The educational value of situational judgement tests (SJTs) when used during undergraduate medical training: A systematic review and narrative synthesis.

INTRODUCTION: Situational judgement tests (SJTs) are a recognised assessment method for admission into medical school, selection into postgraduate training programs, and postgraduate competency assessment. More recently, however, SJTs have been used during undergraduate medical training (UMT). This systematic review identifies, describes, and appraises the evidence for SJTs in UMT to determine educational associations and outcomes. METHODS: MEDLINE, EMBASE, ERIC, PsycINFO, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and grey literature were searched for original research studies evaluating SJTs implemented within UMT to 1 November 2022. Studies reporting evaluation outcomes were included. Narrative data syntheses were undertaken. Risk of Bias was appraised using the Quality in Prognosis Studies tool. RESULTS: 24 studies were included. National database-derived SJTs (n = 14) assessed against professionalism, postgraduate attainment, construct of medical degree, medical school admissions scores, personality attributes, and declaration of disability. In-house derived SJTs (n = 10) assessed against professionalism, clinical skills, and personality attributes. Most evidence evaluated and reported inverse SJT associations with professionalism and were moderate risk of bias. CONCLUSION: SJTs may have utility for developing professional behaviours in medical students. However, further research testing SJT robustness, standard setting methodologies, and prospectively evaluating SJTs against objective outcome measures within the context of UMT is warranted.

Diabetic retinopathy for the non-ophthalmologist.

Diabetic retinopathy is a microangiopathy resulting from the chronic effects of diabetes mellitus. Healthcare professionals often work in isolation to deliver highly specialised care efficiently and effectively for people living with diabetes. It is not uncommon for people with diabetes to be making frequent visits to community and hospital clinics to see a variety of specialists and healthcare professionals, with seemingly little opportunity for coordination of this complex health management programme between the wider team. In a field that is so diverse and rapidly changing, healthcare professionals of all specialties need to be aware of developments across all aspects of diabetes management. In this article, we discuss the epidemiology and natural history of diabetic retinopathy and describe an approach to its assessment and diagnosis. We provide an overview of the principles of diabetic retinopathy management and outline possible future treatments for diabetic retinopathy.

Virtual teaching of undergraduate primary care small groups during Covid-19.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic required Higher Educational Institutions to redesign and implement new ways of delivering core-learning outcomes for medical students. Much of this change resulted in a transition to virtual teaching across medical schools. Medical education in primary care is often delivered as part of GP-facilitated small group teaching and with this came unique challenges for the transition to online education.Transition to virtual small group teaching utilised blended learning and flipped classroom methodologies alongside the use of virtual teaching platforms. This quality improvement project describes the educational approaches used when transitioning medical education, and compares student experience from receiving small group teaching using face-to-face and virtual teaching methods before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. Analysis of student feedback found an ongoing delivery of high-quality primary care education using virtual small group teaching, and that there was no attrition in student experience when compared to face-to-face teaching delivered before COVID-19 for the same learning outcomes.These findings are reassuring and suggest that the transition to virtual small group teaching, using methods such as flipped classrooms and blended learning, enables continued and sustained delivery of high-quality education and student experiences in primary care.

Clinical placements in General Practice: concepts and considerations of implementing remote virtual placements in the COVID world.

Medical students are considered as 'essential workers' within the National Health Service (NHS) and the delivery of clinical experience is essential to their learning and progression into the workforce. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the delivery of clinical placements in primary care; GPs are currently delivering the majority of consultations using telephone or video methods and difficulties in attaining placement experience are being encountered by medical students. Virtual remote consultations are an appropriate adjunct to conventional face-to-face patient encounters and could facilitate students to attain core learning outcomes. This article describes some of the approaches that enable remote (home) virtual patient encounters in Primary Care for medical students. These are categorised as methods that a) enable remote access into GP clinical systems, b) enable remote access into individual patient consultations and c) enable an observational-only experience. Key considerations are highlighted to enable safe and effective implementation of remote virtual consultations, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each method. These include patient consent, confidentiality, data sharing and protection, professionalism, student agreements and data gathering templates. It is hoped that sharing of these methods of virtual consulting will support the ongoing delivery of Primary Care education across medical schools.

Views of glaucoma patients on aspects of their treatment: an assessment of patient preference by conjoint analysis.

PURPOSE: To determine by conjoint analysis which factors in the management and treatment of glaucoma were of most importance to patients and to relate these factors to the patient's clinical glaucoma condition. METHODS: An interview-based study was performed. Demographic and visual function data are recorded. Participants completed the Visual Function Questionnaire-25 and ranked 10 hypothetical patient scenarios that contained different risks of moderate visual loss, postoperative complications, long-term blindness, use of topical medication, and glaucoma surgery. Conjoint analysis was performed to determine the relative importance of these factors for individuals and the group as a whole. RESULTS: Eighty-two patients were interviewed from two consultants' outpatient clinics. Forty-five were male and 37 female. Seventy-nine were white. The most important factors to patients with glaucoma were the risk of moderate visual impairment and the risk of blindness, with an importance of 38% and 27%, respectively. The use of topical medication had an importance of 11%. Proceeding to surgical intervention (trabeculectomy) had an importance of 15%, and the small risk of visual deterioration after surgery (trabeculectomy) had an importance of 9%. CONCLUSIONS: To patients, the most important factors regarding glaucoma and its treatment are the risks of moderate visual loss (the ability to continue to drive) and long-term blindness. The treatment methods used are of much less importance.