Advancing careers in medical education: ‘Practice architectures’ for success in a resource-constrained setting

Abstract Background E-learning has been widely adopted as a teaching and learning approach in medical education internationally. However, its adoption in low- and middle-income countries is still at an infantile stage. The use of e-learning may help to overcome some of the barriers to access to quality education and provide flexible, low-cost, user-centred, and easily updated learning. To address the need for research education during the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed and implemented an e-learning course for students enrolled in higher diploma courses at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC). In this paper, we report our experience teaching the online research course in resource-constrained settings to enable other medical educators, students and institutions in similar settings to understand the most appropriate approaches to incorporating e-learning interventions. Methods This was a cross-sectional study that reviewed the experiences of learners and lecturers on a research course at Kenya Medical Training College. All higher diploma students admitted to the college in the 2020/21 academic year were invited to take part in the study. We also included all lecturers that were involved in the coordination and facilitation of the course. We analysed qualitative and quantitative data that were collected from the e-learning platform, an online course-evaluation form and reports from course lecturers. Results We enrolled 933 students on the online research course. These students had joined 44 higher diploma courses in 11 campuses of the college. The students struggled to complete synchronous e-learning activities on the e-learning platform. Only 53 and 45% of the students were able to complete the pretest and the posttest, respectively. Four themes were identified through a thematic analysis of qualitative data (1) Students gained research competencies (2) Students appreciated the use of diverse e-learning technologies (3) Students felt overwhelmed by the research course (4) Technological challenges reduce the effectiveness of online learning. Conclusion Our results suggest that e-learning can be used to teach complex courses, such as research in resource-constrained settings. However, faculty should include more asynchronous e-learning activities to enhance teaching and learning and improve student experiences.

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3D Printing Improve the Effectiveness of Fracture Teaching and Medical Learning: A Comprehensive Scientometric Assessment and Future Perspectives

Frontiers in Physiology ◽

10.3389/fphys.2021.726591 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Jian Shi ◽

Shenao Fu ◽

María José Cavagnaro ◽

Shaokang Xu ◽

Mingyi Zhao

Keyword(s):

Medical Education ◽

3D Printing ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Extensive Literature ◽

Body Parts ◽

Education Practice ◽

Training Requirements ◽

Realistic Situation ◽

Medical Learning ◽

Junior Residents

Fractures of complex body parts are often serious and difficult to handle, and they have high technical and training requirements. However, the realistic situation is that there are few opportunities for the junior residents, trainee doctors, and especially medical students to contact enough clinical practice and see such fracture patients. Fortunately, with the rapid development and continuous progress of 3D printing and related technologies, this situation has gradually gotten better and better. In this research, we confirmed that 3D printing technology could improve the effectiveness of fracture teaching and medical learning from multiple dimensions. We comprehensively screened and assessed 223 papers from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection on October 3, 2021, with “((3D) AND ((printing) OR (printed)) AND (fracture)) AND ((education) OR (training) OR (teaching))” as the retrieval strategy. Additionally, we used the VOSviewer software to analyze the keywords and countries and the organizations of the publications, then a series of scientometric and visualized analyses were made based on the retrieval results. Afterward, multiple databases were retrieved according to our selection criteria, we selected eight studies for the extensive literature analysis. The extracted data contained information of authors, problems solved, participants, methods, assessments, results, and benefits/limitations. These intuitive and in-depth analyses further confirmed and appraised the advantages of 3D printing in complex fracture models more objectively. In conclusion, 3D printing could improve the effectiveness and extension of fracture teaching, as well as medical learning, by providing the powerful interaction with 3D effect, wakening students learning interest, and allowing the junior residents, trainee doctors to have as realistic a virtual practice experience as possible. Through this research, it is expected that more researchers could be attracted to conduct more comprehensive and thorough studies on the application of 3D printing for training and educational propose, to promote the development of 3D technology-based medical education practice and further deepen the reform of medical education and improve the quality of fracture education and learning.

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Threshold concepts in medical education: A scoping review protocol

10.1101/2021.06.18.21259141 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Helen Jones ◽

Lucy Hammond

Keyword(s):

Medical Education ◽

Skill Acquisition ◽

Scoping Review ◽

Future Research ◽

Threshold Concepts ◽

Comprehensive Overview ◽

Education Practice ◽

Review Protocol ◽

Concept Framework

Threshold concepts are attracting increasing attention as a framework for improving medical education practice. A growing number of studies in recent years have explored the role of threshold concepts in knowledge and skill acquisition amongst medical students and physicians. However, no review has utilised a systematic approach to examine the literature in this area. The author therefore proposes to undertake a scoping review to explore and describe the current research regarding threshold concepts in medical education and identify gaps in the existing literature. Medical and education databases will be searched for studies exploring threshold concepts in undergraduate, graduate and continuing medical education contexts. The findings will be presented in the form of a descriptive numerical summary and a narrative synthesis. The review will provide a comprehensive overview of how the threshold concept framework is currently being utilised and applied, and provide recommendations for how medical educators can employ the framework in their own practice. Exploration of the research approaches being used, and identification of gaps in the literature, will help inform future research, including determining focus for future systematic reviews.

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