scholarly journals Understanding Student Experiences in a Near-Peer Resident Shadowing Program

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon R. Turner ◽  
Jonathan White ◽  
Cheryl Poth ◽  
W. Todd Rogers

Introduction. The preparation of medical students for clerkship has been criticized, both in terms of students’ ability to understand their new role as clinical trainees and in their ability to carry out that role. To begin to address this gap, this paper reports the experiences of students in a shadowing program aimed at enhancing the preparedness of medical students for clinical training. The study examined a novel program, the Resident-Medical Student Shadowing Program, in which first-year medical students at the University of Alberta shadowed a first-year resident during clinical duties over the course of eight months. Methods. A study was conducted to assess the experiences of 83 first-year medical student participants who shadowed a first-year resident intermittently for one year. Student and resident participants’ experiences were explored using semistructured interviews. Results. Students and residents experiences indicate that participation increased students’ understanding of the clinical environment and their role within it and introduced them to skills and knowledge needed to perform that role. Students reported that a close relationship with their resident enhanced their learning experience. Conclusion. This study demonstrates that a low-cost program in which first-year students shadow residents may be a useful tool for helping prepare students for clerkship.

2020 ◽  
Vol 129 (8) ◽  
pp. 767-771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir A. Hakimi ◽  
Simon P. Lalehzarian ◽  
Aaron S. Lalehzarian ◽  
Ariel M. Azhdam ◽  
Benjamin D. Boodaie ◽  
...  

Objectives: To introduce an inexpensive method for objectively evaluating otoscopic visualization of the tympanic membrane wherein learners match what they visualize in standardized patients to tympanic membrane photographs. Methods: Two standardized patients had photographs taken of their tympanic membranes using a commercially-available digital otoscope. First- and third-year medical students were asked to perform an otoscopic examination on each patient using a conventional handheld otoscope and to match what they saw with the correct tympanic membrane image among distractor photographs belonging to other patients. The ability of students to match the standardized patients’ tympanic membrane to the correct photographs was assessed before and after a didactic training session. These measurements were compared between the two cohort groups for construct validity. Results: Fifty-one first-year medical students (with no previous otoscopy experience) and 44 third-year medical students (with otoscopy experience from completing pediatric and family medicine clinical clerkships) were recruited to voluntarily participate in this study. At baseline, a larger percentage of third-year students correctly matched both tympanic membranes compared to first-year students (27% vs 8%, P < .01). After otoscopy training, correct matching of both tympanic membranes significantly improved among both first-year students (8-31%, P < .01) and third-year students (27-54%, P < .01). Conclusion: The use of tympanic membrane photographs from standardized patients provides a novel technique for objectively assessing proficiency in otoscopic visualization of the middle ear. The concept is low cost, uses live patients, and can be easily implemented in pre-clinical instruction and beyond.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kay Wu ◽  
Alex Chan ◽  
Avinash Pandey ◽  
Puru Panchal ◽  
Maroof Khalid ◽  
...  

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has restricted in-person clinical training for medical students. Simulation-based teaching is a promising tool to introduce learners to the clinical environment. MacSim is a student-led simulation workshop for learners to develop clinical competencies. The objective of this study was to assess the impacts of MacSim and participants' perspectives regarding simulation-based teaching. Methods: A comprehensive simulation, representative of a virtual care scenario, was delivered to 42 pre-clerkship medical students via video conferencing. In pairs, participants obtained histories and carried out management plans for simulated patients. Participants were surveyed and interviewed. Survey data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test. Interview transcript data were thematically analyzed. Results: Post-simulation, participants (n=24) felt more prepared to make clinical decisions, collaborate, and communicate in a virtual setting. 92% of respondents agreed MacSim was a valuable learning experience and 96% agreed more simulation-based learning should be integrated into curricula. Emergent themes from interviews (n=12) included: 1) value of simulation fidelity, 2) value of physician feedback, and 3) effectiveness of MacSim in improving virtual clinical skills. Conclusion: Simulation-based teaching is of importance and educational value to medical students. It may play an increasingly prevalent role in education as virtual care is likely to become more prevalent.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Kaljo

Introduction:  To address the country’s shortage of primary care physicians and increasing medical student debt, the Medical College of Wisconsin matriculated students into accelerated 3-year campuses in Central City and Packer City, while maintaining its traditional 4-year campus in Brew City, Wisconsin.  To ensure consistent content delivery within the basic science curriculum, students at all three campuses simultaneously participate in daily learning activities, utilizing distributed learning through a multidirectional digital classroom incorporating video-conferencing and audience response systems.     Methods:  To best uncover and understand the perspectives and attitudes of faculty and medical students, qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed framed within constructivist grounded theory.  This framework is rooted in social processes of the participants lived experiences and views these experiences as paramount to the analysis and presentation.  Prospectively, data was acquired regarding individual experiences from first-year medical students and medical school teaching faculty across the three campuses.  Beginning in the 2015–2016 academic year, nine semi-structured focus groups were conducted with concluding surveys.  These focus groups were separated by campus location: medical students at Brew City, medical students at Packer City, and faculty who taught at either the three-year regional campus or four-year campus.  In winter 2017, the study expanded including one additional student-centered focus group in Central City.  Each focus group was recorded using a hand-held device, transcribed, and analyzed using the constant comparative method.  This inductive approach required close examination of the transcriptions and line-by-line analysis to assign codes that captured the emerging themes.  To triangulate the data and further understand the medical student and faculty lived experiences, a concluding survey was distributed to participants.  This survey included eight, seven-point Likert-scale questions to further ascertain experience and overall satisfaction with the new learning environment.  Numerical data was analyzed with IBM® SPSS® 24.  This study was approved by the institutions review board. Results: In 2015–16, Packer City students rated their overall learning experience significantly (d=0.74, p<.050) higher (mean (sd)=7.6 (0.6)) than students in Brew City (6.7; 1.6) and significantly higher (d=1.21, p<.034) than the faculty (6.0 (1.0)). During 2016–17, overall learning experience scores did not differ from those of the previous years for Packer City (D=0.0) or Brew City students (D=0.0). A comparison of scores across all three campuses in 2016–17 yielded a significant change (d=1.28, p<.037) between the Central City campus (mean (sd)=7.8 (1.1)) and the Brew City campus (6.7 (0.5). No significant changes were reported between Packer City and the other two campuses.  Three overarching themes emerged from both the students and faculty throughout the study: (1) The construction of a knowledge-based community of practice, (2) responsiveness to diverse learning preference, and (3) how participants negotiated teaching and learning within the multidirectional digital classroom. Conclusion: These findings have the capacity to provide guidance when re-designing and facilitating medical school curricula and for learners who engage in new multidirectional digital environments.  Regardless of teaching site, all educators must be mindful of students’ learning needs and recognize how the overall learning experience is influenced by faculty, physical environment, and the ways in which students interact with one another daily.  


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 238212051985204
Author(s):  
Erik Langenau ◽  
Sarah B Frank ◽  
Sarah J Calardo ◽  
Michael B Roberts

Introduction: Shadowing a physician is an observational experience which includes a student observing a licensed healthcare provider caring for patients. Shadowing is commonly done by students before and during medical school, but little is known about the nature or extent of these extra-curricular observational experiences. Objective: We hypothesized that shadowing experiences were common yet variable. We investigated the prevalence, nature, and perceived value of medical student experiences with shadowing physicians (both before and during medical school). Methods: This survey-based study was non-experimental with a cross-sectional convenience sample of osteopathic medical students about their shadowing experiences before and during medical school. The survey was sent to all matriculated osteopathic medical students (OMS1-4) for the 2017 to 2018 academic year from two medical schools: Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) (1084 total students) and PCOM-Georgia (554 total students). The final survey instrument included three sections: demographics (6 questions), pre-medical shadowing experiences (21 questions), and medical student shadowing experiences (24 questions). Results: Respondents (357) identified themselves as OMS1 (96), OMS2 (89), OMS3 (73), OMS4 (95) and other (2, OMS5) with enrollment at PCOM-Philadelphia (242) and PCOM-Georgia (115). Among survey respondents, 339 (95.5%) reported shadowing a physician as a pre-medical student, and 110 (30.8%) reported shadowing (outside of their required clinical rotations) a physician during medical school. Requirements to participate were inconsistent; fewer than 50% of shadowing experiences required Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) training, proof of vaccination, or purified protein derivative (PPD) documentation. In addition to observation, pre-medical and medical students, respectively, participated in history taking (44 [13%], 47 [42.7%]), physical examinations (45 [13.3%], 44 [40%]) and procedures (13, [3.8%], 20 [18.2%]) during their shadowing experiences. Motivations to participate in shadowing varied between pre-medical and medical student experiences, but both groups mentioned their desire to learn more about a particular discipline, obtain letters of recommendation, and gain patient care experience. Students recommended both pre-medical (273 [80.5%]) and medical school (93 [84.5%]) shadowing to future students. Conclusion: Shadowing remains a common and important tool for students to learn about patient care, medicine and careers. The nature of each shadowing experience and participation requirements are quite variable. Measures to ensure patient safety, confidentiality, liability and supervision are inconsistently applied. Promoting guidelines, as well as codes of conduct, for shadowing could serve as a helpful resource for students, academic advisors and supervising clinicians.


Open Medicine ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 502-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmond Girasek ◽  
Regina Molnár ◽  
Edit Eke ◽  
Miklós Szócska

AbstractSome decades ago being a medical doctor was characterized unambiguously as a profession that offers help and serves the patients’ needs during medical treatment. In today’s society, this image of the medical profession has been substantially changed. The present paper aims to examine medical career choice motivations and preferences of choosing speciality, in the light of current social and economic changes in Hungary. The study was carried out by using a voluntary, self-administrated, questionnaire among first-year medical students and resident doctors in four medical faculties in Hungary. The career choice motivations of the first-year medical students and resident doctors are similar and match to the traditional health profession career choice motivations. Nevertheless the first-year students consider high income as one of the most important factors. They appear more conscious and more ambitious regarding their future speciality choice. The Hungarian health care system and medical education must be prepared for the presence of students that are aware of the high market value of a medical diploma, have excellent language skills, and consider migration as one main factor in their motivation when choosing a medical profession.


Author(s):  
Sanchit Ingale ◽  
Anirudh Srinivasan ◽  
Diana Bairaktarova

Spatial visualization is the ability of an individual to imagine an object mentally and understand its spatial orientation. There have been multiple works proving that spatial visualization skills can be improved with an appropriate training. Such training warrant a critical place in the undergraduate engineering curricula in many engineering schools as spatial skills are considered vital for students’ success in the technical and design fields [1–4]. Enhanced spatial skills help not only professionals in the engineering field but also everyone in the 21st century environment. Drawing sectional views requires mental manipulation and visual thinking. To enhance students spatial reasoning, one of the authors of this study, conducted a class in spatial visualization. The course-learning goal aimed at improving first-year engineering students’ spatial reasoning through instruction on freehand drawings of sectional view. During the semester, two teaching assistants had to grade more than 500 assignments that consisted of sectional views of mechanical objects. This was a tedious and a time consuming task. Motivated by this experience, this paper proposes a software aiming at automating grading of students’ sectional view drawings. The proposed software will also give live feedback to students while they are working on the drawings. This interactive tool aims to 1) improve the learning experience of first year students, with limited CAD knowledge, and 2) introduce a pedagogical tool that can enhance spatial visualization training.


Author(s):  
Monali Hiwarkar ◽  
Onjal Taywade

Background: With digitization the e-learning modalities are being increasingly used by medical students. These often help the first MBBS students to overcome limitations of conventional teaching methods like didactic lectures. However, e-learning is not official part of medical education in India and the awareness about its use among medical students need to be evaluated. Aim and objective of the study was to assess the extent to which MBBS first year students use e-resources for learning as well as to assess knowledge, attitude, skills and habits of first MBBS students towards e-learning.Methods: A questionnaire of twenty five questions on various aspects of e-learning was administered to the first MBBS students at two medical colleges. The data generated from responses was compiled and analyzed on SPSS to get insight on various aspects of e-learning.Results: Out of 236 students surveyed 77.97% were aware about the academic websites related to first MBBS subjects. 90.68 % accepted that e-learning helped in understanding topics, 84.32% recommended conventional teaching to be supplemented with e-learning. However there was no statistically significant difference between responses from two groups i.e. female and male students (p>0.05).Conclusions: The majority of first MBBS students use e-resources for learning various topics in anatomy, physiology and biochemistry. The e-resources have made a positive impact on overall learning especially anatomy. e-learning can supplement conventional teaching in the first year of medical training.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 238212051984941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth M Sutherland ◽  
Katharine J Reid ◽  
Neville G Chiavaroli ◽  
David Smallwood ◽  
Geoffrey J McColl

Background: Development of diagnostic reasoning (DR) is fundamental to medical students’ training, but assessing DR is challenging. Several written assessments focus on DR but lack the ability to dynamically assess DR. Oral assessment formats have strengths but have largely lost favour due to concerns about low reliability and lack of standardization. Medical schools and specialist medical colleges value many forms of oral assessment (eg, long case, Objective Structured Clinical Examination [OSCE], viva voce) but are increasingly searching for ways in which to standardize these formats. We sought to develop and trial a Standardized Case-Based Discussion (SCBD), a highly standardized and interactive oral assessment of DR. Methods: Two initial cohorts of medical students (n = 319 and n = 342) participated in the SCBD as part of their assessments. All students watch a video trigger (based on an authentic clinical case) and discuss their DR with an examiner for 15 minutes. Examiners probe students’ DR and assess how students respond to new standardized clinical information. An online examiner training module clearly articulates expected student performance standards. We used student achievement and student and examiner perceptions to gauge the performance of this new assessment form over 2 implementation years. Results: The SCBD was feasible to implement for a large student cohort and was acceptable to students and examiners. Most students and all examiners agreed that the SCBD discussion provided useful information on students’ DR. The assessment had acceptable internal consistency, and the associations with other assessment formats were small and positive, suggesting that the SCBD measures a related, yet novel construct. Conclusions: Rigorous, standardized oral assessments have a place in a programme of assessment in initial medical training because they provide opportunities to explore DR that are limited in other formats. We plan to incorporate an SCBD into our clinical assessments for the first year of clinical training, where teaching and assessing basic DR is emphasized. We will also explore further examiners’ understanding of and approach to assessing DR.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 265
Author(s):  
Chambers ◽  
Salter ◽  
Muldrow

First-year students who enter college pursuing a STEM degree still face challenges persisting through the STEM pipeline (Chen, 2013; Leu, 2017). In this case study, researchers examine the impact of a utilitarian scientific literacy based academic intervention on retention of first-year students in STEM using a mixed methods approach. A sample (n = 116) of first-year students identified as at-risk of not persisting in STEM were enrolled in a for credit utilitarian scientific literacy course. Participants of the semester long course were then compared with a control group of first-year students identified as at-risk of persisting in STEM. A two-proportion z test was performed to assess the mean differences between students and participants of the course were given a survey to gauge student experiences. Quantitative results (φ 0.34, p < 0.05) indicate that the utilitarian scientific literacy course had a statistically significant impact on retention among first-year students at-risk of persisting in STEM. Moreover, qualitative data obtained from participant responses describe internal and external growth as positive outcomes associated with the intervention.


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