Exploring Fairness in Scholarly Development: Are We Creating Knowledge Storing Zombies or Curious, Creative and Critical Healthcare Professionals?

Scholarly doctors require research knowledge and skills (Ausbildung), as well as an academic mindset, which includes curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking (Bildung). However, in contrast to knowledge and skills, summative assessment of the development of an academic mindset is not so easy in an objective and so-called 'fair' way. As a result, in practice, assessing knowledge and skills tends to dominate in scholarly development. In this perspective, we explore the issues that arise when we give priority to objective assessment of knowledge and skills in scholarly development to safeguard fairness and, consequently, standardize educational procedures and learning pathways. We argue that eventually this approach may even result in hampered development of a true academic mindset and can be considered unfair rather than fair. To solve this, perhaps we should go back to the core business of the university and in the tradition of founder of the modern university Von Humboldt focus on shaping an academic mindset (Bildung). To rebalance Ausbildung and Bildung in academic education, we should go beyond the assumption that objectivity is a prerequisite for achieving fairness in assessment. Shifting the focus from pure objectivity to both objectivity and subjectivity in assessment as well as learning pathways can assist in protecting fairness and, as a result, bring back Bildung to medical education to ensure future doctors to be true scholars.

Assessing publication rates from medical students' mandatory research projects in the Netherlands: a follow-up study of 10 cohorts of medical students.

OBJECTIVES: The medical field is facing a clinician-scientist shortage. Medical schools could foster the clinician-scientist workforce by offering students research opportunities. Most medical schools offer elective research programmes. Subsequently, a subset of doctors graduates without any research experience. Mandatory research projects may be more sufficient to develop clinician-scientist, but take more supervision and curricular time. There is limited insight in the scientific outcomes of mandatory research experiences. This study aims to examine publication rates of a mandatory research experience, identify factors associated with publication, and includes postgraduate research engagement. DESIGN AND SETTING: Prospective follow-up study involving 10 cohorts of medical students' mandatory research projects from Leiden University Medical Center. PARTICIPANTS: All medical students who conducted their research project between 2008 and 2018 (n=2329) were included. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Publication rates were defined as peer-reviewed scientific publications, including research papers, reviews, and published meeting abstracts. Postgraduate research engagement was defined as research participation and dissemination of research at scientific conferences or in journals. RESULTS: In total, 644 (27.7%) of all mandatory research experiences resulted in publication, with students mainly as first (n=984, 42.5%) or second author (n=587, 25.3%) and above world average citation impact (mean normalised journal score 1.29, mean normalised citation score 1.23). Students who conducted their research in an academic centre (adjusted OR 2.82; 95% CI 2.10 to 3.77), extended their research (adjusted OR 1.73; 95% CI 1.35 to 2.20), were involved in an excellency track (adjusted OR 2.08; 95% CI 1.44 to 3.01), or conducted clinical (adjusted OR 2.08; 95% CI 1.15 to 3.74) or laboratory (adjusted OR 2.16; 95% CI 1.16 to 4.01) research published their research more often. Later as junior doctors, this group significantly more often disseminate their research results at scientific conferences (adjusted OR 1.89; 95% CI 1.11 to 3.23) or in journals (adjusted OR 1.98; 95% CI 1.14 to 3.43). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that a significant subset of hands-on mandatory research projects with flexible learning pathways result in tangible research output with proper impact and that such successful experiences can be considered as diving board towards a research-oriented career.

Twelve tips for fostering the next generation of medical teachers.

Medical professionals with a special interest in and focus on education are essential to provide good quality education. Despite high numbers of students expressing an interest in teaching, concerns are rising regarding the supply of medical teachers, with few junior educators on the career ladder. To date, only some medical schools offer in-depth courses to students wanting to explore or aspire a career as a specialised medical teacher. We propose twelve tips for an elective course to foster the next generation of medical teachers. This course aims to enhance theoretical foundations and educational practices to cultivate the next generation of medical teachers.