The influence of clinical experience on dental students' ethical awareness.

INTRODUCTION: There has been no structured integration of ethical issues into the dental curriculum and currently no data for certain ethics modules exists in Germany. The study aimed at evaluating the attitudes to ethical issues that affect students at the Dental School in Kiel during patient treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In the summer of 2017, students were recruited from the 6th and 10th semesters. A qualitative study design with interviews was chosen. The dimensions included, for example, experience with ethical issues, definitions and expectations of teaching content and methods. A qualitative content analysis was performed. RESULTS: Twelve and eleven students from semesters (32% each) participated. No student was able to name an ethical question based on his own experience (private/study). The need to address ethical issues was justified solely by personal treatment experiences. DISCUSSION: The study revealed a lack of basic ethical knowledge resulting in a lack of ability to deal with ethical issues. Instead, participants described experiences of psychological pressure, feelings of helplessness. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that ethical-theoretical foundations should be taught before the beginning of patient treatment. A didactic combination with clinical facts and case vignettes is recommended.

Conditions for excellence in teaching in medical education: The Frankfurt Model to ensure quality in teaching and learning.

Background: There is general consensus that the organizational and administrative aspects of academic study programs exert an important influence on teaching and learning. Despite this, no comprehensive framework currently exists to describe the conditions that affect the quality of teaching and learning in medical education. The aim of this paper is to systematically and comprehensively identify these factors to offer academic administrators and decision makers interested in improving teaching a theory-based and, to an extent, empirically founded framework on the basis of which improvements in teaching quality can be identified and implemented. Method: Primarily, the issue was addressed by combining a theory-driven deductive approach with an experience based, "best evidence" one during the course of two workshops held by the GMA Committee on Personnel and Organizational Development in Academic Teaching (POiL) in Munich (2013) and Frankfurt (2014). Two models describing the conditions relevant to teaching and learning (Euler/Hahn and Rindermann) were critically appraised and synthesized into a new third model. Practical examples of teaching strategies that promote or hinder learning were compiled and added to the categories of this model and, to the extent possible, supported with empirical evidence. Based on this, a checklist with recommendations for optimizing general academic conditions was formulated. Results: The Frankfurt Model of conditions to ensure Quality in Teaching and Learning covers six categories: organizational structure/medical school culture, regulatory frameworks, curricular requirements, time constraints, material and personnel resources, and qualification of teaching staff. These categories have been supplemented by the interests, motives and abilities of the actual teachers and students in this particular setting. The categories of this model provide the structure for a checklist in which recommendations for optimizing teaching are given. Conclusions: The checklist derived from the Frankfurt Model for ensuring quality in teaching and learning can be used for quality assurance and to improve the conditions under which teaching and learning take place in medical schools.

Development and validation of a computer-based situational judgement test to assess medical students' communication skills in the field of shared decision making.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a computer-based test (CBT) measuring medical students' communication skills in the field of shared decision making (SDM) and to evaluate its construct validity. METHODS: The CBT was developed in the context of an experimental study comparing three different trainings for SDM (including e-learning and/or role-play) and a control group. Assessment included a CBT (Part A: seven context-poor questions, Part B: 15 context-rich questions) and interviews with two simulated patients (SP-assessment). Cronbach's α was used to test the internal consistency. Correlations between CBT and SP-assessment were used to further evaluate construct validity of the CBT. RESULTS: Seventy-two students took part in the study. Mean value for the CBT score was 72% of the total score. Cronbach's α was 0.582. After eliminating three items, Cronbach's α increased to 0.625. Correlations between the CBT and SP-assessment were low to moderate. The control group scored significantly lower than the training settings (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The CBT was reliable enough to test for group differences. For summative assessment purposes, considerably more questions would be needed. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: We encourage teachers who particularly work with large student numbers to consider CBT as a feasible assessment method for cognitive aspects of communication skills.

A consensus statement on practical skills in medical school - a position paper by the GMA Committee on Practical Skills.

INTRODUCTION: Encouraged by the change in licensing regulations the practical professional skills in Germany received a higher priority and are taught in medical schools therefore increasingly. This created the need to standardize the process more and more. On the initiative of the German skills labs the German Medical Association Committee for practical skills was established and developed a competency-based catalogue of learning objectives, whose origin and structure is described here. Goal of the catalogue is to define the practical skills in undergraduate medical education and to give the medical schools a rational planning basis for the necessary resources to teach them. METHODS: Building on already existing German catalogues of learning objectives a multi-iterative process of condensation was performed, which corresponds to the development of S1 guidelines, in order to get a broad professional and political support. RESULTS: 289 different practical learning goals were identified and assigned to twelve different organ systems with three overlapping areas to other fields of expertise and one area of across organ system skills. They were three depths and three different chronological dimensions assigned and the objectives were matched with the Swiss and the Austrian equivalent. DISCUSSION: This consensus statement may provide the German faculties with a basis for planning the teaching of practical skills and is an important step towards a national standard of medical learning objectives. LOOKING AHEAD: The consensus statement may have a formative effect on the medical schools to teach practical skills and plan the resources accordingly.