Rural medical education: five medical students spend a year in rural Port Lincoln, Australia

Objective The aim of this evaluation was to see whether interventions implemented to improve the Rural Medicine Rotation made this a more effective rural medical education experience. Multiple interventions targeting the student experience, lecturers and preceptors were implemented. Methods A quasi-experimental design using pre- and post-measures was used. The participants were all University of Queensland, School of Medicine, Rural Medicine Rotation students who completed the 2009 and 2010 rural medicine rotation evaluations. There were 769 students, with an 84% response rate in 2009 and an 80% response rate in 2010. In addition, all the 25 program preceptors who were visited in 2009 and the 34 who were visited in 2010 participated in the study. Results The implementation of interventions resulted in significant improvement in three outcome measures, namely teaching effectiveness, provision of an environment supportive of learning in a rural/remote setting and opportunities for professional growth. Two of the three other outcome measures – ensuring a safe clinical placement and opportunities for procedural skills experience and development – were very positively evaluated in both 2009 and 2010. Conclusions The interventions contributed to a more effective rural medical education experience, providing students with the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge relevant for rural medicine and to gain an understanding of the context in which rural medicine is practiced. What is known about the topic? Many Australian medical schools offer students rural-based educational opportunities based on the premise that placing medical students in a rural setting may ultimately lead to them choosing careers in rural medicine. However, there is a paucity of evidence on the factors that are considered necessary for medical students to gain a positive rural experience of short conscripted rural placements. What does the paper add? This paper identifies successful interventions to the rotation and placements that provide a positive experience of the rural clinical placement for students. These interventions occurred within an ongoing evaluation program embedded in the rotation. What are the implications for practitioners? Through ongoing evaluation, interventions can be selected and implemented that succeed in contributing to students having a positive rural clinical placement experience. This paper demonstrates how an embedded continuous improvement program serves to provide direction for ongoing modifications.

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Patient consent to medical students in general practice

British Journal of General Practice ◽

10.3399/bjgp18x697229 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 68 (suppl 1) ◽

pp. bjgp18X697229

Author(s):

Matthew Webb ◽

Sarah Thirlwall ◽

Bob McKinley

Keyword(s):

Medical Education ◽

General Practice ◽

Medical Students ◽

Medical School ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Teaching Quality ◽

School Students ◽

Patient Journey ◽

Patient Consent ◽

High Level

BackgroundInformed consent is required for active participation of patients in medical education. At Keele Medical School, we require practices to advertise that they teach undergraduate students and to obtain appropriate patient consent at various stages of the patient journey.AimThe study aimed to explore patients’ experience of consent to involvement in undergraduate medical education in general practice.MethodDuring the final year at Keele University Medical School, students undertake a patient satisfaction survey. A questionnaire was attached to the reverse of this survey during the academic year 2016–2017. The questionnaire explored the stage of the patient journey consent was obtained, whether they were offered an alternative appointment and how comfortable they were with medical students being involved in their care.ResultsA total of 489 questionnaires were completed covering 62 GP practices. 97% of patients reported that consent was obtained at least once during their encounter and the majority reported that this occurred at booking. 98% of patients were comfortable or very comfortable with a medical student leading their consultation. However, 28% of those surveyed stated that they were either not given the option of not seeing the student or there was no other alternative appointment available.ConclusionThe results indicate that in the vast majority of cases patient consent is obtained at least once during their attendance. Patients expressed a high level of satisfaction with medical students’ involvement in their care. Further work is required to evaluate the role of the data as a marker of individual practice teaching quality.

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The Duties of Doctors In Medical Education: A Letter To The Editor (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.16418 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Sneha Barai

Keyword(s):

Medical Education ◽

Medical Students ◽

Role Models ◽

Role Model ◽

General Medical Council ◽

Future Generations ◽

Medical Council ◽

Positive Role ◽

The Uk ◽

And Training

UNSTRUCTURED The UK General Medical Council (GMC) explicitly states doctors have a duty to ‘contribute to teaching and training…by acting as a positive role model’. However, recent studies suggest some are not fulfilling this, which is impacting medical students' experiences and attitudes during their training. As such, doctors have a duty to act as role models and teachers, as specified by the GMC, which it seems are not currently being fulfilled. This would improve the medical students’ learning experiences and demonstrate good professional values for them to emulate. Therefore, these duties should be as important as patient care, since this will influence future generations.

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The Field Professor of Community Medicine: An Experience in Rural Medical Education

American Journal of Preventive Medicine ◽

10.1016/s0749-3797(18)30628-7 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 114-117 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

F. Douglas Scutchfield ◽

C. William Keck

Keyword(s):

Medical Education ◽

Community Medicine ◽

Rural Medical Education

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Required Longitudinal Service-Learning and Its Effects on Medical Students’ Attitudes Toward the Underserved

Medical Science Educator ◽

10.1007/s40670-021-01350-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Monica Rose Arebalos ◽

Faun Lee Botor ◽

Edward Simanton ◽

Jennifer Young

Keyword(s):

Medical Education ◽

Medical Students ◽

Service Learning ◽

Student Attitudes ◽

Underserved Populations ◽

Preclinical Phase ◽

School Of Medicine ◽

Students Attitudes ◽

Medical Student Attitudes ◽

The University

AbstractAlthough medical students enter medicine with altruistic motives and seek to serve indigent populations, studies show that medical students’ attitudes towards the undeserved tend to worsen significantly as they go through their medical education. This finding emphasizes the need for medical educators to implement activities such as service-learning that may help mitigate this negative trend.All students at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) School of Medicine are required to participate in longitudinal service-learning throughout medical school, and a majority of students interact with the underserved at their service-learning sites. Using the previously validated Medical Student Attitudes Towards the Underserved (MSATU), independent sample T-tests showed that students who interact with underserved populations at their sites scored with significantly better attitudes towards the underserved at the end of their preclinical phase. Subjects included 58 medical students with 100% taking the MSATU. This result indicates that longitudinal service-learning, particularly when it includes interaction with the underserved, can be one method to combat the worsening of medical students’ attitudes as they complete their medical education.

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Dismantling the hub and spoke: Social accountability and rural medical education

Medical Education ◽

10.1111/medu.14458 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Aaron Jattan ◽

Charles Penner

Keyword(s):

Medical Education ◽

Social Accountability ◽

Hub And Spoke ◽

Rural Medical Education

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Artificial intelligence-based education assists medical students’ interpretation of hip fracture

Insights into Imaging ◽

10.1186/s13244-020-00932-0 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Chi-Tung Cheng ◽

Chih-Chi Chen ◽

Chih-Yuan Fu ◽

Chung-Hsien Chaou ◽

Yu-Tung Wu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Artificial Intelligence ◽

Medical Education ◽

Hip Fracture ◽

Medical Students ◽

Medical Image ◽

Learning System ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Dynamic Collaboration ◽

Increase In Accuracy ◽

Image Learning

Abstract Background With recent transformations in medical education, the integration of technology to improve medical students’ abilities has become feasible. Artificial intelligence (AI) has impacted several aspects of healthcare. However, few studies have focused on medical education. We performed an AI-assisted education study and confirmed that AI can accelerate trainees’ medical image learning. Materials We developed an AI-based medical image learning system to highlight hip fracture on a plain pelvic film. Thirty medical students were divided into a conventional (CL) group and an AI-assisted learning (AIL) group. In the CL group, the participants received a prelearning test and a postlearning test. In the AIL group, the participants received another test with AI-assisted education before the postlearning test. Then, we analyzed changes in diagnostic accuracy. Results The prelearning performance was comparable in both groups. In the CL group, postlearning accuracy (78.66 ± 14.53) was higher than prelearning accuracy (75.86 ± 11.36) with no significant difference (p = .264). The AIL group showed remarkable improvement. The WithAI score (88.87 ± 5.51) was significantly higher than the prelearning score (75.73 ± 10.58, p < 0.01). Moreover, the postlearning score (84.93 ± 14.53) was better than the prelearning score (p < 0.01). The increase in accuracy was significantly higher in the AIL group than in the CL group. Conclusion The study demonstrated the viability of AI for augmenting medical education. Integrating AI into medical education requires dynamic collaboration from research, clinical, and educational perspectives.

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The impact of integrating environmental health into medical school curricula: a survey-based study

BMC Medical Education ◽

10.1186/s12909-020-02458-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin Kligler ◽

Genevieve Pinto Zipp ◽

Carmela Rocchetti ◽

Michelle Secic ◽

Erin Speiser Ihde

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Medical Education ◽

Medical Students ◽

Medical School ◽

Environmental Health ◽

School Curriculum ◽

Learning Objectives ◽

Lead Contamination ◽

Institute Of Medicine ◽

The Impact

Abstract Background Inclusion of environmental health (EH) in medical education serves as a catalyst for preparing future physicians to address issues as complex as climate change and health, water pollution and lead contamination. However, previous research has found EH education to be largely lacking in U.S. medical education, putting future physicians at risk of not having the expertise to address patients’ environmental illnesses, nor speak to prevention. Methods Environmental health (EH) knowledge and skills were incorporated into the first-year medical school curriculum at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine (Nutley, New Jersey), via a two-hour interactive large group learning module with follow up activities. Students completed the Environmental Health in Med School (EHMS) survey before and after the year 1 EH module. This survey evaluates medical students’ attitudes, awareness and professionalism regarding environmental health. In year 2, students completed the Environmental Health Survey II, which measured students’ perceptions of preparedness to discuss EH with future patients. The research team created both surveys based upon learning objectives that broadly aligned with the Institute of Medicine six competency-based environmental health learning objectives. Results 36 year 1 students completed both the pre and post EHMS surveys. McNemar’s test was used for paired comparisons. Results identified no statistically significant changes from pre to post surveys, identifying a dramatic ceiling. When comparing year 2, EHS II pre-survey (n = 84) and post-survey (n = 79) responses, a statistically significant positive change in students’ self-reported sense of preparedness to discuss environmental health with their patients following the curriculum intervention was noted. Conclusions Our conclusion for the EHMS in Year 1 was that the current generation of medical students at this school is already extremely aware of and concerned about the impact of environmental issues on health. Through the EHS II in Year 2, we found that the six-week environmental health module combining didactic and experiential elements significantly increased medical students’ self-reported sense of preparedness to discuss environmental health issues, including climate change, with their patients.

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Medical education challenges and innovations during COVID-19 pandemic

Postgraduate Medical Journal ◽

10.1136/postgradmedj-2021-140032 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. postgradmedj-2021-140032

Author(s):

Michail Papapanou ◽

Eleni Routsi ◽

Konstantinos Tsamakis ◽

Lampros Fotis ◽

Georgios Marinos ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Education ◽

Medical Students ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Well Being ◽

Educational Institutions ◽

Healthcare Staff ◽

Academic Trajectories ◽

Traditional Structure ◽

Physical Presence ◽

The Impact

COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly disrupted the well-established, traditional structure of medical education. Τhe new limitations of physical presence have accelerated the development of an online learning environment, comprising both of asynchronous and synchronous distance education, and the introduction of novel ways of student assessment. At the same time, this prolonged crisis had serious implications on the lives of medical students including their psychological well-being and the impact on their academic trajectories. The new reality has, on many occasions, triggered the ‘acting up’ of medical students as frontline healthcare staff, which has been perceived by many of them as a positive learning and contributing experience, and has led to a variety of responses from the educational institutions. All things considered, the urgency for rapid and novel adaptations to the new circumstances has functioned as a springboard for remarkable innovations in medical education,including the promotion of a more “evidence-based” approach.

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