Advances in e-learning in undergraduate clinical medicine: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: E-learning is recognised as a useful educational tool and is becoming more common in undergraduate medical education. This review aims to examine the scope and impact of e-learning interventions on medical student learning in clinical medicine, in order to aid medical educators when implementing e-learning strategies in programme curricula. METHODS: A systematic review compliant with PRISMA guidelines that appraises study design, setting and population, context and type of evaluations. Specific search terms were used to locate articles across nine databases: MEDLINE/PubMed, ScienceDirect, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, ERIC, Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, Scopus and Google Scholar. Only studies evaluating e-learning interventions in undergraduate clinical medical education between January 1990 and August 2021 were selected. Of the 4,829 papers identified by the search, 42 studies met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: The 42 studies included varied in scope, cognitive domain, subject matter, design, quality and evaluation. The most popular approaches involved multimedia platforms (33%) and case-based approaches (26%), were interactive (83%), asynchronous (71%) and accessible from home (83%). Twelve studies (29%) evaluated usability, all of which reported positive feedback. Competence in use of technology, high motivation and an open attitude were key characteristics of successful students and preceptors. CONCLUSIONS: Medical education is evolving consistently to accommodate rapid changes in therapies and procedures. In today's technologically adept world, e-learning is an effective and convenient pedagogical approach for the teaching of undergraduate clinical medicine.

Hand-hygiene-related clinical trials reported between 2014 and 2020: a comprehensive systematic review.

BACKGROUND: There is general consensus that hand hygiene is the most effective way to prevent healthcare-associated infections. However, low rates of compliance amongst healthcare workers have been reported globally. The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has further emphasized the need for global improvement in hand hygiene compliance by healthcare workers. AIM: This comprehensive systematic review provides an up-to-date compilation of clinical trials, reported between 2014 and 2020, assessing hand hygiene interventions in order to inform healthcare leaders and practitioners regarding approaches to reduce healthcare-associated infections using hand hygiene. METHODS: CINAHL, Cochrane, EMbase, Medline, PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched for clinical trials published between March 2014 and December 2020 on the topic of hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers. In total, 332 papers were identified from these searches, of which 57 studies met the inclusion criteria. FINDINGS: Forty-five of the 57 studies (79%) included in this review were conducted in Asia, Europe and the USA. The large majority of these clinical trials were conducted in acute care facilities, including hospital wards and intensive care facilities. Nurses represented the largest group of healthcare workers studied (44 studies, 77%), followed by physicians (41 studies, 72%). Thirty-six studies (63%) adopted the World Health Organization's multi-modal framework or a variation of this framework, and many of them recorded hand hygiene opportunities at each of the 'Five Moments'. However, recording of hand hygiene technique was not common. CONCLUSION: Both single intervention and multi-modal hand hygiene strategies can achieve modest-to-moderate improvements in hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers.