Medical Science Educator最新文献

Surface anatomy plays a crucial role in medical education, providing a foundation for the safe acquisition of physical examination and clinical skills among medical students. Despite its importance, surface anatomy education often receives insufficient emphasis in medical curricula, lacking robust empirical support for its effectiveness in higher education. This study addresses this gap by introducing a comprehensive Work-based Surface Anatomy Teaching (WSAT) model, shaped by insights from two scoping review findings. Rigorous expert ratings were employed to establish the model's content, response process, and internal validity. A small-scale randomized controlled trial involving 27 participants compared the WSAT instruction to routine surface anatomy instruction in a control group. Through pre- and post-teaching assessments, and follow-up sessions, the study measured knowledge retention, cognitive loads, learning engagement, and changes in learning competencies. Results revealed that the intervention group, receiving WSAT instruction, demonstrated significantly lower extraneous load, heightened self-perceived learning, and increased cognitive and physical engagement compared to the control group. Despite similar baseline surface competencies, the intervention group outperformed the control in acquiring cognitive, psychomotor, and affective competencies, as well as in retaining psychomotor skills and displaying professional behavior. While these findings are promising, future studies are necessary to assess the impact of WSAT instruction on student learning behaviors and organizational dynamics. A larger trial across multiple institutions will contribute valuable insights into the feasibility and applicability of the WSAT model in diverse demographic settings, ultimately enhancing medical education practices.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-025-02385-w.

The evolving role of modern physicians requires leadership skills beyond clinical expertise. Despite the growing need, leadership training in undergraduate medical education (UME) in the United States remains inconsistent and lacks standardization. This commentary reviews current leadership programs, highlights disparities in curriculum structure, and evaluates two proposed models - the Medical Leadership Competency Framework (MLCF) and emotional intelligence (EI)- as potential national frameworks. It also discusses barriers to curriculum implementation, such as, delivery format and student accessibility. To prepare future physicians to successfully lead in their roles, a standardized leadership competency must be developed and integrated into UME.

Background: Uncertainty is pervasive in clinical medicine and provides a major hurdle for decision-making. Our previous work has demonstrated the importance of providing parents of paediatric patients reassurance in the medical team's plan of action, what we have termed "comfort with doctors' reassurance."

Aims: We provide several practical and implementable tips to medical students in how they can learn to deal with their own uncertainty, recognize the subtle complexities involved and acknowledge the emotional stress that can accompany this process, develop a healthy long-term relationship with uncertainty, and ultimately embrace its potential in providing holistic care to their patients and their caregivers.

Results: Twelve tips and actions in four main domains are recommended: (A) Understanding and Integrating Uncertainty into Medical Education, (B) Building Resilience and Empathy Through Self-Regulation and Reflection, (C) Enhancing Communication and Relationship-Building Skills, and (D) Clinical Skills for Reassurance and Decision-Making.

Conclusions: Even though uncertainty in medical decision-making is pervasive and challenging for the medical trainee, there are several concrete strategies that can build comfort with uncertainty in trainees and reinforce the potential positive attributes of uncertainty in the holistic care of patients. Empathy and expressing compassion remain key skills in bridging caregiver discomfort with uncertainty and comfort with doctors' reassurance.

Professor-Reviewed Exam Practice (PREP) is a student-faculty partnership that co-creates curriculum-aligned formative questions for the entire preclinical medical school class to use in active learning. PREP has sustained its productivity over three medical school classes. Here we describe PREP's recruitment process and its near-peer mentorship program that prepares new members to independently create PREP-style formative questions. PREP's productivity and the utilization of its formative questions across classes is evaluated, demonstrating that the workflow is sustainable. We believe that this program could be adopted by other schools to broaden the availability of free curriculum-aligned formative questions in preclinical medical education.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-025-02406-8.

Effective patient-centered communication, particularly the skills of breaking bad news (BBN), is crucial for successful doctor-patient relationships and requires specialized training. This study evaluates the impact of Chatbot Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (ChatGPT) on BBN training for medical students. We found significant increase in medical students' confidence in their BBN ability (3 vs. 4.17, p = 0.002) and greater trust in ChatGPT as a tool for learning communication skills and professionalism (2.33 vs. 3.5, p = 0.001), after engaging in pre-designed BBN scenario with ChatGPT. These findings highlight AI's potential to enhance communication training, offering an innovative approach to developing essential skills in future physicians.

Objective: As psychiatry residency programs grow increasingly competitive, innovative mentorship models are needed to support medical students' academic development. This study evaluates the Medical Student Resident Liaison (MSRL) Program, implemented in the academic year 2023-2024, aimed at connecting medical students to psychiatry-related scholarly opportunities, including research, teaching, and networking.

Methods: Eighteen participants completed surveys assessing changes in knowledge, interest, project access, and confidence in their residency applications. Additionally, a focus group interview with medical students provided qualitative insights, analyzed through thematic analysis to identify key experiences and areas for improvement.

Results: Survey analysis revealed significant increases in students' perceived knowledge (p=0.001), access to psychiatry projects (p=0.004), and confidence in their residency application CVs (p=0.039). The focus group identified key benefits of the program, such as enhanced access to research opportunities, networking, and autonomy in project involvement.

Conclusion: The MSRL program effectively enhanced students' academic growth, confidence, and engagement with psychiatry. It serves as an adaptable model for addressing limited faculty availability and increasing interest in psychiatry residency. Implementing structured mentorship programs as early as the first or second year of medical school may further enhance student preparedness, particularly if coupled with faculty-led networking opportunities. As previous research indicates, residents' unique position in mentorship is associated with better medical student outcomes, and we advise the implementation of the MSRL program to all interested specialties.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-025-02404-w.

Building relationships and broadening perspectives promotes cultural competence, inclusion, and belonging. At Indiana University School of Medicine, we created an innovative reverse mentoring-inspired program (Forward Mentoring) to connect individuals across academic hierarchies with the goal of fostering relationships, cultural humility, and leadership capacity through honest, personal, and reflective discourse-all to build more inclusive and welcoming workplaces. Here we describe the novel Forward Mentoring framework, outline the initial programmatic design and implementation, and present an evaluation plan that assesses learning, growth, satisfaction, and program efficacy. Evaluation data from a limited pilot is presented and future directions discussed.

Biomedical research contributes to advances in medical practice, the ability to understand, interpret, and direct medical research, and is imperative for future physicians and physician-scientists. Due to numerous barriers to developing research skills during medical school, it is predicted that the addition of a formalized experimental design and analysis course will help prepare future physicians to conduct and implement evidence-based practices. The primary objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an elective course on Experimental Design and Analysis for first-year medical students. This study recruited first-year medical students at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans enrolled in the newly developed Experimental Design and Analysis course. Course topics were divided into five categories: Experimental Design, Biostatistical Analysis, Interpretation and Presentation, Ethical and Regulatory Topics, and Career Preparation. Students expressed improved understanding and confidence in the five core components. The greatest increase in confidence and understanding occurred in Ethical and Regulatory Topics. Almost all students enrolled in the course (>95%) expressed increased confidence in understanding research design and analysis topics along with confidence in participating in future research opportunities. Most students enrolled in the course went on to engage in formal research training during the summer following enrollment in the course. We recommend introducing an elective research course on experimental design and analysis during the first year of medical school, with the intent of introducing research-related concepts to increase confidence and understanding of the research process, with particular emphasis on regulatory components of research.

Background: Reconciling echocardiographic images with heart anatomy in sonographic cross-sections is challenging. We compared use of 3D-printed heart models to 3D Portable Document Format (PDFs) heart models as learning aids in understanding echocardiography.

Methods: 3D heart models were printed in five echocardiographic cross-sections: parasternal long axis, parasternal base short axis, parasternal ventricular short axis, apical four-chamber, and bicaval. Models were also reproduced as 3D PDFs on handheld tablets. Medical students were assigned to use 3D PDFs (control) or 3D-printed models (experimental) while performing transthoracic echocardiograms on standardized patients. Students were given immediate (after one session) and delayed (after four sessions in two months) post-tests measuring satisfaction, learning quality, and echocardiographic knowledge. Analysis was conducted using two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) testing with a p-value threshold of 0.05, followed by post-hoc testing with adjustment for multiple comparisons when indicated.

Results: One-hundred fifty students were surveyed. The experimental group reported greater satisfaction and learning quality relative to the control for the immediate and delayed periods (p < 0.01). Satisfaction and learning quality decreased in the control group from the immediate to the delayed period (p < 0.01); no difference was found in the experimental group. No difference in group echocardiographic knowledge scores was found with respect to the assigned 3D technology (p = 0.091). The control group's knowledge score increased from the immediate to the delayed period (p < 0.01); no difference was found for the experimental group (p = 0.238).

Conclusion: 3D PDF and 3D-printed heart models achieve similar efficacy in supplementing student learning of echocardiography. However, students may prefer 3D-printed heart models.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-025-02392-x.