Mentors, students, and the undergraduate medical course: a virtuous circle

BACKGROUND: Mentoring Programs have been developed in several medical schools, but few studies have investigated the mentors'perspective. PURPOSES: To explore mentors'perceptions regarding their experience. METHODS: Mentors at a medical school were invited to participate in an in-depth interview including questions on satisfaction, difficulties, and perception of changes resulting from the program. RESULTS: Mentors' satisfaction and difficulties are strongly associated with students'involvement in the activity. Mentors believe changes observed in students were more related to life issues; for some mentors, there is no recognition or awareness of the program. However, most of the mentors acknowledged important changes in relation to themselves: as teachers, faculty members, and individuals. CONCLUSION: Attendance is crucial for both the mentoring relationship and strengthening of the program. Students involved in the activity motivate mentors in teaching and curriculum development, thereby creating a virtuous circle and benefiting undergraduate medical education as a whole.

Mentors, students, and the undergraduate medical course: a virtuous circle

BACKGROUND: Mentoring Programs have been developed in several medical schools, but few studies have investigated the mentors'perspective. PURPOSES: To explore mentors'perceptions regarding their experience. METHODS: Mentors at a medical school were invited to participate in an in-depth interview including questions on satisfaction, difficulties, and perception of changes resulting from the program. RESULTS: Mentors' satisfaction and difficulties are strongly associated with students'involvement in the activity. Mentors believe changes observed in students were more related to life issues; for some mentors, there is no recognition or awareness of the program. However, most of the mentors acknowledged important changes in relation to themselves: as teachers, faculty members, and individuals. CONCLUSION: Attendance is crucial for both the mentoring relationship and strengthening of the program. Students involved in the activity motivate mentors in teaching and curriculum development, thereby creating a virtuous circle and benefiting undergraduate medical education as a whole.

Teaching of medical ethics: Implications for an integrated curriculum

This paper reports on an investigation into the teaching of medical ethics and related areas in the medical undergraduate course at the University of Queensland. The project was designed in the context of a major curriculum change to replace the current 6 year course by an integrated, problem-based, 4 year graduate medical course, which began in 1997. A survey of clinical students, observations of clinical teaching sessions, and interviews with clinical teachers were conducted. Data obtained have contributed to curriculum development and will provide a baseline for comparison and evaluation of the graduate course in this field. A view of integrated ethics teaching is advanced in the light of the data obtained.

University students’ regulation of learning and text processing – examples from medical and teacher education

The general aim of the thesis was to study university students’ learning from the perspective of regulation of learning and text processing. The data were collected from the two academic disciplines of medical and teacher education, which share the features of highly scheduled study, a multidisciplinary character, a complex relationship between theory and practice and a professional nature. Contemporary information society poses new challenges for learning, as it is not possible to learn all the information needed in a profession during a study programme. Therefore, it is increasingly important to learn how to think and learn independently, how to recognise gaps in and update one’s knowledge and how to deal with the huge amount of constantly changing information. In other words, it is critical to regulate one’s learning and to process text effectively. The thesis comprises five sub-studies that employed cross-sectional, longitudinal and experimental designs and multiple methods, from surveys to eye tracking. Study I examined the connections between students’ study orientations and the ways they regulate their learning. In total, 410 second-, fourth- and sixth-year medical students from two Finnish medical schools participated in the study by completing a questionnaire measuring both general study orientations and regulation strategies. The students were generally deeply oriented towards their studies. However, they regulated their studying externally. Several interesting and theoretically reasonable connections between the variables were found. For instance, self-regulation was positively correlated with deep orientation and achievement orientation and was negatively correlated with non-commitment. However, external regulation was likewise positively correlated with deep orientation and achievement orientation but also with surface orientation and systematic orientation. It is argued that external regulation might function as an effective coping strategy in the cognitively loaded medical curriculum. Study II focused on medical students’ regulation of learning and their conceptions of the learning environment in an innovative medical course where traditional lectures were combined wth problem-based learning (PBL) group work. First-year medical and dental students (N = 153) completed a questionnaire assessing their regulation strategies of learning and views about the PBL group work. The results indicated that external regulation and self-regulation of the learning content were the most typical regulation strategies among the participants. In line with previous studies, self-regulation wasconnected with study success. Strictly organised PBL sessions were not considered as useful as lectures, although the students’ views of the teacher/tutor and the group were mainly positive. Therefore, developers of teaching methods are challenged to think of new solutions that facilitate reflection of one’s learning and that improve the development of self-regulation. In Study III, a person-centred approach to studying regulation strategies was employed, in contrast to the traditional variable-centred approach used in Study I and Study II. The aim of Study III was to identify different regulation strategy profiles among medical students (N = 162) across time and to examine to what extent these profiles predict study success in preclinical studies. Four regulation strategy profiles were identified, and connections with study success were found. Students with the lowest self-regulation and with an increasing lack of regulation performed worse than the other groups. As the person-centred approach enables us to individualise students with diverse regulation patterns, it could be used in supporting student learning and in facilitating the early diagnosis of learning difficulties. In Study IV, 91 student teachers participated in a pre-test/post-test design where they answered open-ended questions about a complex science concept both before and after reading either a traditional, expository science text or a refutational text that prompted the reader to change his/her beliefs according to scientific beliefs about the phenomenon. The student teachers completed a questionnaire concerning their regulation and processing strategies. The results showed that the students’ understanding improved after text reading intervention and that refutational text promoted understanding better than the traditional text. Additionally, regulation and processing strategies were found to be connected with understanding the science phenomenon. A weak trend showed that weaker learners would benefit more from the refutational text. It seems that learners with effective learning strategies are able to pick out the relevant content regardless of the text type, whereas weaker learners might benefit from refutational parts that contrast the most typical misconceptions with scientific views. The purpose of Study V was to use eye tracking to determine how third-year medical studets (n = 39) and internal medicine residents (n = 13) read and solve patient case texts. The results revealed differences between medical students and residents in processing patient case texts; compared to the students, the residents were more accurate in their diagnoses and processed the texts significantly faster and with a lower number of fixations. Different reading patterns were also found. The observed differences between medical students and residents in processing patient case texts could be used in medical education to model expert reasoning and to teach how a good medical text should be constructed. The main findings of the thesis indicate that even among very selected student populations, such as high-achieving medical students or student teachers, there seems to be a lot of variation in regulation strategies of learning and text processing. As these learning strategies are related to successful studying, students enter educational programmes with rather different chances of managing and achieving success. Further, the ways of engaging in learning seldom centre on a single strategy or approach; rather, students seem to combine several strategies to a certain degree. Sometimes, it can be a matter of perspective of which way of learning can be considered best; therefore, the reality of studying in higher education is often more complicated than the simplistic view of self-regulation as a good quality and external regulation as a harmful quality. The beginning of university studies may be stressful for many, as the gap between high school and university studies is huge and those strategies that were adequate during high school might not work as well in higher education. Therefore, it is important to map students’ learning strategies and to encourage them to engage in using high-quality learning strategies from the beginning. Instead of separate courses on learning skills, the integration of these skills into course contents should be considered. Furthermore, learning complex scientific phenomena could be facilitated by paying attention to high-quality learning materials and texts and other support from the learning environment also in the university. Eye tracking seems to have great potential in evaluating performance and growing diagnostic expertise in text processing, although more research using texts as stimulus is needed. Both medical and teacher education programmes and the professions themselves are challenging in terms of their multidisciplinary nature and increasing amounts of information and therefore require good lifelong learning skills during the study period and later in work life.

Evaluating curriculum changes in undergraduate cancer education

Background. Previous studies have indicated that Australian medical schools have not adequately prepared our graduating doctors to care for patients with cancer. The University of Western Australia (UWA) introduced a two-week clinical attachment in cancer medicine for fifth-year students in 2000 and a four-day clinical attachment in palliative care for sixth-year students in 2001. This article evaluates the introduction of these dedicated clinical attachments in cancer and palliative care. Method. The Australian Cancer Society's Cancer Education Survey was administered to the UWA graduates starting their intern year in teaching hospitals in Perth, Western Australia, in 2002. Their responses were compared with data collected in a similar national survey of Australian and New Zealand interns in 2001. Results. The response rate was 56% (n = 70). When compared with the national data for 2001, more UWA interns (2002) would refer a newly diagnosed breast cancer patient to a multidisciplinary breast clinic (97% vs. 74%, P<.001). Fewer UWA 2002 interns rated their training as poor or very poor in the management of patients with incurable cancer (19% vs. 35%, P=.008) and the management of symptoms in patients dying from cancer (10% vs. 37%, P<.001), but they were more likely to rate their training in assisting a patient to stop smoking as poor or very poor (54% vs. 21%, P<.001). Only a quarter of the UWA 2002 interns had examined a patient with a cancer of the mouth or tongue (25% vs. 49%, P<.001), and only two thirds had examined a patient with lymphoma (64% vs. 83%, P<.001). Conclusions. Our data reflect changes in the final two years of the medical course at UWA and suggest that the introduction of dedicated attachments in cancer and palliative care has better prepared graduating doctors to care for patients with cancer.

Dimensões do êxito de egressos de escolas públicas no processo seletivo para o cursos de medicina da UFPE

Garantir a oferta de uma educação de qualidade nas escolas públicas de estados e municípios é um grande desafio a ser enfrentado pelo Brasil. Em se tratando da aprovação nos vestibulares para cursos superiores prestigiados socialmente, o êxito de egressos dessas instituições é difícil em qualquer universidade. Esta investigação, de natureza qualitativa articula dados quantitativos para fundamentar as discussões acerca dos fatores que explicam a aprovação desses estudantes no processo seletivo para o curso de medicina da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco [UFPE]. A fim de se realizar o estudo de caso em questão, utilizamos três instrumentos de recolha: o questionário, contendo informações pessoais e dados da formação educacional dos três egressos e de seus familiares; a entrevista semiestruturada, onde os três estudantes e seus pais tiveram a possibilidade de discorrer sobre os temas propostos; e a história de vida, através da qual um dos sujeitos retratou todo o conjunto da experiência vivida. Todo o material foi comparado e relacionado durante a análise por meio da triangulação de dados. Os nossos resultados confirmam os achados de outros trabalhos do gênero quando apontam que melhorar a qualidade da Educação Básica é essencial para que o Brasil avance na formação de mão de obra, mas, diferencia-se de alguns deles, quando sugere que, em relação aos candidatos que tentam ingressar no curso de medicina, tão importantes quanto o interesse e a mobilização do estudante e de seus pais em relação aos estudos são os investimentos em serviços de apoio pedagógico e psicológico, tanto aqueles prestados pelas escolas quanto os que são realizados em locais especializados [dependendo do caso].

A Humanização e a Formação Médica na Perspectiva dos Estudantes de Medicina da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

The aim of this study is to understand the perception of medical students at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) about humanization in the context of their medical formation, using a qualitative approach. The focus group and participant observation techniques were used, involving a multidisciplinary team composed of professionals from the areas of anthropology and psychology, as well as professors from the medical course, who studied two groups of nine students in their final year. The data were analyzed using the categorical thematic content analysis technique, from which emerged three categories: student/patient relationship, teaching/learning and student/professor relationship. The first allows us to identify that student-patient contact is an essential experience for adopting a more humanized view of the disease process. The second category shows that unqualified professors in the pedagogic practices inherent to the teaching profession and the theory the practical dichotomy hinder the autonomous and holistic formation of knowledge. Similarly, the lack of practices outside the academic environment and the absence of multiprofessional stimulation interfere in the construction of an integral view of the individual. From the third category, the student/professor relationship, emerge two opposing subcategories (professor model and assymetric relationships), which reflect the importance of the professor`s ethical humanist position, as opposed to an authoritarian attitude, to form the professional attitude of the student. The results point important aspects of the medical formation that may open a discussion about humanization, in the context of new national curricular guidelines

Prevalência e fatores de risco para transtornos mentais comuns entre estudantes de medicina

OBJETIVO: Estimar a prevalência de transtornos mentais comuns entre estudantes de medicina e respectivos fatores de risco. MÉTODOS: Estudo transversal realizado com 551 universitários de um curso de medicina de Botucatu, SP. Utilizou-se questionário auto-aplicável investigando aspectos sócio demográficos, relacionados ao curso e o Self Reporting Questionnaire. Para análise dos dados empregaram-se os testes de qui-quadrado e regressão logística. RESULTADOS: Participaram 82,6% dos alunos matriculados no curso, predominando mulheres (61%), jovens (60% 20-23 anos), procedentes de outros municípios (99%). A prevalência de transtornos mentais comuns foi de 44,7% associando-se independentemente a: dificuldade para fazer amigos (RC=2,0), avaliação ruim sobre desempenho escolar (RC=1,7), pensar em abandonar o curso (RC=5,0), não receber o apoio emocional de que necessita (RC=4,6). Embora na primeira análise a prevalência tenha se mostrado associada ao ano do curso, esta associação não se manteve na análise multivariada. CONCLUSÕES: A prevalência de transtornos mentais comuns mostrou-se elevada entre os estudantes de medicina, associando-se a variáveis relacionadas à rede de apoio. As experiências emocionalmente tensas como o contato com pacientes graves, formação de grupos, entre outras, vividas nos últimos anos do curso, são provavelmente potentes estressores, especialmente para sujeitos com uma rede de apoio considerada deficiente. Sugere-se que instituições formadoras estejam atentas a esse fato, estabelecendo intervenções voltadas ao acolhimento e ao cuidado com o sofrimento dos estudantes.

A visita domiciliar na formação de médicos: da concepção ao desafio do fazer

Desde 2003, desenvolve-se a Interação Universidade Serviço Comunidade (IUSC) na graduação médica de uma universidade pública do interior de São Paulo, Brasil, a partir da necessidade de vivências na Atenção Primária, visando à integralidade do cuidado. A visita domiciliar (VD) destacou-se como possibilidade para o estudante refletir sobre determinantes sociais do processo saúde-doença; desenvolver habilidades comunicacionais, prática educativa dialógica e vínculo com a comunidade; ampliar o raciocínio clínico e contribuir para a compreensão e resolução dos problemas familiares. O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar essa proposta da VD na formação médica, utilizando pesquisa documental. Contextualizou-se o desenvolvimento da VD na IUSC, sua importância, abrangência e desafios para sua legitimação e incorporação como prática pertinente à formação médica. Concluiu-se que a VD pode fortalecer e ampliar vínculos, compromissos, e favorecer a comunicação, contribuindo para a mudança da educação médica no Brasil.

Estresse e a formação médica: implicações na saúde mental dos estudantes

Pós-graduação em Psicologia - FCLAS

Contribuições da educação permanente para avaliação docente da prática profissional do estudante de medicina

Pós-graduação em Educação - FFC

Concepções sobre a aprendizagem baseada em problemas: um estudo de caso na FAMEMA

Pós-graduação em Educação - FFC

Entre a teoria e a prática: o projeto político-pedagógico do curso de medicina da UFMA

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)