Challenge GP: using gamification to bring the reality and uncertainty of a duty doctor's surgery to early year medical students.

Exposing medical student cohorts to the lived reality of uncertainty and complexity experienced by GPs is challenging to achieve. We present a novel teaching concept: 'Challenge GP' designed for early years students. Gamification methodology is used to reproduce key elements of the 'duty GP' experience in a classroom setting where working in teams, students play a competitive card game. Cards drawn at random pose scenarios based on practical, logistical, and ethical dilemmas of a duty doctor surgery. Each team discusses whether to score by reporting a decision or play special cards to pass the dilemma onto, or collaborate with, another team. Answers are facilitated and scored by a GP tutor.Student feedback demonstrated highly effective learning for clinical reasoning, risk management and problem-solving. Students were exposed to the uncertainty and complexity of real-life medicine. Gamification, through competitiveness, increased task engagement. Students learned the value of working in teams under time pressure and grew in confidence by sharing knowledge in a safe environment. Students were enabled to think, feel and practise as real-life clinicians. This became a powerful force in contextualising their theory-based knowledge, aided understanding of the GP role and opened their eyes to a possible career in general practice.

GP led medical student visits to primary schools can provide a valuable learning experience for both students and pupils.

Background: A key clinical skill for undergraduate medical students is communication with children, yet it is becoming increasingly difficult for medical schools to provide sufficient experience within a secondary care setting. One potential solution to this is to develop innovative ways of involving local schools.Aim: To demonstrate what was learned from a pilot school visit and show how this was developed into a successful programme.Method: As part of their GP-based Foundations of Primary Care course, medical students were allocated to local primary schools in their tutorial groups led by their GP tutors. They developed and delivered health promotion activities that were appropriate for school pupils. Review of the visit identified areas of improvement which were used to redesign the programme. Surveys were conducted after the subsequent visit to assess the response of medical students, school pupils and teachers.Learning outcomes: Medical students gained experience in communicating and interacting with school-aged children, and developed teaching and team working skills. School pupils reported change in their health-related knowledge and behaviour and the visits introduced them to the medical profession at a young age. The visits were well received by the teachers who valued the medical students' input.Conclusions: Building on the learning from the pilot school visit, a successful programme was developed that was challenging but ultimately enhanced medical student learning and brought significant benefits for the school pupils. Future developments include the potential to expand the topics taught and developing training in teaching for medical students.

Reimagining medical education for primary care in the time of COVID-19: a world view.

This article sets out to highlight the challenges and opportunities for medical education in primary care realised during the COVID-19 pandemic and now being enacted globally. The themes were originally presented during a webinar involving educationalists from around the world and are subsequently discussed by members of the WONCA working party for education. The article recognises the importance of utilising diversity, addressing inequity and responding to the priority health needs of the community through socially accountable practice. The well-being of educators and learners is identified as priority in response to the ongoing global pandemic. Finally, we imagine a new era for medical education drawing on global connection and shared resources to create a strong community of practice.

'GP Live'- recorded General Practice consultations as a learning tool for junior medical students faced with the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

BACKGROUND: First year medical students value doctor and patient contact. However, it can be challenging to achieve positive exposure to primary care on a large scale. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed even greater pressure on placing students in General Practice (GP). AIM: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of showing Year 1 medical students authentic recorded consultations between GPs and patients, and then explore what they gained from this. METHOD: Using Panopto® Video Platform, we pre-recorded real Primary Care consultations, with patient and GP consent, which were then processed securely using the University of Aberdeen server. These were shown to all Year 1 medical students who immediately debriefed these consultations in small groups with a GP tutor. Subsequently two focus groups were held with 11 students to evaluate what they had learnt. LEARNING OUTCOMES: The consultations were easy to record and play during the teaching session, although there were some issues with sound quality. All students in the focus groups enjoyed the experience. They gained new knowledge about the skills of GPs, and recognised GPs as positive role models. Students were able to identify a variety of communication and consultation skills used by the GP, which reinforced their teaching on these delivered elsewhere in the course. CONCLUSION: Using pre-recorded consultations as a teaching tool is reproducible, time-efficient and beneficial to students. We propose that this model of using authentic 'live' interactions between GPs and patients represents a valuable undergraduate educational opportunity and could be utilised by medical schools internationally.

Medical students' action plans are not specific.

BACKGROUND: Action plans have been shown to be important in changing behaviour. In learners, action plans have been proposed as a mechanism by which feedback leads to an increase in expertise: feedback leads to action plans, which lead to changes in learning behaviours and finally to improvement. Little is known about the extent to which students are able to make specific actions plans that relate to the feedback they are given, however. We explored whether medical students created action plans after being given feedback, the quality of those plans and whether the action plans were related to the feedback given. Action plans have been shown to be important in changing behaviour METHODS: We collected data from a communication session for Year-1 medical students on the feedback they were given and the action plans they made for improvement. RESULTS: Most students (185/196, 94%) made one or more action plans, but only 31/196 (16%) made one or more action plans that were directly related to the feedback given to them. CONCLUSIONS: Although educators may include action planning in education, students are not making specific enough action plans to effect change. Future work should include support for students in making better-quality action plans. …students are not making specific enough action plans to effect change.