infectious disease-enhancing health literacy. Three separate events were organized during the academic years 2020-2023. The third-year veterinary medicine students attending the 3-month course on infectious diseases of small animals participated in a student competition aimed at promoting creativity and innovation. Their task was to develop novel resources that delivered informative content to the public concerning microbiology and infectious diseases. Participation was voluntary and students participated in groups of 5-6. Overall, 125 students created 22 projects on microbiology and infectious diseases that were able to enhance health literacy. This approach allowed students to engage with the content and convey foundational knowledge to others in an easily accessible way. This skill of communicating with the public using easy-to-understand language is essential for success in the veterinary medicine profession. The resources produced, such as drawings, comics, games, and videos, constitute informative sources. Thus, they were published online on a scientific journal to disseminate knowledge of infectious diseases to a broader audience.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Veterinary Medical Education (JVME) is the peer-reviewed scholarly journal of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC). As an internationally distributed journal, JVME provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, research, and discoveries about veterinary medical education. This exchange benefits veterinary faculty, students, and the veterinary profession as a whole by preparing veterinarians to better perform their professional activities and to meet the needs of society.
The journal’s areas of focus include best practices and educational methods in veterinary education; recruitment, training, and mentoring of students at all levels of education, including undergraduate, graduate, veterinary technology, and continuing education; clinical instruction and assessment; institutional policy; and other challenges and issues faced by veterinary educators domestically and internationally. Veterinary faculty of all countries are encouraged to participate as contributors, reviewers, and institutional representatives.