BMC Medical Education最新文献

Background: Ophthalmology is a crucial aspect of primary care, often featuring prominently in both general practice and emergency settings. With over 2 billion individuals worldwide affected by visual impairment, proficiency in basic ophthalmology is essential for general practitioners and emergency physicians.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 624 medical students from six universities in Jordan. Data were collected using a questionnaire assessing knowledge, diagnostic abilities, and treatment skills in ophthalmology, alongside demographic information and student satisfaction with their ophthalmology rotations. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS to identify significant associations between variables, with a p-value of less than 0.05 considered statistically significant. Informed consent was obtained from all participants.

Results: The majority of participants (44.6%) were 23 years old, and 59.8% were female. A significant proportion demonstrated proficiency in basic ophthalmic science, particularly in recognizing refractive problems and anatomical structures of the eye. Gaps were identified in understanding advanced topics such as aqueous regulation and the social-psychological impacts of visual impairment. Diagnostic abilities varied, with most students proficient in diagnosing common conditions like conjunctivitis and cataracts, but less so in identifying complex issues like intraocular foreign bodies. Treatment skills were generally lower, with significant disparities based on university affiliation and cumulative averages. Satisfaction with the ophthalmology rotation was positively correlated with better knowledge and diagnostic abilities.

Conclusion: The study highlights the variable proficiency in ophthalmic knowledge and skills among medical students, influenced by factors such as university affiliation and satisfaction with ophthalmology rotations.

Background: Medical students are at risk of developing depression and burnout; particularly vulnerable are the first-year students. The COVID pandemic has reemphasized the need for assessing and teaching resilience strategies to the students to promote well-being and develop help-seeking attitudes so that they could work better in a collaborative environment.

Aim of the study: To determine the level of resilience in private medical and dental colleges and explore perceptions of students regarding social support provided by peers and teachers in achieving resilience.

Method: A mixed-methods (sequential explanatory design) study was done at Islamic International Medical and Dental College (Riphah international university) after securing ethical approval from institutional review committee (IRC). To measure resilience, the health professional resilience scale (MeRS) was used, and scores were compared between male/female and 1st and 2nd year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery/Bachelor of Dental Surgery (MBBS/BDS). A total of three hundred (n = 300) students were contacted. An independent sample T-test was applied to compare the means of the four domains. A Chi-squared test was used to compare the frequency distribution of different categories and between BDS/MBBS and M/FM students. In the 2nd phase, we explored the perception of social support and the role of teachers and peers using the "perceived social support (PSS)" parameter. Twelve students were selected for interviews. Data was analysed using a thematic analytic approach.

Results: The Global resilience score was (mean = 116.37 ± 14.12) an established/moderate level of resilience. The difference between MBBS and BDS was not significant (p-value 0.695). Most students scored highest in the growth domain (exceptional category) and lowest in the resourceful domain (established category). They relied on all domains of perceived social support on peers. They expected better emotional support from teachers. The "low resilient" students were mostly found to make social connections difficult as compared to "high resilient" students. Females were particularly identified as being at risk of burnout.

Conclusion: Our study participants were found to have a moderate level of resilience. They have borderline help-seeking attitudes, and the particularly vulnerable population was females. Students expected different support from peers and teachers.

Background: Plastic surgery is an evolving surgical specialty, which has areas of overlap with other specialties in surgery. Common misunderstandings about the discipline are found among the general public, medical professionals and medical students. Many students who are aware of the specialty lack good knowledge about its scope. Such poor knowledge can impact negatively on the recruitment of residents to plastic surgery and it can also affect the correct referral of plastic surgery cases to the specialist.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess medical students' knowledge about the scope of plastic surgery and their interest in pursuing future career in the specialty. It also aimed to know the factors responsible for the students' interest or non-interest in the speciality.

Methodology: A cross-sectional online study done among 223 medical students in Nigeria. Google forms were forwarded to the respondents through WhatsApp and e-mail. The study population were 200 level to 600 level medical students spread across state, federal and private universities in Nigeria. The data was analysed using SPSS 22.0. The variables were represented as numbers and percentages. The level of significance was set at 0.05.

Results: Two hundred and seventeen (97.3%) of the students were aware of plastic and reconstructive surgery speciality but only 15% of the total respondents were interested in specializing in plastic surgery. The determinants of interest in plastic surgery included the respondents' school year, intention to undergo cosmetic surgery in the future and following of plastic surgery shows on Television. The procedure most commonly associated with plastic surgery by the students was burns management (95.1%). The determinants of the knowledge of plastic surgery procedures were previous formal lectures on plastic surgery and the presence of full-time plastic surgeon in the teaching hospital.

Conclusion: The perception of the work of a plastic surgeon is dependent on exposure to the speciality and a decline in teaching may perpetuate misunderstanding of the work carried out by plastic surgeons.

Background: Quality Improvement (QI) skills are recognized as a key outcome for medical students but are still rarely taught at the undergraduate level. Whilst there is evidence that preclinical students enjoy learning about QI, there is limited practical work exploring the best way to teach QI to this cohort. There are gaps in the literature around the evaluation of student-staff partnership approaches in the context of teaching QI, especially in line with the sustainable QI (susQI) framework. Our study evaluates a worksheet-based interactive session developed through student-staff partnership. The session was delivered to year one medical students in January 2024 at Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM).

Methods: An inductive approach to thematic analysis was used to review worksheet content submitted by students during the teaching session. This method was employed to determine the session's effectiveness and ascertain common themes of interest and application. 16 groups comprising 69 total students submitted worksheets for analysis.

Results: Three themes were identified: Making QI personal: learners chose to focus on improving their university experience over clinical projects, which affected how they identified stakeholders and designed their QI interventions; Misinterpretation of technical language: learners used their everyday understanding of QI terminology in the worksheets, evidencing some misconceptions; Understanding QI as a process: learners reported understanding and engaging with QI as a process and set of skills. Overall, students demonstrated both their understanding and application of QI methodology through engagement with the worksheet-based tasks.

Conclusions: Student-staff partnership is a feasible tool to develop and deliver an engaging and effective teaching session on QI, in line with susQI principles, for students with limited clinical experience. Further evaluation and use of partnership approaches in developing QI teaching and curricula are welcome and will likely deliver positive outcomes for learners.

Objective: To construct a research competency index system suitable for hospital pharmacists in China and evaluate it, promoting the transformation of hospital pharmacists and the construction and development of pharmacy discipline.

Methods: Combining literature research, behavioral event interviews were conducted on pharmaceutical personnel from 18 tertiary hospitals in 7 regions nationwide. Based on the interview results, a framework was developed. The framework was refined through focus group discussions and 2 rounds of Delphi expert consultations. The weights of each indicator were determined using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in the Yaahp software. The indicator system was validated and evaluated through a questionnaire survey. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted using SPSS 23.0 software, and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using Amos 24.0 software to examine the reliability and validity of the questionnaire.

Results: This study ultimately established a research competency indicator system for Chinese hospital pharmacists, comprising 3 primary indicators, 9 secondary indicators, and 42 tertiary indicators. The weights for each level of indicators were determined. The questionnaire survey method validated the reliability and validity of the system, indicating a good fit of the system.

Conclusion: The research has successfully established a research competency indicator system for Chinese hospital pharmacists, which exhibits good representativeness, authority, and applicability. It provides a theoretical basis for future studies on the research competency of hospital pharmacists and provides a valuable reference for promoting the construction and development of pharmacy discipline.

Background: Measuring artificial intelligence (AI) readiness among medical students is essential to assess how prepared future doctors are to work with AI technology. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the factors influencing AI readiness among medical students at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, both by evaluating the current situation and considering future developments.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study. The statistical population consisted of 800 first- to fifth-year medical students selected through convenient sampling at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences from November to March 2023. The data collection tools were demographic checklists and Persian version questionnaire of the medical artificial intelligence readiness scale for medical students (MAIRS-MS). The data were analyzed at a significance level of P < 0.05 using independent t-test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests through SPSS-24 software.

Results: Most of the students were male (56.13%). The overall score for medical AI readiness was 70.59 ± 19.24 out of a maximum possible score of 110. Students had the highest mean score of 9.73 ± 2.96 out of 15 in vision and the lowest mean score of 25.74 ± 7.52 out of 40 in ability. The overall mean of AI readiness (71.84 ± 18.27) was higher in females than males (69.62 ± 19.93), but this difference was not significant (p = 0.106). Furthermore, the mean total score of AI readiness increased with the increasing age of the students.

Conclusion: Our findings underscore the need to prepare students to work with AI technologies and to provide them with the essential knowledge and skills across different areas of AI. Accordingly, the Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences student's education unit should set up more AI training centers to provide and introduce basic artificial intelligence courses. Moreover, universities should identify the needs of students based on scientific evidence, and the medical education system should design AI training programs in its educational framework in the same direction.

Background: An educational gap for point-of-care-ultrasound (POCUS) training exists within Internal Medicine (IM) residency programs in that there is currently no standardized training paradigm. To address this need, we designed and implemented a five-day (one work week) elective for POCUS training intending to target IM resident POCUS knowledge and skills. This course integrates self-directed learning and supervised hands-on practice to deliver effective resident education in POCUS.

Methods: IM residents completed the five-day POCUS elective. Residents who took the elective were given an elective evaluation survey, written POCUS knowledge exams at a pre-course and post-course timepoint, as well as a post-course skills assessment exam.

Results: 45 IM residents completed the elective in total. 47% (N = 21) of all participating residents completed the evaluation survey. 94% of those who responded to the evaluation survey reported above average or outstanding satisfaction with all aspects of the elective, including hands-on teaching and materials provided. Written knowledge exams results showed a significant increase in POCUS knowledge scores, with pre-test and post-test scores increasing from 39 to 66%, respectively (N = 30, p < 0.001). Overall, on a skills evaluation of tested residents (N = 20), 45% were deemed to acquire images independently while 40% could interpret independently, with all learners deemed able to do both with some level of supervision. Overall use of POCUS by IM residents as measured by saved ultrasound studies increased after the implementation of the elective, suggesting institutional impact.

Discussion: POCUS training is a recognized need for IM residency programs. While existing POCUS training programs vary in both length of course and depth of material to suit different educational objectives, we have presented a well-received and effective POCUS training paradigm aimed at achieving knowledge acquisition for clinical practice. This POCUS elective rotation, which is integrated into trainee's patient care experiences, circumvents several known barriers to POCUS education including work-hour limitations and limited trainee hands-on experience opportunities. We propose that our elective serves as a model for IM residencies which have similar needs with respect to POCUS education.

Background: This study presents a novel approach to educational role-playing through an AI-based bot, leveraging GPT-4 to simulate anamnesis interviews in various learning scenarios. Developed collaboratively by an interdisciplinary team of university lecturers and AI experts, the bot provides a platform for students of different health study programs to engage in complex patient-health professional conversations, offering an alternative to traditional role plays with actors or real patients.

Methods: This study utilized a GPT-4 based digital teaching assistant, implemented through a proprietary chatbot design platform, to train anamnesis interviews in virtual settings with students from different online health care study programs. Students' satisfaction, virtual patient's accuracy, its realism, and quality were evaluated with a quantitative survey.

Results: The evaluation of the bot focused on student feedback, highlighting a preference for the AI-driven method due to its immersive and interactive nature. Preliminary results show that students consistently rate the language ability of the AI model positively. More than 80% of students rated the professional and content-related precision of the virtual patient as good to excellent. Even as a text-based chatbot, the vast majority of students see a fairly close to very close relationship to a real anamnesis interview. The results further indicate that students even prefer this training approach to traditional in-person role-plays.

Conclusions: The study underscores the bot's potential as a versatile tool for enriching learning experiences across multiple health disciplines, signaling a meaningful shift in educational practices towards the integration of AI technologies.

Introduction: Peer assessment enables students to evaluate peers, deepening their understanding of course objectives and boosting engagement. However, its dependability, especially in summative contexts, is often questioned. This study examines the dependability of peer assessments, and the optimal number of items and raters needed for a reliable assessment in project-based learning (PtBL).

Methods: In a PtBL class, 95 third-year pre-clinical students, grouped into ten teams, created 5-min videos on cardiovascular lifestyle modifications for the community, followed by a 5-min presentation on the video's information and relevance to the citizen. Over three weeks, each group, guided by three advisors, refined their video. During presentations, peers (from nine non-presenting groups) and ten teachers (five Doctor of Medicines (MDs) and five health professors) evaluated the video presentation using a 6-item rubric covering three domains: interdisciplinary data integration, interpersonal skills, and video quality/effectiveness. Messick's validity framework was utilized to guide the collection of validity evidence.

Results: Five sources of validity evidence were collected: 1) Content: Three professors confirmed the rubric's content validity. 2) Response process: Scores from students, MDs, and health professors are similar at 54.00 ± 4.03, 53.24 ± 4.18, and 54.16 ± 4.16, respectively (F = 0.75, p = 0.472). 3) Internal structure: A fully crossed design (p × i × r) generalizability theory analysis showed that achieving a Phi-coefficient ≥ 0.70 on a six-item rubric requires 27 students (Phi-coefficient = 0.70), 7 MDs (Phi-coefficient = 0.70), or 5 health professors (Phi-coefficient = 0.73). A nested design (r:(p × i)) demonstrated superior reliability, requiring only 9 students, 5 MDs, and 4 health professors for acceptable reliability. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good model fit. 4) Relations to other variables: On average, peer and teacher ratings scored 54.00 ± 2.22 and 53.70 ± 2.78, respectively, with an inter-rater reliability of r = 0.73 (p = 0.016). 5) Consequences: Most groups found peer assessment beneficial for gaining insightful feedback (8/10), enhancing engagement (7/10), refining their work (5/10), and learning structured feedback (3/10), though there were concerns about potential bias (5/10).

Conclusion: Dependability evidence for peer assessment in the PtBL context was successfully gathered. In PtBL, students contribute to grading due to their diverse expertise. While peer assessment cannot replace teacher evaluations, it enhances engagement, enriches the learning environment, and improves assessment quality through valuable feedback.

Background: Feedback is crucial in medical education for developing communication skills and fostering comprehensive learning. Despite its importance, medical students often face challenges in effectively leveraging feedback. This study investigates how students perceive and make sense of internal and external feedback in a 2nd language (L2) medical Dutch course.

Methods: Sixteen third-year international medical students (mean age = 23) participated in a medical Dutch course that included six structured sessions. Each session encompassed a briefing, simulated patient consultations (SPCs), and a debriefing. The curriculum integrated internal feedback from self-reflections and external feedback from peers, teachers, and simulated patients. Data were gathered through a students' feedback perception survey and semi-structured interviews and analyzed via inductive thematic analysis.

Results: Survey data indicated a trend where the preference, satisfaction, and trust in external feedback were higher than those for internal feedback. However, both types of feedback were regarded as equally effective in facilitating learning progress. Through thematic analysis, we identified five crucial themes that show how students perceive and make sense of various forms of feedback: proactive engagement with feedback, critically analyzing and utilizing the exchange in dialogues and discussions, self-reflection and progress tracking, value from diverse perspectives, and moment-specific and actionable feedback.

Conclusions: This study emphasizes the vital roles of internal and external feedback in enhancing medical Dutch communication skills among medical students. Internal feedback encourages self-reflection and growth, essential for complex medical communications, while external feedback provides clear, specific and supportive guidance and experience from teachers, simulated patients and peers. These feedback mechanisms together improve students' skills in medical Dutch communication, leading to better doctor-patient interactions. Future research should focus on adapting these feedback strategies across diverse educational settings to further support the development of medical L2 communication skills in global medical contexts.