Recommendations for early referral of individuals with suspected polymyalgia rheumatica: an initiative from the international giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica study group.

OBJECTIVE: To develop international consensus-based recommendations for early referral of individuals with suspected polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). METHODS: A task force including 29 rheumatologists/internists, 4 general practitioners, 4 patients and a healthcare professional emerged from the international giant cell arteritis and PMR study group. The task force supplied clinical questions, subsequently transformed into Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome format. A systematic literature review was conducted followed by online meetings to formulate and vote on final recommendations. Levels of evidence (LOE) (1-5 scale) and agreement (LOA) (0-10 scale) were evaluated. RESULTS: Two overarching principles and five recommendations were developed. LOE was 4-5 and LOA ranged between 8.5 and 9.7. The recommendations suggest that (1) each individual with suspected or recently diagnosed PMR should be considered for specialist evaluation, (2) before referring an individual with suspected PMR to specialist care, a thorough history and clinical examination should be performed and preferably complemented with urgent basic laboratory investigations, (3) individuals with suspected PMR with severe symptoms should be referred for specialist evaluation using rapid access strategies, (4) in individuals with suspected PMR who are referred via rapid access, the commencement of glucocorticoid therapy should be deferred until after specialist evaluation and (5) individuals diagnosed with PMR in specialist care with a good initial response to glucocorticoids and a low risk of glucocorticoid related adverse events can be managed in primary care. CONCLUSIONS: These are the first international recommendations for referral of individuals with suspected PMR, which complement the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology/American College of Rheumatology management guidelines for established PMR.

Developing a programmatic approach to faculty development and scholarship using the ASPIRE criteria: AMEE Guide No. 165.

Faculty Development (FD) has become essential in shaping design, delivery and quality assurance of health professions education. The growth of FD worldwide has led to a heightened expectation for quality and organizational integrity in the delivery of FD programmes. To address this, AMEE, An International Association for Health Professions Education, developed quality standards for FD through the development of the AMEE ASPIRE to Excellence criteria. This guide uses the ASPIRE criteria as a framework for health professions educators who wish to establish or expand approaches to FD delivery and scholarship within their institutions.

The Fellows Project: Education Skills for Health Profession Students / Projeto Fellows: Habilidades de Educação para Estudantes das Profissões da Saúde

Abstract: New information technologies have produced profound changes in education and society. All knowledge areas have been constantly reinvented, readjusted and recreated to fit the changing demands of professional practice. Education in the health professions has also followed this trend. It is now clear how students, the future educators, are involved in this transformation and have been vectors of these changes. In parallel, the new curricula for health professions courses presuppose the active participation of students in their own training and in the training of their peers. This new way of teaching, which privileges teamwork, peer learning, interdisciplinarity, and autonomy, stimulates and demands this leadership role from students. Active student participation in undergraduate educational activities has several benefits: it favors learning; interpersonal relationships; acquiring skills in communication, mentoring, leadership, research, and management and develops social accountability. Undergraduate students in the health professions, even at the earliest stages of their education, make their choices and direct their interest to the area of knowledge they desire in professional life. When this choice falls on a specific area of health, they find, at the undergraduate level, ways to begin to develop their knowledge and skills in clinical practice, surgery, pediatrics, laboratory research, public health and other areas, but find no support for training when they intend to be future teachers. In this context, the FELLOWS Project emerged, proposed and carried out by medical students, a blended learning teaching development project that aims to train and improve education skills for students of the health professions, herein presented as an experience report. In 2017 the project took place from April to October, in monthly nighttime meetings, and eventually on Saturdays. It was conducted by four medical students (coordinators), two supervising local teachers and had collaborators from other medical education institutions. In 2018 the educational activities were held exclusively by students/resident coordinators and supervising teachers through two immersion sessions (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), separated by a 4 month-period, during which an education project was prepared, created in groups of six students accompanied by a tutor and a coordinator. The activities of the FELLOWS Project follow the National Curriculum Guidelines for the Undergraduate Medical Course of 2001 and 2014, meet the demands of health education in Brazil and respect the desired profile of the professional graduate, with social accountability. It offers contact with and progressive skills of communication and competencies for teaching, using active teaching-learning methodologies, teamwork, the use of digital technologies, exercising oral and written communication and creativity for innovation. The FELLOWS Project implementation process has brought direct benefits to the organizers and participants and indirect benefits to the educational institutions to which they belong, as it involved knowledge production, student engagement and social accountability.

Resumo: As novas tecnologias da informação produziram profundas transformações na educação e na sociedade. Todas as áreas do conhecimento têm sido constantemente reinventadas, readaptadas e recriadas para se ajustarem às novas exigências da prática profissional. A educação nas profissões da saúde também tem seguido esses passos. É nítido como os estudantes, futuros educadores, estão envolvidos nessa transformação e têm sido vetores dessas mudanças. Paralelamente, a concepção dos novos currículos para os cursos da área da saúde pressupõe a participação ativa dos estudantes na própria formação e na de seus pares. Essa nova forma de ensinar, que privilegia o trabalho em equipe, a aprendizagem por pares, a interdisciplinaridade e a autonomia, estimula e exige esse protagonismo dos estudantes. A participação ativa do estudante nas atividades educativas da graduação traz inúmeros benefícios: favorece o aprendizado, as relações interpessoais e a aquisição de habilidades de comunicação, de orientação, de liderança, de pesquisa e de gestão, e desenvolve a responsabilidade social. Os estudantes das profissões da saúde, mesmo nas fases mais precoces de formação, fazem suas escolhas e direcionam sua formação para o que desejam na vida profissional. Quando essa escolha recai sobre uma área específica da saúde, eles encontram, desde a graduação, maneiras de começar a desenvolver seus conhecimentos e habilidades em clínica médica, cirurgia, pediatria, pesquisa em laboratório, saúde pública e outras áreas, mas não encontram apoio à formação quando pretendem ser futuros professores. Nesse contexto, surgiu o Projeto FELLOWS, um projeto de desenvolvimento docente, proposto e conduzido por estudantes de Medicina, em blended learning (presencial e a distância) que tem como objetivos a formação e o aperfeiçoamento em habilidades de educação para estudantes das profissões da saúde, aqui apresentado como um relato de experiência. Em 2017, o projeto estendeu-se de abril a outubro em encontros mensais no horário noturno e, eventualmente, aos sábados. Foi conduzido por quatro estudantes de Medicina (coordenadores) e dois professores supervisores e contou com colaboradores de outras instituições de educação médica. Em 2018, as atividades educativas foram realizadas exclusivamente pelos estudantes/residentes coordenadores e os professores supervisores, por meio de duas sessões de imersão (sexta, sábado e domingo), separadas por um período de quatro meses em que foi elaborado um projeto de educação, construído em grupos de seis estudantes acompanhados por um tutor e um coordenador. As atividades do Projeto FELLOWS seguem as Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais do Curso de Graduação em Medicina de 2001 e 2014, atendem às demandas da educação nas áreas da saúde no Brasil e respeitam o perfil desejado do profissional egresso, com responsabilidade social. Oferecem o contato e progressivo domínio de habilidades de comunicação e de competências para o trabalho docente, o uso de metodologias ativas de ensino-aprendizagem, o trabalho em equipe, o uso de tecnologias digitais, o exercício da comunicação oral e escrita e a criatividade para a inovação. O processo de execução do Projeto FELLOWS trouxe benefícios diretos para os organizadores e para os participantes, e benefícios indiretos para as instituições de ensino a que pertencem, pois envolveu produção de conhecimento, engajamento estudantil e responsabilidade social.