Changes in medical students´ and anesthesia technician trainees´ attitudes towards interprofessionality - experience from an interprofessional simulation-based course.

BACKGROUND: Interprofessional simulation based education (IPSBE) programs positively impact participants' attitudes towards interprofessional collaboration and learning. However, the extent to which students in different health professions benefit and the underlying reasons for this are subject of ongoing debate. METHODS: We developed a 14-h IPSBE course with scenarios of critical incidents or emergency cases. Participants were final year medical students (FYMS) and final year anesthesia technician trainees (FYATT). To assess attitudes towards interprofessionalism, the University of the West of England Interprofessional Questionnaire was administrated before and after the course. Using focus group illustration maps, qualitative data were obtained from a subcohort of the participants (n = 15). RESULTS: After the course, self-assessment of communication and teamwork skills, attitudes towards interprofessional interactions and relationships showed comparative improvement in both professions. Attitudes towards interprofessional learning improved only in FYMS. Qualitative data revealed teamwork, communication, hierarchy and the perception of one's own and other health profession as main topics that might underlie the changes in participants' attitudes. An important factor was that participants got to know each other during the course and understood each other's tasks. CONCLUSIONS: Since adequate communication and teamwork skills and positive attitudes towards interprofessionality account to effective interprofessional collaboration, our data support intensifying IPSBE in undergraduate health care education.

Medical Trainees' Experiences With Dying and Death.

This study investigates medical trainees' experiences with dying and death, by means of semistructured interviews. Nine medical students and nine residents reported a total of 114 experiences. The great majority of these experiences took place during the final year of medical school. The authors identified the latent characteristics, which illustrate an in-depth understanding of the significance of the described experiences. Three main themes emerged: circumstances of death, personal relationship, and one's own role. The age of the dying person, the extent of suffering, time frame and setting, and the patients' behaviors were factors that influence the perceptions of the experiences. The interviewees reported powerful emotional consternation by the patients' deaths with whom they had developed a close relationship. Failure, helplessness, and guilt were negatively associated perceptions of one's own role. This study illustrates the tension between emotional concern and professional detachment. It highlights the continuing existence of a physician image, in which control represents the key issue.

(Self-)Reflexion and training of professional skills in the context of "being a doctor" in the future - a qualitative analysis of medical students' experience in LET ME ... keep you real!

Objective: This paper seeks to assess how medical students can be trained in medical studies seminars to examine their own professional role as doctors. The LET ME ... keep you real! university seminar was developed and conducted at the Technical University of Munich. In this context, the following questions will be addressed: How can we assess the contribution of a university seminar to a medical student's own examination of being a doctor? And: What skills are developed in LET ME ... keep you real! that foster medical students' (self-)reflexion? Methods: The source data is statements made by medical students who took part in the LET ME….keep you real! seminar from 2016-2018. Student perspectives were analyzed after five focus group discussions with a total of 26 medical student participants and two individual interviews. Based on the interpretative paradigm and following the credo of a methodological exploration of medical students' lifeworld, their specific learning experience as well as their ability for (self-)reflexion were mapped out. Results: The research questions guiding the assessment of the seminar can be answered as follows: From the students' perspective, the (self-)reflexion triggered and organized by LET ME ... keep you real! can be seen as rehearsing a meta-view. From the students' standpoint, five skills can be identified that make this behavior possible: questioning and doubting,recognizing relevant perspectives, classifying viewpoints, maintaining communal exchanges and deciding on a (different) position. Situatively, these skills are often used in combination and challenge students on an intellectual, communicative and emotional level. Conclusion: The ability to (self-)reflect should be more strongly integrated in university medical training by providing appropriate support, especially since it presents students with specific challenges to (self-)reflexively approach their own future as doctors. The skills mapped out here can be used as orientation to develop seminars on professional (self-)reflexive identity development for medical students.

"Imagine Neuro-Oncology"- a one week course with medical and technical students: students' reflections about multidisciplinarity and its practical relevance.

Modern medicine requires tight multidisciplinary collaboration and communication among several technical disciplines. Nevertheless, multidisciplinary medical courses are rare and even less often scientifically evaluated. The aim was to evaluate an innovative neuro-oncology course for medical students (MED) and students of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) so that they learn and practice mutual understanding, communication and cooperation. 10 MED and 9 STEM were trained together during a one-week-course on the topic of "brain tumor" in imaging, surgical planning, surgery, pathological diagnosis, and adjuvant therapy. Evaluation was undertaken via focus groups and accompanying questionnaires about motivation, course acceptance, and multidisciplinary attitude. Students evaluated course structure, content, and multidisciplinary setting positively and showed high intrinsic motivation. However, the students sensed an "artificial dividing line" between both groups, which was conceptually encouraged by the deliberate temporary subdivision into "monodisciplinary" seminars and during the preparation of presentations. Students' opinion of the concept was generally positive as they learned about the challenges in finding a "common scientific language". Nevertheless, some criticisms were raised concerning the dividing line between the disciplines, which in part led to organizational changes. Even though the current reality may be reflected here, the goal of future interprofessional courses should definitely be to dissolve this dividing line.