scholarly journals Narrowing expansive horizons: Experiences of first-year medical students and teaching faculty in a new multidirectional digital classroom for three- and four-year medical school programs

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Kaljo
Keyword(s):  
Medical Student ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Central City ◽  
First Year ◽  
Digital Classroom ◽  
Teaching Faculty ◽  
First Year Medical Students

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.  

scholarly journals First year medical students’ perceptions of the impact of wearing scrubs on professional identity: a narrative analysis in the United Arab Emirates

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. e039357
Author(s):  
Sara Sorrell ◽  
Halah Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Medical Curriculum ◽  
First Year ◽  
Written Narratives ◽  
First Year Medical Students ◽  
The Impact

ObjectivesMedical school serves as a critical developmental period for future physicians, during which students begin to form a professional identity. Just as personal appearance, particularly clothing, is an important external expression of one’s personal identity, ‘uniforms’ in healthcare, including white coats and scrubs, symbolise status and a group identity. There are, however, limited studies on the impact of physician attire on medical students’ formation of professional identity. Accordingly, through qualitative analysis of written narratives, we sought to analyse medical students’ experiences of wearing professional physician attire, namely scrubs, and how the uniform impacted their confidence level, performance and behaviours, as well as their identity as future physicians.DesignQualitative analysis of medical student’s written narratives.SettingKhalifa University College of Medicine and Health Sciences (KU CMHS) is a new medical school in the United Arab Emirates, with an inaugural class of 30 students admitted in August 2019. It is the only medical school in the city of Abu Dhabi, and the only school in the country that follows a postgraduate medical curriculum.ParticipantsAll first year medical students at KU CMHS were purposively sampled.MethodsStudents completed a voluntary online anonymous questionnaire. We employed a social identity approach to data analysis. Thematic content analysis was conducted on their narratives to identify themes.ResultsWe identified three major themes, namely (1) emotions, (2) logistics and (3) interpersonal relationships.ConclusionsMedical students form early perceptions regarding physician attire and its impact on their professional identity. Engaging in conversations regarding professional attire with educators or mentors could provide an important opportunity for students to discuss and explore professional identity early in training.

scholarly journals The meaning of humanization for first-year medical students - The use of narratives in medical school

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciana Tavares ◽  
Sylvia Enns ◽  
José Ricardo Ayres ◽  
Patricia Tempski
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Role Models ◽  
First Year ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Medical Program ◽  
First Year Medical Students ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Purpose To analyze the meaning of humanization by first-year medical students as well as to find out about their role models and what were their personal experiences of humanization and dehumanization before entering medical school. Methods The authors performed a qualitative study using narratives of first-year medical students. The data were analyzed through content analysis. The narratives were used as a strategy to stimulate students' reflection and to understand their perspectives and values at the beginning of the medical program. Results The study included 167 participants: 67 females (40.1%) and 100 males (59.9%). The participants' ages ranged from 16 to 38 years. The analysis of the narratives showed three main themes: socio-political and economic aspects of medicine, humanization of healthcare, and dimensions of humanization and dehumanization. In their narratives, the students expressed the desire to become doctors, to help and improve people's lives, and the intention to emulate good role models. Another desire was to contribute to the development of the Brazilian healthcare system. The students considered the humanization of healthcare as an integral vision of the human being that includes perceiving the context and personal history, as well as the complexity, of the human being. The students emphasized the importance of "going beyond the technical dimension" in the relationship between physician and his/her patient. Some students recognized the transdisciplinary aspect of medicine. Conclusions The students in the first-year of the medical program have a clear understanding of the meaning of humanization in medical practice, regardless of their social and economic conditions, age, sex, and religion. The students' narratives expressed their expectations for a more humane society with respect, solidarity, and compassion. The use of narrative is a strategy to develop critical thinking and to better get to know our students: who they are, what they think, and how they feel.

scholarly journals Do Contact and Empathy Mitigate Bias Against Gay and Lesbian People Among Heterosexual First-Year Medical Students? A Report From the Medical Student CHANGE Study

2015 ◽  
Vol 90 (5) ◽  
pp. 645-651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara E. Burke ◽  
John F. Dovidio ◽  
Julia M. Przedworski ◽  
Rachel R. Hardeman ◽  
Sylvia P. Perry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Student ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Gay And Lesbian ◽  
First Year ◽  
Student Change ◽  
First Year Medical Students

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
Keyword(s):  
Medical Student ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Clinical Training ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
First Year ◽  
Clinical Environment ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Close Relationship

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.

scholarly journals A study skills course for First-Year Medical Students: Experience of a Private Medical School in Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sobia Ali ◽  
Afifa Tabassum ◽  
Muhammad Suleman Sadiq Hashmi ◽  
Nighat Huda
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Study Skills ◽  
First Year ◽  
National Hospital ◽  
Study Skill ◽  
Study Skills Course ◽  
Medical College ◽  
Before And After ◽  
First Year Medical Students

Objectives: To share the experience of study skill module development and implementation for first year MBBS students at Liaquat National Hospital and Medical College (LNH&MC). To compare the change in students’ self- assessment of their knowledge of study skills before and after the course. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted from November 2019 to April 2020. A structured study skills course was offered to 100 first year MBBS students of Liaquat National Hospital & Medical College, Karachi. Steps involved in the development included identification of outcomes, instructional objectives, content and instructional strategies. Students were given two questionnaires. In the first questionnaire, students rated their interest in implementing the learning techniques learnt. In the second questionnaire, students rated their level of knowledge of effective study skills before and after the course. Analysis included computing percentages for students’ preferred study skill technique. Change in knowledge was assessed by comparing retrospective pre-post self-rating using Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test (two-tailed). Results: Analysis of survey forms showed that more than 50% of the students were willing to implement active listening techniques, metacognitive note taking and writing reflections in their future study practice.There was also a statistically significant change in students’ self-rating of their knowledge about study skills (pre-test median 3, post-test median 4, p0.00). Conclusion: This study provides an insight of structured study skills course development and implementation in early medical college studies that could help them in combating academic stress. In addition, students’ response about their preferred technique and their feedback comparison concluded their positive attitude towards the course. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.1.2772 How to cite this:Ali S, Tabassum A, Hashmi MSS, Huda N. A study skills course for First-Year Medical Students: Experience of a Private Medical School in Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(1):65-70. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.1.2772 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

scholarly journals Enhancing existing medical school curricula with an innovative healthcare disparities curriculum

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Treacy-Abarca ◽  
Marisela Aguilar ◽  
Stefanie D. Vassar ◽  
Estebes Hernandez ◽  
Neveen S. El-Farra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Healthcare Disparities ◽  
First Year ◽  
Teachable Moments ◽  
Assessment Scores ◽  
General Internal ◽  
High Utilizer ◽  
First Year Medical Students

Abstract Background Effective healthcare disparities curricula seek to train physicians who are well equipped to address the health needs of an increasingly diverse society. Current literature on healthcare disparities curricula and implementation focuses on courses created independent of existing educational materials. Our aim was to develop and implement a novel resource-conserving healthcare disparities curriculum to enhance existing medical school lectures without the need for additional lectures. Methods This non-randomized intervention was conducted at the University of California Los Angeles. The curriculum was offered to all first-year medical students in the class of 2021 (n=188). With institutional approval, a new healthcare disparities curriculum was created based on the Society of General Internal Medicine’s core learning objectives for effective healthcare disparities curricula (J General Internal Med 25:S160–163, 2010). Implementation of the curriculum made use of “teachable moments” within existing medical school lectures. Teachable moments were broad lecture topics identified by the research team as suitable for introducing relevant healthcare disparities content. The new lecture-enhancing healthcare disparities curriculum was delivered with the related lecture via integrated PDF documents uploaded to an online learning management system. Students were encouraged to complete pre- and post- course assessments to examine changes in disparities knowledge and self-rated confidence in addressing disparities. Matched χ2 tests were used for statistical analysis. Results Participating students (n=92) completed both pre- and post-course assessments and were retrospectively stratified, based on self-reported use of the new lecture enhancing curriculum, into the “high utilizer” group (use of materials “sometimes” or “very often,” n=52) and the comparison “low utilizer” group (use of the materials “rarely” or “very rarely,” n=40). Students who self-identified as underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities in medicine were more likely to utilize the material (41% of the high utilizers vs. 17% of the low utilizer group, p<.01). Post-course knowledge assessment scores and self-reported confidence in addressing healthcare disparities improved only in the high utilizer group. Conclusions Integrating new guideline based curricula content simultaneously into pre-existing lectures by identifying and harnessing teachable moments may be an effective and resource-conserving strategy for enhancing healthcare disparities education among first year medical students.

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