Korean journal of medical education最新文献

Purpose: This study evaluated a school-based mental health program within a psychiatry clerkship to enhance medical students' competencies in mental health literacy, empathy, communication, and adaptability. The program aimed to bridge theoretical knowledge with practical skills through experiential learning in a real-world, community-based setting.

Methods: The study utilized convenience sampling to select 32 medical students from the 2023-2024 psychiatry clerkship cohort. Four focus group discussions, each lasting 60-90 minutes, provided qualitative data, which were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis in Atlas.ti (ATLAS.ti GmbH, Germany) to identify themes related to professional development.

Results: Five key themes emerged, highlighting significant gains in context-sensitive communication, empathy, and mental health literacy specific to adolescent issues. The students reported increased clinical confidence, enhanced resilience through psychological techniques such mindfulness and motivational interviewing, and benefited from sustained engagement and peer support, fostering collaboration and stress management.

Conclusion: The school-based mental health program enhanced essential competencies in mental health literacy, empathy, communication, and practical skills for medical students. By integrating experiential learning into medical education, the program addressed training gaps, equipping future healthcare providers with the skills necessary for holistic and patient-centered mental healthcare across diverse clinical settings. The approach showed potential for broader applications in medical education to prepare students for comprehensive mental health support skills.

This scoping review describes the responsibilities of facilitators, especially clinical teachers, in facilitating clinical reasoning and factors affecting the implementation of the strategies. This review was conducted by collecting and identifying original data in peer-reviewed full English journals published between 2004 and 2021. It followed Arksey and O'Malley's framework and adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines. The process included formulating review questions, developing a comprehensive search strategy, selecting relevant studies, extracting data, and presenting findings. Initial searches were conducted on PubMed, EBSCO, Scopus, and EMBASE, with a research librarian ensuring the efficiency and comprehensiveness of the search. The search based on the PCC approach (population, concept, context approach) encompassed "clinical reasoning," "facilitation," and "clinical teachers." Out of the initial 2,004 records retrieved from the four databases, a thorough screening process led to the 30 studies included in the review, revealing three primary themes and multiple strategies related to clinical reasoning facilitation in clinical settings. These themes involved the responsibilities of clinical teachers, strategies utilized, and factors influencing clinical reasoning learning in clinical settings. In the clinical settings, clinical teachers have crucial responsibilities in facilitating clinical reasoning learning, including creating a safe environment, demonstrating effective practices, using appropriate strategies, and assessing students' abilities. While this review has explored the responsibilities of clinical teachers, specific strategies that enhance clinical reasoning abilities need further investigation. Additionally, the impacts of identified factors on strengthening clinical reasoning abilities require more analysis.

Purpose: Lecture-based teaching is widely used in preclinical medical education, offering a systematic way to deliver complex information efficiently. However, its effectiveness heavily relies on the instructional behaviors of lecturers. Despite its importance, limited research has explored the specific differences between effective and ineffective teaching behaviors perceived by students. This study aims to analyze these behaviors systematically to provide actionable insights for enhancing teaching competencies.

Methods: This study surveyed 92 first-year medical students to evaluate effective and ineffective teaching behaviors. A 30-item questionnaire was developed based on existing literature. Data analysis included descriptive statistics to rank teaching behaviors and chi-square tests to examine their correlations.

Results: Effective behaviors included appropriate voice volume, clear pronunciation, error-free lecture materials, clear explanations of learning objectives, and humor. Ineffective behaviors were poor voice clarity, insufficient summarization, lack of follow-up session introductions, absence of online resources, and poor interaction. Significant relationships between effective and ineffective behaviors were observed in some items.

Conclusion: The study highlights those effective behaviors, such as recalling prior learning, utilizing materials, and engaging students, enhance learning outcomes. Faculty development should focus on avoiding ineffective behaviors for novice faculty and reinforcing effective ones for mid-career faculty to improve teaching quality in medical education.

Purpose: Interviews play a crucial role in the medical school selection process, although little is known about interviewers' non-verbal observable communications (NoVOC) during the interviews. This study investigates how interviewers perceive NoVOC exhibited by interviewees in two medical schools, one in Taiwan and the other in Australia. The study also explores potential cross-cultural differences in these perceptions.

Methods: A 26-item questionnaire was developed using a Delphi-like method to identify NoVOC. Interviewers from the University of New South Wales, Australia, and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan (n=47 and N=78, respectively) rated these NoVOC between 2018 and 2021. Factor analyses identified and validated underlying factors. Measurement invariance across countries and genders was examined.

Results: A total of 125 interviewers completed the questionnaire, including 78 from Taiwan and 47 from Australia. Using exploratory factor analysis, 14 items yielded reliable three factors "charming," "disengaged," and "anxious" (Cronbach's α=0.853, 0.714, and 0.628, respectively). The measurement invariance analysis indicated that the factor models were invariant across genders but significantly different between the two countries. Further analysis revealed inconsistencies in interpreting the "anxious" factor between Taiwan and Australia.

Conclusion: The three distinct factors revealed in this study provide valuable insights into the NoVOC that interviewers perceive and evaluate during the interview process. The findings highlight the importance of considering non-verbal communication in selecting medical students and emphasize the need for training and awareness among interviewers. Understanding the impact of non-verbal behaviors can improve selection processes to mitigate bias and enhance the fairness and reliability of medical student selection.

Purpose: The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic led to significant changes in clinical clerkships, including reduced ward rounds. We aimed to determine how the pandemic-induced changes in the clinical practice environment affect the clinical performance of medical students.

Methods: We analyzed objective structured clinical examination scores of third- and fourth-year medical students from 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 across six stations by the Seoul-Gyeonggi Consortium. Clinical, communication, and ability scores were measured and analyzed using repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance.

Results: The interaction between clinical practice progress and pandemic-induced changes significantly affected physical examination and medical history scores, though the differences were not substantial. Patient-physician interaction significance varied by measurement period. Clinical communication ability also showed significant differences based on the measurement period and practical experience.

Conclusion: During the pandemic, alternative learning methods, including self-learning, simulation/practice, and peer role-play, helped improve medical competency in areas such as history-taking and physical examination. However, these were less effective in improving patient-physician interactions or clinical communication efficacy. Alternative learning methods have limitations, and they cannot replace direct patient encounters in clinical practice.

Haptic dental simulators are gaining recognition for training dental students. However, there needs to be more evidence of their pedagogical effectiveness. The primary aims were to (1) identify the published studies related to the application of virtual reality (VR) and haptic technology in the restorative dentistry training of dental students, (2) recognize the outcome criteria used in the published studies, and (3) determine the subjective evaluation of VR and haptic technology in the restorative dentistry training by the students. A comprehensive literature search was conducted to find scholarly articles that assessed the utilization of VR and haptics in training students in restorative dentistry. The investigation was performed via seven online databases: Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, PubMed, Science Direct Freedom Collection, Latin American & Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS), EMBASE, and MEDLINE. Of the 268 potential articles assessed, 22 met the inclusion criteria. Findings demonstrated feasibility and acceptability. Additionally, there was improved motor skill acquisition and retention and less time for dental restoration after haptic virtual reality training. With the rising evidence of efficacy and increased utilization of digital technologies, virtual reality, and haptics has a role in improving students' education outcomes.

Purpose: With the accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine, the integration of AI education into medical school curricula is gaining significant attention. This study aimed to gather the perceptions of faculty members and students regarding the integration of AI education into medical curricula in the Korean context.

Methods: Faculty members and medical students' perspectives on integrating AI into medical curricula were assessed through thematic analysis of free-written responses from 157 faculty members and 125 students in a national online survey on medical AI competencies in South Korea.

Results: Three key themes emerged: content, which prioritizes basic knowledge and its practical applications, with an emphasis on ethical and legal responsibilities; curricular design, which advocates for a spiral curriculum tailored to learners' needs; and concerns, which highlight balancing AI integration with the principal goals of medical education while critically evaluating ongoing advancements.

Conclusion: Our study adds valuable insights into the content and methods to prioritize AI education. Given the rapid evolution of medical learners and AI technologies, continuous and timely needs assessment for AI curriculum development is crucial to maintain relevance and effectiveness.

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the factors influencing premedical students' satisfaction with early clinical experience and determine the mediating effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between learning motivation and satisfaction.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 35 second-year premedical students who completed the early clinical experience course and responded to course evaluation questionnaires on self-efficacy, transfer motivation, and student satisfaction. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, Baron and Kenny's hierarchical multiple regression analyses, and the Sobel test.

Results: Student satisfaction was significantly correlated with self-efficacy (r=0.724, p<0.01) and transfer motivation (r=0.538, p<0.01). Self-efficacy and transfer motivation were also highly correlated (r=0.789, p<0.01). Multiple regression analyses and Sobel test indicated that self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between student satisfaction and transfer motivation (Z=2.704, p<0.01).

Conclusion: In this study, early clinical experience program increased premedical students' self-efficacy and transfer motivation for clinical knowledge and confirmed that self-efficacy mediated student satisfaction. These findings demonstrate the positive effects of early clinical experience on the medical school curriculum and suggest the need for educational strategies to increase self-efficacy in learning.

In recent years, professionalism education has been incorporated into medical education as an important part of the curriculum. Through receiving professionalism education, most medical students gradually acquire professionalism, including a professional attitude. However, some medical students demonstrate unprofessional behavior that raises concerns among faculty and other students. There are various stages to dealing with unprofessional behavior, as follows: definition, prevention, detection, evaluation, correction, and follow-up. However, it is often difficult to identify unprofessional behavior and respond appropriately. In this study, overview of medical students' unprofessional behavior from previous studies on medical students' unprofessionalism behavior, and how to identify and evaluate medical students' unprofessional behavior, and effective education that can correct medical students' unprofessional behavior was analyzed by reviewing 52 articles. Medical students' unprofessional behavior is classified into the following four categories: "lack of involvement," "lack of integrity," "lack of interaction," and "lack of introspection." The occurrence of unprofessional behavior was found to be attributed to personal problems, interpersonal problems, external factors, and environmental factors. Educators analyzed unprofessional behavior and its causes from four categories. Medical students should perform reflective writing to help them reflect on their unprofessional behavior. Educators should use this reflective writing to interact with medical students, and to investigate and analyze the students' unprofessional behavior. Furthermore, educators will need to assess unprofessional behavior using a roadmap to address unprofessionalism, and to respond appropriately to each stage of the roadmap. Individualized educational interventions should be provided to help students correct their unprofessional behavior.

Purpose: This study investigated the association between intern doctors' performance as assessed by their peers and their academic performance in medical school.

Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis was conducted with 21 graduates from a South Korean medical school who interned at an affiliated center. Participants underwent bi-annual peer evaluation for intern performance evaluations using a 5-point Likert scale on professionalism, clinical competencies, and interpersonal skills. Associations between peer ratings and grade point average (GPA), exit assessment scores, and Korean Medical Licensing Examination (KMLE) scores were analyzed.

Results: Peer ratings showed moderate to strong positive associations with exit assessments and KMLE scores, but no relationship with cumulative GPAs. Peer ratings correlated more strongly with objective structured clinical examinations than written tests.

Conclusion: Medical students' outcomes in exit assessments and KMLEs, especially clinical performance tests, are strong predictors of their performance as intern doctors. These findings highlight the value of clinical performance assessments for predicting intern doctors' performance and suggest the need for more comprehensive and authentic assessment methods to enhance their predictive validity.