Medical Science Educator最新文献

COVID-19 pandemic health restrictions affected the theoretical and practical teaching of anatomy. This review aims to analyze studies about teaching anatomy in this period. A search through the PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Lilacs, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases found 1607 articles. After removing duplicates and excluding articles by reading the title/abstract, and then after full reading, 43 articles were included. The remote synchronous and asynchronous active methodologies employ virtual reality, 3D models, and web conferencing platforms to enable audio-visual interaction. While synchronous remote teaching emerged as an important opportunity, its efficacy in imparting knowledge and practical skills remains under scrutiny.

Introduction: Recently, accrediting organizations have focused on developing lifelong learners who possess self-regulated and self-directed aptitudes of learning (hereinafter SELF-ReDiAL or in short, SR). This meta-analysis aimed to identify factors which promote or deter SR in health professionals.

Methods: Original studies which, by using self-reports, evaluated enablers of and barriers to SR in health professionals (dentistry, medicine, nursing, and pharmacology), and were indexed in Scopus^® and PubMed^® databases from 1 January 2000 to 31 August 2022, were retrieved. Major themes suggested to affect SR were determined, and enablers or barriers related to those themes, were considered eligible for inclusion. Studies were excluded if they were not in English, and if the full text could not be retrieved.

Results: From 149 identified papers, 43 studies were subsequently included in the meta-analysis. The strongest effect was generated by wellbeing (d = 0.806; 95% confidence of interval [CI]: 0.296, 1.316). In respect of teaching method, problem-based learning (d = 0.590; 95%CI: 0.375, 0.806), team-based learning (d = 0.382; 95%CI: 0.232, 0.531), and flipped classroom (d = 0.095; 95%CI: -0.088, 0.279) showed positive effects on SR, whereas lectures were negatively associated with SR (d =  -0.079; 95%CI: - 0.389, 0.230). Further, the analysis showed that SR generally decreases during the first year of enrolment (d =  -0.144; 95%CI: - 0.284, -0.004), while no major change in SR is observed in the second year (d = 0.027; 95%CI: -0.044, 0.099).

Conclusions: Considering that student wellbeing had the strongest observed effect on SR, policy-setting and governing bodies should incorporate methods which improve wellbeing to develop health professionals with high levels of SR.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-024-02068-y.

Introduction: The Larner College of Medicine has steadily transitioned to primarily active learning-based instruction. Although evaluations praise session formats, students often highlight difficulties in synthesizing preparatory materials to integrate biochemical pathways. A student/faculty collaboration led to the development of interactive metabolic maps that illustrate pathways and link to a broader framework of metabolism.

Methods: A review of the session materials identified relevant biochemical pathways, and for each pathway, we created a fillable visual diagram to highlight the interactions between all substrates, enzymes, and cofactors. Implementation of the metabolic maps began for first-year medical students in fall 2022. Evaluation data included standard student session evaluations (Likert scale and qualitative comments) and a survey specific to the metabolic maps.

Results: After implementing the maps, student ratings of biochemistry/metabolism session materials significantly improved (3.2 ± 1.04 to 4.3 ± 0.87, p < 0.001), and students made positive comments about their effectiveness. Most students (77.8%) used the metabolic maps to aid in studying biochemistry content for exams and found the metabolic maps important for integrating information about metabolic pathways. The median performance on metabolism-specific questions was higher, although not statistically significant (69.23 to 77.28, ns).

Discussion: The implementation of integrated metabolic maps improved student satisfaction of biochemistry/metabolism session materials. Limitations include confounding factors related to student population differences and other simultaneous curriculum changes. Implementing interactive visual aids to integrate metabolism pathways and concepts is applicable to any medical curriculum, and other longitudinal topics may benefit from this type of curricular framework.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-024-02073-1.

Motivation to learn has been linked to learning outcomes, academic performance, learner well-being, and choice of medical specialty. Previous studies showed successful educational interventions to optimize students' levels of motivation and learning strategies. The purposes of this study are (1) to describe undergraduate medical students' motivational orientations and learning strategies in the first and last year at a Canadian university and (2) to analyze possible differences between undergraduate medical students' motivational orientations and learning strategies in those two academic years. An online cross-sectional survey was conducted using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The survey was sent to a total of 207 first-year and 203 third-year students. We received a total of 58 surveys, 32 of them were complete and analyzed. The overall response rate was 14.1%. The internal consistency for all the scales varied from 0.61 to 0.904. The overall score for the survey was 4.97 on a 7-point scale for all students. Highest scales' scores were obtained for elaboration (mean 5.68) and learning beliefs (mean 5.64), with the lowest scores obtained for rehearsal (3.82) and test anxiety (3.94). The total scores did not differ by students' academic year (p = 0.764), except for the effort regulation scale in which first-year students scored higher (p = 0.01). The largest differences between first- and last-year students were found in effort regulation, where first-years scored higher (difference of 0.99), followed by peer learning (difference of - 0.51), and then test anxiety (- 0.36). Our results showed a sample of students that are highly motivated, mostly driven by intrinsic goals, and are confident that they will master the tasks given to them. They rely more on elaboration strategies building connections between new and prior information, and less in rehearsal strategies used for simple tasks and memorization. The MSLQ showed to be a reliable instrument in our sample, and it could be use as an instrument to identify students' adaptive changes to enhance students' motivation to learn. A portrayal of medical students' attitudes in learning could guide educators to develop instructional programs that would help students to optimize their own learning.

Spoonful of Sugar is a medical education podcast that utilizes an innovative approach to undergraduate medical education by engaging medical students as teachers. This report describes the podcast, the benefits of engaging students as teachers, and future directions to improve the platform and formally study its impact.

Medical education is at a point of transition in which it must reform to meet the demand of healthcare providers competent in ultrasonography. This article recommends the pre-clerkship elective infrastructure as a method for medical schools to begin prototyping content and modes of delivering ultrasound education. Doing so will prepare medical students earlier in their careers to use and build upon their knowledge of ultrasound during clerkships and as residents.

This commentary explores the utilization of generative artificial intelligence (AI), particularly Google Gemini (previously Bard), in enhancing English presentation skills among non-native researchers. We present a step-by-step methodology for using Google Gemini's Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech features. Our findings suggest that Google Gemini effectively aids in draft presentations, pronunciation practice, and content verification, tapping into an area often unexplored-using AI for presentation skills in scientific research. Despite its potential, users must exercise caution due to the experimental nature of this AI technology. Adapting to such technologies is timely and beneficial for the global scientific community.

Health disparities exist among groups that are based on race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and geography. Often, interventions directed at addressing these disparities are episodically incorporated into health professions education as opposed to a more uniform integration throughout a curriculum. Thus, a working framework for integrating and assessing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) specifically into foundational science teaching in health professions' education is needed. Current frameworks are theoretically based and often bereft of practical examples that basic science and clinical educators would find useful in educational settings. Here we analyzed examples in pharmacology, therapeutics, and clinical medicine to create a tool aimed at identifying and remediating biases and disparities across the undergraduate medical education (UME) curriculum. We initially focused on pharmacology examples and performed a literature search followed by an in-depth analysis of the literature together with our experiences teaching topics with a DEI component. It became clear that, in addition to pure pharmacology topics, there are many pharmacology- and therapeutics-related topics that also involve race, gender, and sexual orientation. These include clinical guidelines and clinical screening criteria. Further analysis of all of the examples derived from our multi-faceted analysis revealed common themes that we, in turn, compiled into a framework. This framework can be used by foundational science and clinical educators to help both students and faculty understand how to navigate DEI-associated foundational science content.

The teaching of human anatomy (HA) constitutes one of the fundamental pillars of the curriculum in biological and healthcare-related programs. Therefore, it is imperative that the methodology and didactics employed in this discipline equip students in the best possible way. The traditional method of teaching HA involves lectures and practical classes with previously dissected cadaveric specimens and dissection activities. Concurrently, the present era is witnessing the emergence and popularization of new digital technologies connected to the internet, among which we can highlight smartphones, quick response codes, and virtual reality devices, along with the dissemination of complementary imaging methods, such as radiography, ultrasonography, magnetic resonance imaging, and computerized tomography. From this perspective, the objective of this review is to analyze how each of these new tools integrates into the academic context, in order to diversify the teaching of HA and contribute to better understanding of the HA content during academic training, as well as the clinical applications.