Further concerns about self-assessment: are medical students aware of their progress in clinical skills during clerkship

Background: Medical students do not accurately self-assess their competence. However, little is known about the awareness of change of competence over time. The aim of this study was to evaluate if students are aware of their progress. Summary of work: Twenty-two fourth year medical students had self- and expert-assessments of their clinical skills in musculoskeletal medicine in an OSCE like station (4 point Likert scale) at the beginning (t0) and end (t1) of their eight weeks clerkship in internal medicine. Thirteen students were assigned to the intervention of a 6x1 hour practical examination course; nine took part in the regular clinical clerkship activities only and served as controls. Summary of results/Conclusions: The intervention students significantly improved their skills (from 2.78 ± 0.36 to 3.30 ± 0.36, p<0.05) in contrast to the control students (from 3.11 ± 0.58 to 2.83 ± 0.49, n.s.). At t0, 19 students, at t1 21 out of 22 students underestimated their competence. Correlations between the change of self- and expert-assessment were r=0.43, p<0.05 (all), r=0.47, n.s. (control) and r=-0.12, n.s. (intervention), respectively. Take-home message: Medical students improving their clinical skills by an interactive course in addition to their regular clerkship activities are not aware of their progress

Defining Goals and Learning Objectives for a Longitudinal Clerkship in the Complex Context of Health Care

In autumn 2007 the Swiss Medical School of Berne (Switzerland) implemented mandatory short-term clerkships in primary health care for all undergraduate medical students. Students studying for a Bachelor degree complete 8 half-days per year in the office of a general practitioner, while students studying for a Masters complete a three-week clerkship. Every student completes his clerkships in the same GP office during his four years of study. The purpose of this paper is to show how the goals and learning objectives were developed and evaluated. Method:A working group of general practitioners and faculty had the task of defining goals and learning objectives for a specific training program within the complex context of primary health care. The group based its work on various national and international publications. An evaluation of the program, a list of minimum requirements for the clerkships, an oral exam in the first year and an OSCE assignment in the third year assessed achievement of the learning objectives. Results: The findings present the goals and principal learning objectives for these clerkships, the results of the evaluation and the achievement of minimum requirements. Most of the defined learning objectives were taught and duly learned by students. Some learning objectives proved to be incompatible in the context of ambulatory primary care and had to be adjusted accordingly. Discussion: The learning objectives were evaluated and adapted to address students’ and teachers’ needs and the requirements of the medical school. The achievement of minimum requirements (and hence of the learning objectives) for clerkships has been mandatory since 2008. Further evaluations will show whether additional learning objectives need to be adopte

Narrated PowerPoints and Audio Podcasts in Clinical Teaching: One Clerkship's Experience

Introduction: Clinical medical education is increasingly utilizing novel technological approaches in order to supplement traditional lecture-based didactics. The Neurology Core Clerkship at Baylor College of Medicine is a four week required course taken by clinical medical students. Given the large amount of information to be disseminated in a short period of time, part of the didactic material has been provided online in the form of narrated PowerPoint files or lecture audio tracks along with stand-alone PowerPoint files. The narrated files are generated using the native PowerPoint narration function while the stand-alone audio files are created as MP3 format files using an inexpensive digital recording device. [See PDF for complete abstract]

Sustained impact of a short small group course with systematic feedback in addition to regular clinical clerkship activities on musculoskeletal examination skills-a controlled study.

BACKGROUND The discrepancy between the extensive impact of musculoskeletal complaints and the common deficiencies in musculoskeletal examination skills lead to increased emphasis on structured teaching and assessment. However, studies of single interventions are scarce and little is known about the time-dependent effect of assisted learning in addition to a standard curriculum. We therefore evaluated the immediate and long-term impact of a small group course on musculoskeletal examination skills. METHODS All 48 Year 4 medical students of a 6 year curriculum, attending their 8 week clerkship of internal medicine at one University department in Berne, participated in this controlled study. Twenty-seven students were assigned to the intervention of a 6×1 h practical course (4-7 students, interactive hands-on examination of real patients; systematic, detailed feedback to each student by teacher, peers and patients). Twenty-one students took part in the regular clerkship activities only and served as controls. In all students clinical skills (CS, 9 items) were assessed in an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) station, including specific musculoskeletal examination skills (MSES, 7 items) and interpersonal skills (IPS, 2 items). Two raters assessed the skills on a 4-point Likert scale at the beginning (T0), the end (T1) and 4-12 months after (T2) the clerkship. Statistical analyses included Friedman test, Wilcoxon rank sum test and Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS At T0 there were no significant differences between the intervention and control group. At T1 and T2 the control group showed no significant changes of CS, MSES and IPS compared to T0. In contrast, the intervention group significantly improved CS, MSES and IPS at T1 (p < 0.001). This enhancement was sustained for CS and MSES (p < 0.05), but not for IPS at T2. CONCLUSIONS Year 4 medical students were incapable of improving their musculoskeletal examination skills during regular clinical clerkship activities. However, an additional small group, interactive clinical skills course with feedback from various sources, improved these essential examination skills immediately after the teaching and several months later. We conclude that supplementary specific teaching activities are needed. Even a single, short-lasting targeted module can have a long lasting effect and is worth the additional effort.

Medical Curriculum at Selected Colleges: Foundations and Integrated Presentation of Basic Medical Sciences Distribution over Pre-Clerkship Period

Overview and statistics on the medical curriculum at Arizona, Emory, FIU, Rochester, and Vermont.

Oral Health Promotion Through an Online Training Program for Medical Students

The objective of this study was to compare the impact on knowledge and counseling skills of face-to-face and Internet-based oral health training programs on medical students. Participants consisted of 148 (82 percent) of the 180 invited students attending their fifth academic year at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Brasil, in 2007. The interventions took place during a three-month training period in the clinical Center for Health Promotion, which comprised part of a clerkship in Internal Medicine. The students were divided into four groups: 1) Control Group (Control), with basic intervention; 2) Brochure Group (Br), with basic intervention plus complete brochure with oral health themes; 3) Cybertutor Group (Cy), with basic intervention plus access to an Internet-based training program about oral health themes; and 4) Cybertutor + Contact Group (Cy+C), the same as Cy plus brief proactive contact with a tutor. The impact of these interventions on student knowledge was measured with pre- and post assessments, and student skills in asking and counseling about oral health were assessed with an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). Multivariate logistic regression models were applied to identify the odds ratios of scoring above Control's medians on the final assessment and the OSCE. In the results, Cy+C performed significantly better than Control on both the final assessment (OR 9.4; 95% CI 2.7-32.8) and the OSCE (OR 5.6; 95% CI 1.9-16.3) and outperformed all the other groups. The Cy+C group showed the most significant increase in knowledge and the best skills in asking and counseling about oral health.

Learning collaboration in General Internal Medicine: a pilot project for undergraduate students in nursing, physiotherapy and medicine

Background: A form of education called Interprofessional Education (IPE) occurs when two or more professions learn with, from and about each other. The purpose of IPE is to improve collaboration and the quality of care. Today, IPE is considered as a key educational approach for students in the health professions. IPE is highly effective when delivered in active patient care, such as in clinical placements. General internal medicine (GIM) is a core discipline where hospital-based clinical placements are mandatory for students in many health professions. However, few interprofessional (IP) clinical placements in GIM have been implemented. We designed such a placement. Placement design: The placement took place in the Department of Internal Medicine at the CHUV. It involved students from nursing, physiotherapy and medicine. The students were in their last year before graduation. Students formed teams consisting of one student from each profession. Each team worked in the same unit and had to take care of the same patient. The placement lasted three weeks. It included formal IP sessions, the most important being facilitated discussions or "briefings" (3x/w) during which the students discussed patient care and management. Four teams of students eventually took part in this project. Method: We performed a type of evaluation research called formative evaluation. This aimed at (1) understanding the educational experience and (2) assessing the impact of the placement on student learning. We collected quantitative data with pre-post clerkship questionnaires. We also collected qualitative data with two Focus Groups (FG) discussions at the end of the placement. The FG were audiotaped and transcribed. A thematic analysis was then performed. Results: We focused on the qualitative data, since the quantitative data lacked of statistical power due to the small numbers of students (N = 11). Five themes emerged from the FG analysis: (1) Learning of others' roles, (2) Learning collaborative competences, (3) Striking a balance between acquiring one's own professional competences and interprofessional competences, (4) Barriers to apply learnt IP competences in the future and (5) Advantages and disadvantages of IP briefings. Conclusions: Our IP clinical placement in GIM appeared to help students learn other professionals' roles and collaborative skills. Some challenges (e.g. finding the same patient for each team) were identified and will require adjustments.

Construction d'une échelle décrivant les niveaux de compétence de collaboration, à partir d'indicateurs validés par des enseignants cliniciens en médecine

La collaboration est une compétence essentielle que les futurs médecins doivent développer. La détermination des niveaux de compétence est cruciale dans la planification de cet apprentissage. Les échelles descriptives suscitent un intérêt croissant, car elles décrivent en termes qualitatifs les performances attendues. Nous inspirant de la méthodologie mixte de Blais, Laurier, & Rousseau (2009), nous avons construit en cinq étapes une échelle de niveau de compétence de collaboration: 1) formulation d’une liste d’indicateurs situés à quatre niveaux de la formation médicale (préclinique, externat, résidence junior et sénior) par les chercheurs (n= 3) et un groupe d’éducateurs (n=7), leaders pédagogiques possédant une expertise pour la compétence de collaboration; 2) sondage en ligne comprenant quatre questionnaires portant sur les niveaux de 118 indicateurs, auprès d’enseignants cliniciens représentant les différentes spécialités (n=277); 3) analyse, avec le modèle partial credit de Rasch, des réponses aux questionnaires appariés par calibration concurrente; 4) détermination des niveaux des indicateurs par les éducateurs et les chercheurs; et 5) rédaction de l’échelle à partir des indicateurs de chaque niveau. L’analyse itérative des réponses montre une adéquation au modèle de Rasch et répartit les indicateurs sur l’échelle linéaire aux quatre niveaux. Les éducateurs déterminent le niveau des 111 indicateurs retenus en tenant compte des résultats du sondage et de la cohérence avec le curriculum. L’échelle comporte un paragraphe descriptif par niveau, selon trois capacités : 1) participer au fonctionnement d’une équipe; 2) prévenir et gérer les conflits; et 3) planifier, coordonner et dispenser les soins en équipe. Cette échelle rend explicites les comportements collaboratifs attendus à la fin de chaque niveau et est utile à la planification de l’apprentissage et de l’évaluation de cette compétence. La discordance entre les niveaux choisis par les éducateurs et ceux issus de l’analyse des réponses des enseignants cliniciens est principalement due au faible choix de réponse du niveau préclinique par les enseignants et aux problèmes d’adéquation pour les indicateurs décrivant la gestion des conflits. Cette recherche marque une avan- cée dans la compréhension de la compétence de collaboration et démontre l’efficacité de la méthodologie de Blais (2009) dans un contexte de compétence transversale, en sciences de la santé. Cette méthodologie pourrait aider à approfondir les trajectoires de développement d’autres compétences.

Medical Student’s Use of Time During Clinical Clerkships and the Credits Based System

Introduction: Comprehensive undergraduate education in clinical sciences is grounded on activities developed during clerkships. To implement the credits system we must know how these experiences take place. Objectives: to describe how students spend time in clerkships, how they assess the educative value of activities and the enjoyment it provides. Method: We distributed a form to a random clustered sample of a 100 students coursing clinical sciences, designed to record the time spent, and to assess the educative value and the grade of enjoyment of the activities in clerkship during a week. Data were registered and analyzed on Excel® 98 and SPSS. Results: mean time spent by students in clerkship activities on a day were 10.8 hours. Of those, 7.3 hours (69%) were spent in formal education activities. Patient care activities with teachers occupied the major proportion of time (15.4%). Of the teaching and learning activities in a week, 28 hours (56%) were spent in patient care activities and 22.4 hours (44.5%) were used in independent academic work. The time spent in teaching and learning activities correspond to 19 credits of a semester of 18 weeks. The activities assessed as having the major educational value were homework activities (4.6) and formal education activities (4.5). The graded as most enjoyable were extracurricular activities, formal educational activities and independent academic work. Conclusion: our students spend more time in activities with patients than the reported in literature. The attending workload of our students is greater than the one reported in similar studies.

Rol del residente de Medicina Interna de la Universidad del Rosario como docente

Antecedentes: Cada vez es mayor la relevancia que se da al papel del residente como docente, no solo por su importancia en la formación de estudiantes, internos y otros miembros del equipo de salud, sino por su deber en la instrucción del paciente y su familia. A pesar de ello, el rol del residente como docente no se encuentra plenamente definido en nuestro medio. Objetivo: Caracterizar el rol de los residentes de Medicina Interna de la Universidad el Rosario en la Fundación Cardioinfantil como docentes. Métodos: Estudio cualitativo a partir de observaciones en escenarios de enseñanza y entrevistas semiestructuradas a 44 participantes distribuidos en grupos focales Resultados: Los residentes asumen un rol docente en diversos escenarios educativos con estudiantes, internos, residentes y docentes. Reconocen que no tienen la preparación necesaria para asumir esta responsabilidad ni funciones establecidas para tal fin. A pesar de esto, utilizan diferentes estrategias para enseñar y se sienten motivados para hacerlo. Conclusiones: El rol del residente como docente en el servicio de Medicina Interna en la Fundación Cardioinfantil es fundamental para la formación de los futuros médicos y especialistas según la percepción que tienen los grupos focales. Los encuentros pedagógicos están enmarcados por la disponibilidad de tiempo y dependen de características personales del residente, conocimiento disciplinar y formación para enseñar. Se considera que se debe apoyar más el entrenamiento en docencia de los residentes, avanzar en la formalización de las funciones docentes de los mismos y generar sistemas de evaluación de este proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje.

Percepción de residentes de medicina de urgencias en Colombia del ambiente educativo en los servicios de urgencias

Introducción: La atención de calidad en urgencias sólo es posible si los médicos han recibido una enseñanza de alta calidad. La escala PHEEM (Postgraduate Hospital Educational Environment Measure) es un instrumento válido y fiable, utilizado internacionalmente para medir el entorno educativo, en la formación médica de posgrado. Materiales y métodos: Estudio de corte trasversal que utilizó la escala PHEEM versión en español para conocer el entorno educativo de los programas de urgencias. El coeficiente alfa de Cronbach se calculó para determinar la consistencia interna. Se aplicó estadística descriptiva a nivel global, por categorías e ítems de la escala PHEEM y se compararon resultados por sexo, año de residencia y programa. Resultados: 94 (94%) residentes llenaron el cuestionario. La puntuación media de la escala PHEEM fue 93,91 ± 23,71 (58,1% de la puntuación máxima) que se considera un ambiente educativo más positivo que negativo, pero con margen de mejora. Hubo una diferencia estadísticamente significativa en la percepción del ambiente educativo entre los programas de residencia (p =0,01). El instrumento es altamente confiable (alfa de Cronbach = 0,952). La barrera más frecuente en la enseñanza fue el hacinamiento y la evaluación fue percibida con el propósito de cumplir normas. Discusión: Los resultados de este estudio aportaron evidencia sobre la validez interna de la escala PHEEM en el contexto colombiano. Este estudio demostró cómo la medición del ambiente educativo en una especialidad médico-quirúrgica, con el uso de una herramienta cuantitativa, puede proporcionar información en relación a las fortalezas y debilidades de los programas.

A aprendizagem na convivência:o estágio curricular em enfermagem

This is an analytic research of a qualitative nature whose purpose is to examine the learning process involving students of the Nursing Program of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte UFRN who are attending the Supervised Clerkship in Nursing (SCN) in Family Health Strategy (FHS), based on learning through daily living. In order to do this, a historical overview of this academic activity in the teaching of nursing was presented, and the importance of FHS as the scene where professional health education takes place was discussed. For the empirical investigation, ten eighth-semester students involved in clerkship activities at family health units in the Western Sanitary District of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, were interviewed. The theoretical approach relied, as epistemological presupposition, on the ideas of educator Humberto Maturana who showed that learning, both in nature and among human beings, takes place within dialogic living relationships wherein acceptance of the other, affectivity (love) and dialoguing are essential stimuli to learning. Students discourses gradually became part of the analytic categories that had been established beforehand. There has been verified that the students went through meaningful learning encouraged by all who shared the living environment, that is: nurse/instructor, teacher/supervisor, family health staff, and the community. Several feelings were involved in the process, such as joy, satisfaction, self-reliance, affectivity and, in the opposite direction, sadness, indignation, a feeling of impotence, and fear. The learning of interpersonal relationship was describe as the most relevant of the academic experiences and, therefore, thus emphasizing the relevance of affectivity to the learning process as Maturana points out. It is suggested that the teaching of nursing keep on giving priority to family health units as the Basic Care educational scene, with attention to the importance of placing the students in welcoming environments, in such a way as to encourage learning