Examining the Educational Value of Student-Run Clinics for Health Care Students.

PURPOSE: Student-run clinics (SRCs) are increasingly recognized as an educational experience in many health professions' curricula. Several benefits have been documented, including students with SRC experience using patient-centered approaches to care, showing interest in working with marginalized populations, and more fully appreciating the care provided by interprofessional teams. Yet, few studies have explored student experiences within SRCs or examined how these experiences affect and shape these documented attitudes. This study explored the experiences of students at an SRC and the effect of these experiences on their learnings. METHOD: From November 2016 to July 2017, 23 students in the Community Health Initiative by University Students SRC at the University of British Columbia participated in 2 focus group interviews: the first after their first clinic day and the second on their final clinic day. Open- and closed-ended questions were used to explore participants' learnings from the SRC. Using a grounded theory approach, the authors iteratively analyzed the transcribed interviews, adjusting questions for subsequent focus groups as new themes evolved. Three investigators each separately coded the data; the full team then collectively consolidated the themes and developed explanatory models for each theme. RESULTS: Two themes were identified from the focus group input: (1) through managing real, complex patients-in situations unlike those offered in classroom and case-based learning environments-students gained insights into the intricacies of incorporating the patient's perspective into their definition and management of the patient's problem, and (2) by working as a team instead of focusing on delineating scopes of practice, students gained a meaningful understanding of the roles of practitioners from other health professions. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides insights into the unique opportunities SRCs offer health care students early in their training, enabling them to develop a richer understanding and appreciation of holistic and interprofessional approaches to patient care.

Assessing the preparedness and feasibility of an e-learning pilot project for university level health trainees in Ghana: a cross-sectional descriptive survey.

BACKGROUND: Ghana is challenged with shortage of critical human resources for health particularly nurses and midwives in rural hard-to-reach communities. This shortage potentially hinders efforts towards attaining universal access to basic healthcare. More importantly, poor quality of pre-service training for health trainees has the potential to worsen this predicament. There is therefore the need to leverage emerging digital innovations like e-learning to complement existing efforts. This study was conducted several months before the outbreak of COVID-19 to investigate the preparedness, acceptability and feasibility e-learning innovation for nursing and midwifery trainees. METHODS: The study is a cross-sectional descriptive survey involving nursing and midwifery students (n = 233) in one of Ghana's public universities, located in the Volta region of Ghana. Simple random sampling technique was used to collect responses from eligible respondents using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistical analysis was done using STATA software (version 12.0). RESULTS: It was found that nearly 100% of respondents owned smartphones that were used mostly for learning purposes including sharing of academic information. Over 70% of respondents particularly used social media, social networking applications and internet searches for learning purposes. Health trainees were however constrained by low bandwidth and lack of seamless internet connectivity within their learning environments to maximize the full benefits of these e-learning opportunities. CONCLUSION: Respondents were predominantly prepared for an e-learning pilot project. These feability findings suggest e-learning is a huge potential that can be used to augment existing approaches for pre-service training of health trainees in Ghana, when implementation threats are sufficiently addressed. Compelling findings of this study are therefore timely to inform evidence-based policy decisions on innovative digitial solutions for pre-service training of health workforce even as the world adapts to the "new normal" situation induced by COVID-19.

Assessment of structured classroom debate to teach an antimicrobial stewardship elective course.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The main aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a structured classroom debate format on teaching antimicrobial stewardship. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: An active learning approach using a debate format was implemented to engage students in infectious diseases concepts to further develop critical thinking skills. This was a one-group, pre- and posttest design conducted in third year pharmacy students enrolled at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine School of Pharmacy Georgia campus. A ten-item assessment survey was used prior to and after the course to evaluate student knowledge. Student perception of skill development was assessed by a survey using a five-point Likert scale. The skills assessed included critical thinking, communication, public speaking, research/drug information, and teamwork. FINDINGS: Thirty-three students participated in the six debates over the course of the semester. There was a statistically significant increase in post-knowledge assessment mean score (75%) compared to pre-knowledge assessment mean score (45%). The post-course survey showed improved confidence in perception of skills in all of the areas assessed. SUMMARY: The structured classroom debate format has a positive association with increasing students' knowledge level and perception of skills assessed.

Percepción de los estudiantes de medicina del ambiente educativo en una facultad con currículo tradicional(UCH-Chile) y otra con currículo basado en problemas (UNC-Argentina) / Medical students’ perception of the educational environment in a faculty developing a traditional curriculum (UCH-Chile) and another with a problem based learning curriculum (UNC-Argentina)

Objetivo. Evaluar y comparar la percepción que del ambiente educativo tienen los estudiantes de medicina de dos universidades iberoamericanas: Universidad de Chile (UCH) y Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (UNC), que desarrollan un currículo tradicional y un currículo basado en problemas, respectivamente. Sujetos y métodos. Participaron 465 estudiantes: 232 de la UCH y 233 de la UNC. La distribución fue de 84 y 70 estudiantes para el primer curso, 77 y 97 para el tercero, y 71 y 66 para el quinto, respectivamente. Se aplicó el cuestionario DREEM, que consiste en 50 ítems, agrupados en cinco dimensiones: percepción de la enseñanza, percepción de los profesores, autopercepción académica, percepción de la atmósfera educativa y autopercepción social. Resultados. Las puntuaciones totales fueron mayores en los tres cursos de la UNC. Resultaron similares en todos los cursos de ambas universidades, excepto en el quinto curso de la UCH. Respecto a la percepción acerca de los profesores, los estudiantes de quinto curso de la UCH mostraron las puntuaciones más bajas, mientras que los estudiantes del primer curso de la UNC tuvieron la mejor percepción. Resultados similares se obtuvieron en la autopercepción académica. La percepción del ambiente de aprendizaje fue mejor en la UNC y la autopercepción social tuvo puntuaciones similares en todos los cursos de ambas universidades. Conclusiones. Las diferencias observadas entre ambas universidades podrían atribuirse a sus diferentes currículos. El currículo basado en problemas parece ser mejor valorado que el tradicional. Nuestro estudio corrobora la eficacia del cuestionario DREEM para identificar fortalezas y debilidades del currículo y para evaluar la calidad de la enseñanza en facultades de medicina (AU)

Aim. To assess and compare the perception about the educational environment of medical students from two Latin-American universities, University of Chile (UCH) and National University of Cuyo (UNC), which develop a traditional curriculum and a problem based curriculum, respectively. Subjects and methods. A transversal study was performed in 465 students: 232 from the UCH and 233 from the UNC. The distribution was 84/70 for the first course, 77/97 for the third one and 71/66 for the fifth one, respectively. The DREEM questionnaire, which consists of 50 items, was applied. It covers 5 dimensions of the educational environment: perception about learning, perception about teachers, academic self-perception, perception about educational climate and social self-perception. Results. Total DREEM scores were significantly higher in the UNC. Scores were similar in all courses from both universities, with the exception of fifth course UCH. Regarding their perception about teachers, students of the fifth course UCH showed the lowest score, whereas students of the first course UNC had the best perception. Similar results were obtained for the academic auto-perception; while the perception of the learning environment obtained higher scores in the three courses from the UNC. Social auto-perception was similar in all courses tested in this study. Conclusions. Differences observed between both universities could be attributed to their different curricula. Problem based curriculum seems to be better appreciated than the traditional one. Our study corroborates the efficacy of the DREEM questionnaire to identify strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum and for the assessment of teaching quality in medical schools (AU)

Characteristics of medical school graduates who underwent problem-based learning.

INTRODUCTION: In this study, we compared the choice of medical specialty and subspecialty interest among problem-based-learning (PBL) graduates and non-PBL graduates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Questionnaires were mailed to a total of 1398 female doctors who graduated from Tokyo Women's Medical University (TWMU) between 1989 and 2003. The response rate was over 30%, giving 248 respondents who had undergone a PBL curriculum (PBL+) and 220 subjects who had not (PBL-). Current specialty of the graduates were compared between the PBL+ and PBL-, and also compared with the general Japanese female doctors (Control 1 and 2) of similar age groups. Respondents were analysed in terms of their interests in subspecialty medical care or general medical practise, which includes comprehensive medical care, primary care and basic medicine. Internal medicine doctors working in the university hospitals were compared with those working outside the university hospitals. Internal medicine doctors were also compared with specialists in ophthalmology, otolaryngology, dermatology and psychiatry. Subjects were compared by odds ratio (OR) to examine group difference in the field of interest. OR >2.0 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Most doctors in all groups chose internal medicine. More PBL+ internal medicine doctors showed interests in comprehensive medical care and primary care; more PBL+ internal medicine doctors working outside university hospitals showed interest in comprehensive medical care and primary care when compared with those who were working in the university hospitals. The PBL- graduates did not show such a characteristic. CONCLUSIONS: More PBL+ graduates who chose internal medicine showed interest in holistic medical practices such as primary care and community medicine and more PBL+ specialists showed sustained interest in their respective fields.