scholarly journals Visiting Student Away Rotations in Ophthalmology: A Study of Medical Students' Experiences and Perspectives

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
pp. e52-e56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunny B. Patel ◽  
Lisa D. Kelly

Abstract Background Despite the frequency of medical students' participation in ophthalmology clerkships away from their home institution, the impact and benefit of these clerkships have remained uninvestigated. To date, no study has focused specifically on medical student perspectives of away ophthalmology clerkships. Objective The purpose of the study was to evaluate the medical students' perspectives on and experience with away rotations in ophthalmology, and assess their effect on residency Match outcomes. Methods An anonymous, original, online survey was designed and distributed to applicants of the 2015 to 2018 ophthalmology Match cycles. Results A total of 69 responses from nine medical institutions were collected (62% response rate). Forty-one respondents (59%) chose to perform at least one away rotation. Among away rotators, the mean number performed was 1.44. Thirty-seven away rotators (90%) reported receiving an interview from at least one host institution they visited. The average estimated cost of an away rotation was ∼1,709 U.S. dollars. With a 95.7% overall match rate among the respondents, no statistically significant difference was seen in match rates between away rotators and nonaway rotators (p = 0.564). Among the away rotators, the mean position on their rank order list matched was 2.34, while the nonaway rotators matched at a mean position of 2.13 (p = 0.383). Conclusion No association between away participation and success in the San Francisco Match was observed in this study. However, study participants did experience non-Match-related benefits from away elective participation.

2021 ◽  
pp. 263183182110274
Author(s):  
Deblina Roy ◽  
Sujita Kumar Kar ◽  
SM Yasir Arafat ◽  
Pawan Sharma ◽  
Russell Kabir

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures have affected the sexuality and emotional bonding among the couple across the world. Objectives: We aimed to assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown on the married people’s emotional bonding and sexual relationships in 3 south Asian counties (Bangladesh, India, and Nepal). Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among Bangladesh, India, and Nepal residents from April 3 to April 15, 2020. The survey was designed in English. The participants were selected through convenience sampling technique, the link of the online questionnaire was shared with the participants. Only participants older than 18 years and above, married, and living with their spouses were included in the study. Results: A total number of 120 respondents were included finally for analysis from the participating countries (India, Nepal, and Bangladesh). The mean age of the participants was 35.42 (±5.73) years; the majority were males under the age of 40 years and had completed postgraduation as their qualification. Among the study participants, more than half (53.8%) of the women reported being sexually active during the lockdown, whereas 41% of the men reported being sexually active. Among the sexually active participants, most women (57.7%) reported that they perceived positive emotional bonding with their partners. Nevertheless, there was no significant difference observed when compared with men. There are variations in responses. However, no significant association was identified. Conclusion: There are a few insights from the study, that is, there was no significant difference found in almost 3 countries in emotional intimacy. There had been a trend that there is improved emotional bonding with their partners, although no significant difference was observed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Almawashee ◽  
Qaswer Yousif ◽  
Karrar Ali Idan

Abstract Background:  Social media are tools that supports electronic conversation. suggested , social media are “a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content. Aim of the study: Is to identify the pattern of usage of social media among a sample of Iraqi medical students including the devices used, the time consumed, and   the purpose of usage. Materials &Methods: The study, which is a retrospective cross-sectional, was conducted among medical students at college of Medicine\Baghdad University at 2019 as an online survey for duration of 3 months Data was entered and analyzed using spss version 24.Informed consent was obtained from the participants and the study was approved by the research committee in the college. Results The mean age of the participants in this study was 20.8 with sd 1.78. Results had shown no significant association between the usefulness of social media for educational values and type of social media, device used, and the time spent on these media. Results had shown that those who use social media more frequently were not significantly worried about the potential of social media abuse. Conclusions A study exploring more objectively the relationship between students’ use of social media with their academic achievements and what sort of social media interventions associated with better learning are probably needed. Such knowledge may be useful to guide medical educators to better utilize social media in their instructional strategies.


Author(s):  
Maher Safien ◽  
Deena C Thomas ◽  
Richard Avoi ◽  
Mohamed Firdaus ◽  
Fairrul Bin Masnah Kadir ◽  
...  

Introduction: Creating an educational climate that engages the students in the digital era is crucial as it prepares them for the future.Objectives: The aim of this multiple case study is to highlight the impact of creative educational environment on the students’ awareness of digital era tools.Methods: In this study three activities were organized. Firstly, a brain storming seminar titled “Medical Practice in Artificial Intelligence Era” was held. The second event was E-poster competitions which challenged the students’ curiosity to address the health problems and to introduce innovative solutions to solve it. Medical and nursing students presented 32 posters. Third activity was MeDuino, a hands-on workshop to familiarize the students with arduino technology in medical practice.Results: Around 260 participants attended the seminar. In their feedback, 72% of students found the topics attractive and more than 60% found its theme relevant and beneficial. E-poster competition was evaluated using a modified rubric scale. The data was analysed by SPSS showed that only “creativity” and “practicality” merits scored little above the mean range. There was no statistically significant difference in the mean score of ‘creativity’ and ‘practicality’ between medical students and nursing students. However, in general medical students’ scores were higher compared to nursing students. 90% of students said that they improved cognitively and 85% found it fascinating. In Meduino workshop (Robotics), The 30 participants practiced mini projects. 86 % found it attractive, 81% expressed that it improve d their cognitive about technology as noted in comparing the pre and post- event questionnaires. The students’ concerns included the time constraints short time and lack of lecturers’ guidance during posters’ preparation.Conclusion(s): Transforming educational environment physically, emotionally and socially managed to address few aspects digital era. Allocating more time, facilities and training in the informal curriculum could enhance health-care students mastering of future tools.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Supplementary Issue: 2019 Page: 31


2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Blissett ◽  
Christine Law ◽  
Dante Morra ◽  
Shiphra Ginsburg

Abstract Background Many medical students find choosing a residency challenging. There are several steps involved, including determining one's own priorities, arranging electives, choosing a training program and site, and preparing an in-depth application and a rank order list. Many resources are available to assist students, including the Canadian Resident Matching Service website, program websites, career counselors, career information sessions, mentors, peers, family/friends, and the Canadian Medical Residency Guide. Our study explored the relative impact of these resources on the career decision-making process. Method We invited medical students in their final year at 12 Canadian medical schools to complete an online survey. Questions included identifying the relative utility of resources in the context of each component of the decision-making process. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results The response rate was 71% (1076 of 1518). Overall, mentors, family/friends, and peers had the most impact on students' decision making. Career counselors, websites, and the Canadian Medical Residency Guide had much less impact. Family/friends were most frequently cited as essential to the process; however, family/friends and peers were equal in having some impact. Conclusions Our findings suggest that students are most influenced by family, friends, and peers, who are not involved in the formal residency selection effort. Appreciating the impact of these influences on students' decision making is important to understanding how they decide on their future careers. The study supports continuation of mentorship programs. Future work could focus on qualitative research to further characterize resource use.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 07-10
Author(s):  
Khalil-Ur -Rehman ◽  
Rizwan Faisal ◽  
Rizwan Qaisar ◽  
Mian Mujahid Shah

Introduction: A rigorous characterization of the impact of residential status of medical students (hostelites vs. day scholars) on the particulars of their academic performance has been lacking in Pakistan. Objective: To determine the relation of residential status of third year MBBS students to their academic performance in Forensic Medicine based on comparison of their pre-professional and professional examinations results during 2019. Materials & Methods: A comparative study was conducted from August to October 2019 on the examination performance of third year MBBS students of Rehman Medical College, Peshawar in the subject of Forensic Medicine. The results of theory and viva pre-professional and professional examinations were compared and categorized by residential status of students (Hostelites or Day Scholars). Students were categorized into groups according to their academic performance. Descriptive and Comparative data analysis was performed by SPSS 22.0, keeping p≤0.05 as significant. Results: No significant difference was found in the mean marks of hostelites and day scholars in pre-professional and professional examinations. The trend of significant improvement from pre-professional to professional examinations was similar in both groups, and it applied to both the theory and viva examinations. A significant correlation existed between the performance in two examinations among all students with no difference between the hostelites and day scholars. Conclusion: Residential status of MBBS students had no effect on their academic performance in the subject of Forensic Medicine. Keywords: Academic performance, Forensic Medicine, hostelites, day scholars


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Banasik ◽  
Dariusz Jemielniak ◽  
Wojciech P?dzich

BACKGROUND There have been mixed results of the studies checking whether prayers do actually extend the life duration of the people prayed for. Most studies on the topic included a small number of prayers and most of them focused on people already struggling with a medical condition. Intercessory prayer’s influence on health is of scholarly interest, yet it is unclear if its effect may be dependent on the number of prayers for a named individual received per annum. OBJECTIVE We sought to examine if there is a noticeable increased longevity effect of intercessory prayer for a named individual’s well-being, if he receives a very high number of prayers per annum for an extended period. METHODS We retrieved and conducted a statistical analysis of the data about the length of life for 857 Roman Catholic bishops, 500 Catholic priests, and 3038 male academics from the US, France, Italy, Poland, Brazil, and Mexico. We obtained information for these individuals who died between 1988 and 2018 from Wikidata, and conducted an observational cohort study. Bishops were chosen for the study, as they receive millions of individual prayers for well being, according to conservative estimates. RESULTS There was a main effect for occupation F(2, 4391) = 4.07, p = .017, ηp 2 = .002, with pairwise comparisons indicating significant differences between the mean life duration of bishops (M=30489) and of priests (M=29894), but none between the academic teachers (M=30147) and either of the other groups. A comparison analysis between bishops from the largest and the smallest dioceses showed no significant difference t(67.31)=1.61, p = .11. Our main outcome measure is covariance of the mean length of life in each of the categories: bishops, priests, academic teachers, controlled for nationality. CONCLUSIONS The first analysis proved that bishops live longer than priests, but due to a marginal effect size this result should be treated with caution. No difference was found between the mean length of life of bishops from the largest and the smallest dioceses. We found no difference between bishops and male academics. These results show that the impact of intercessory prayers on longevity is not observable.


Trauma ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146040862094972
Author(s):  
Ahmed Fadulelmola ◽  
Rob Gregory ◽  
Gavin Gordon ◽  
Fiona Smith ◽  
Andrew Jennings

Introduction: A novel virus, SARS-CoV-2, has caused a fatal global pandemic which particularly affects the elderly and those with comorbidities. Hip fractures affect elderly populations, necessitate hospital admissions and place this group at particular risk from COVID-19 infection. This study investigates the effect of COVID-19 infection on 30-day hip fracture mortality. Method: Data related to 75 adult hip fractures admitted to two units during March and April 2020 were reviewed. The mean age was 83.5 years (range 65–98 years), and most (53, 70.7%) were women. The primary outcome measure was 30-day mortality associated with COVID-19 infection. Results: The COVID-19 infection rate was 26.7% (20 patients), with a significant difference in the 30-day mortality rate in the COVID-19-positive group (10/20, 50%) compared to the COVID-19-negative group (4/55, 7.3%), with mean time to death of 19.8 days (95% confidence interval: 17.0–22.5). The mean time from admission to surgery was 43.1 h and 38.3 h, in COVID-19-positive and COVID-19-negative groups, respectively. All COVID-19-positive patients had shown symptoms of fever and cough, and all 10 cases who died were hypoxic. Seven (35%) cases had radiological lung findings consistent of viral pneumonitis which resulted in mortality (70% of mortality). 30% ( n = 6) contracted the COVID-19 infection in the community, and 70% ( n = 14) developed symptoms after hospital admission. Conclusion: Hip fractures associated with COVID-19 infection have a high 30-day mortality. COVID-19 testing and chest X-ray for patients presenting with hip fractures help in early planning of high-risk surgeries and allow counselling of the patients and family using realistic prognosis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 454.1-454
Author(s):  
N. Schlesinger ◽  
A. Yeo ◽  
P. Lipsky

Background:Hyperuricemia is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)1,2, but the relationship to fibrosis remains uncertain3. Moreover, it is not known whether lowering serum urate will affect the course of NAFLD. The availability of data from two randomized trials of pegloticase, a pegylated recombinant mammalian uricase, that profoundly decreases serum urate afforded the opportunity to test the hypothesis that lowering urate might improve NAFLD.Objectives:To determine whether treatment of chronic refractory gout patients with pegloticase was associated with improvement in NAFLD determined by Fibrosis 4 index (Fib4).Methods:Databases from patients with chronic refractory gout who participated in two randomized 6 month clinical trials (RCTs) of pegloticase were analyzed4. Sub-sets who had persistent urate lowering to levels <1 mg/dL in response to biweekly pegloticase (Responders, n=36) were compared to those who received placebo (n=43). Since liver biopsy information was not available on these subjects, we relied on Fib4, a validated non-invasive estimate of liver fibrosis in a variety of liver diseases5,6calculated from measurements of AST, ALT, platelet count and age (Age x AST/platelets x √ALT). A Fib4 value of 1.3 is an indication that further evaluation of liver disease is warranted.Results:At baseline, the mean Fib4 values were 1.40 ± 0.86 in pegloticase responders and 1.04 ± 0.53 in subjects receiving placebo. As shown in figure 1, subjects receiving placebo exhibited a change of 0.26 ± 0.41 in the Fib4 score over the six months of the RCTs compared with 0.13 ± 0.62 in the pegloticase responders (p=0.048; by linear regression). When only the subjects with a Fib4 value > 1.3 were considered, a significant difference in the change in the Fib4 values over the 6 months of the trial between pegloticase responders and those receiving placebo was also observed (-0.15 ± 0.67 vs 0.37 ± 0.42, p=0.004, by linear regression). The correlations between serum urate area under the curve (AUC) over the 6 months of the trial and the change in Fib4 value was rs=0.33, p=0.0.0004 (Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient). Finally, multiple linear regression analysis indicated serum urate AUC (as a surrogate measure for group) is the main contributor to the change in Fib4 (p=0.018 by linear regression).Conclusion:The data are consistent with the conclusion that persistent lowering of serum urate had a significant impact on Fib4 levels, implying a possible effect on the course of NAFLD. The results support a more complete analysis involving biopsy examination of the impact of urate on liver inflammation and fibrosis.References:[1]Yang C et al. PlosOne2017; 12:e0177249[2]Jaruvongvanich V et al. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol 2017; 29:1031[3]Jaruvongvanich V et al. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol 2017; 29:694[4]Sundy JS, et al. JAMA. 2011; 306 (7):711-20[5]Sterling RK et al. Hepatol 2006; 43:1317[6]Shah AG et al. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2009;7:1104Disclosure of Interests: :Naomi Schlesinger Grant/research support from: Pfizer, Amgen, Consultant of: Novartis, Horizon Therapeutics, Selecta Biosciences, Olatec, IFM Therapeutics, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, Anthony Yeo Employee of: Horizon Therapeutics, Peter Lipsky Consultant of: Horizon Therapeutics


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 238212052110164
Author(s):  
Abbie West ◽  
Cara Cawley ◽  
Elizabeth Crow ◽  
Alexis M. Stoner ◽  
Natalie M. Fadel ◽  
...  

Objective: Approximately 1 in 6 adults 60 and older have experienced a form of abuse in the past year. Many cases remain under-reported due to lack of knowledge and awareness. This study created an educational program on elder abuse for medical students to determine if participation would increase knowledge and awareness of elder abuse. Methods: This study used a pre and post survey methodology to evaluate students’ knowledge and awareness of elder abuse before and after participating in this educational program. Sixty first and second year osteopathic medical students at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, Carolinas Campus participated in this study. Students were emailed a pre-survey to evaluate their pre-existing knowledge and awareness. The survey was, previously created by the Student Training on Preventing Domestic Violence (STOP-DV) team using validated measures. Participants then attended educational events about various forms of elder abuse and recognizing its associated signs, and afterward completed the post-survey. The results were compared using t-tests to determine if there was a significant difference. Results: First and second year students differed significantly in pre-survey results of knowledge but not post-survey results. The results showed a significant difference in overall mean knowledge ( P-value < .001) and awareness scores ( P-value < .001) in all students. Conclusion: These results suggest education on elder abuse can enable future physicians to better recognize, understand, and support older adults regarding elder maltreatment.


2021 ◽  
pp. 000348942110157
Author(s):  
Amarbir S. Gill ◽  
Joshua Hwang ◽  
Angela M. Beliveau ◽  
Jeremiah A. Alt ◽  
Edward Bradley Strong ◽  
...  

Background: Patient satisfaction has a significant bearing on medical therapy compliance and patient outcomes. The purpose of this study was to (1) describe patient satisfaction, as characterized by the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire-18 (PSQ-18), in the care of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and (2) analyze the impact of comorbidities on satisfaction using the functional comorbidity index (FCI). Methods: Patient demographics, disease severity measures, and PSQ-18 scores for patients with CRS presenting to a tertiary rhinology clinic between November 2019 and April 2020 were collected and analyzed. FCI was calculated retrospectively using the electronic medical record; individual comorbidities were tabulated. Spearman’s correlations followed by multivariate regression was used to assess the relationship between medical comorbidities and PSQ-18. Results: Sixty-nine patients met criteria for analysis. There were no significant differences in age, gender, and Sinonasal Outcomes Test-22 scores between CRS patients with (CRSwNP) and without (CRSsNP) nasal polyps. There was no significant difference in the mean FCI for patients with CRSwNP versus CRSsNP (5.1 and 4.3, respectively) ( P = .843). Similarly, there was no significant difference in the mean sum PSQ-18 score (78/100 in both) between these cohorts ( P = .148). The mean sum PSQ-18 score was not significantly associated with anxiety ( P = .728), depression ( P = .624), or FCI ( P = .282), but was significantly associated with hearing impairment ( P < .001). Conclusion: Patient satisfaction in the care of CRS is generally high with a diagnosis of comorbid hearing impairment demonstrating a negative association with satisfaction in this cohort.


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