scholarly journals Survey of attitude towards and understanding of the elderly amongst Chinese undergraduate medical students

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 615-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuoyan Liu ◽  
Lihui Pu ◽  
Heng Wang ◽  
Xiuying Hu

Abstract Background: Gerontology has an increasing role in medicine and public health. The provision of better medical services to the elderly closely correlates with the attitude towards and understanding of the elderly by medical personnel. Objectives: We investigated factors affecting a medical student’s choice of gerontology as a career. This included a survey of attitude towards the elderly and understanding of aging among first and third year Chinese undergraduates. Data between students in different streams, at different levels, and between sexes were compared. Methods: Convenience sampling was used to recruit 335 undergraduate medical students in Sichuan for a survey using Kogan’s Attitudes toward Older People Scale (KAOP) and Palmore’s Facts on Aging Quiz (FAQ1) as tools. Results: Among undergraduates, 71.3% did not acquire significant knowledge about the elderly (mean KAOP score 139.5 ± 16.0); and had a mean score of knowledge of aging (12.2 ± 2.7). The majority of first year students (98.7%) and third year students (98.8%) had a positive attitudes (KAOP > 102). The KAOP score among first year students was higher than that among third years (P < 0.01). Students with an interest in problems of the elderly had significantly higher scores and were more willing to consider careers in gerontology than students without an interest in the elderly (P < 0.01). Conclusions: The majority of Chinese undergraduate medical students surveyed had positive attitudes towards elderly. We recommend greater accessibility of courses in gerontology to meet the increasing need for personnel in this health care sector.

Author(s):  
Eva Kralova

Natural sciences and their applications (medical biophysics, medical chemistry and medical biology) represent an inevitable part of medical curriculum. They are often negatively evaluated and a lack of motivation to their study is observed. The attitudes of medical students towards natural sciences are influenced by their negative experiences from the previous study. Nevertheless, knowledge from the natural sciences represents the necessary basis for better understanding of the basic principles of the medical diagnostic and therapeutic methods. Therefore, the indispensable role of natural science teachers is to achieve positive attitudes and motivate students to study them. Our research project is focused on the identification and subsequent application of motivating approaches in natural sciences teaching. Pedagogical investigation using anonymous questionnaires was done with the aim to specify respondents’ (first year students of Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Medicine) motivation and attitudes towards teaching and learning natural sciences before starting medicine study and after the first semester of medicine study. Keywords: University medical education, student’s motivation, natural sciences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Esraa Ahmed Ragab ◽  
Mumen Abdalazim Dafallah ◽  
Mahmoud Hussien Salih ◽  
Wail Nuri Osman ◽  
Mugtaba Osman ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Medical students encounter various stressors during their studies. The study aimed to assess stress levels, sources, and associated determinants among Sudanese medical students. An online questionnaire-based study was conducted among 617 undergraduate medical students of 6 different universities in Sudan. A 19-item questionnaire was utilized to assess stress sources, in addition to demographics, stress manifestations, and coping strategies. Results The overall prevalence of stress was 31.7% (p < 0.01). The main sources of stress were time pressure, heavy workload, fear of failure, and examination frequency. One-third of students indicated that they experienced at least one source of psychosocial- and teaching-related stress. Female medical students were more significantly stressed due to academics than males. Also, fourth- and fifth-year students were academically more stressed in comparison to the first-year students. Poisson regression analysis model showed that first-year students were less stressed than the final-year students in relation to academics (odds = 0.888, P = 0.003). Male medical students, across all study years, were far less stressed than females (odds = 0.901, P = 0.000153). Expectedly, ‘studying medicine by choice’ was associated with decreased odds for psychosocial stressors (odds = 0.885, P = 0.00781), and improved model-fit (chi-squared = 6.8952, P = 0.008643). Also, the year of study was a predictor of teaching-related stress development. Conclusions Female medical students were more stressed due to academics than males. On the other hand, final-year students were more academically stressed than first-year students. Female medical students were likely having stress related to academic stress development, while being first-year medical student was a predictor of not developing academic stress. Studying medicine by choice’ was associated with ability to cope against stress.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. e042653
Author(s):  
Isobel Marion Harris ◽  
Heather McNeilly ◽  
Hani Benamer ◽  
Derek J Ward ◽  
Alice J Sitch ◽  
...  

ObjectiveThis systematic review aimed to explore consultant attitudes towards teaching undergraduate medical students in the UK.DesignSystematic review.MethodologyStandard systematic review methodology was followed. MEDLINE, EMBASE and OpenGrey were searched from inception to August 2019 to identify studies exploring senior doctors’ attitudes towards teaching undergraduate medical students. Two reviewers independently carried out key methodological steps including study screening/selection, quality assessment and data extraction. A narrative synthesis was undertaken.ResultsFive studies were included in the review dating 2003–2015. Two studies used questionnaires, and three used focus groups/semistructured interviews. Key findings identified across all studies were consultants generally found teaching undergraduate medical students enjoyable, and consultants identified time constraints as a barrier to teaching. Other findings were consultants feeling there was a lack of recognition for time spent teaching, and a lack of training/guidance regarding teaching students.ConclusionsThis is the first systematic review to explore senior hospital doctors’ attitudes towards teaching undergraduate medical students. Despite these five studies spanning 12 years, the same attitudes and issues regarding teaching are identified by all, suggesting lack of time particularly is a persistent problem regarding consultant-based teaching. An anecdotal impression is that consultants are no longer as enthusiastic about teaching as they once were, but it is evident over the 12 years of these studies that enjoyment levels, and presumably enthusiasm, have not changed significantly.


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.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea Stunden ◽  
Sima Zakani ◽  
Avery Martin ◽  
Shreya Moodley ◽  
John Jacob

BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had significant effects on anatomy education. During the pandemic, students have had no access to cadavers, which has been the principal way of learning anatomy. We created and tested a customized congenital heart disease e-learning course for medical students that contained interactive 3D models of anonymized pediatric congenital heart defects. OBJECTIVE To assess if a multimodal e-learning course contributed to learning outcomes in a cohort of first year undergraduate medical students study congenital heart diseases. Secondarily, we assess student attitudes and experiences associated with multimodal e-learning. METHODS The pre/post study design involved 290 first year undergraduate medical students. Recruitment was conducted through the course instructors. Data were collected before using the course and after using the course. The primary outcome was knowledge acquisition (test scores). The secondary outcome included attitudes and experiences, as well as time to complete the modules, and browser metadata. RESULTS A total of 141 students were included in the final analysis (N=141). Students’ knowledge significantly improved by an average of 44.6% when using the course (SD 1.73, Z = -10.287, p < 0.001). 88.26% of students were highly motivated to learn with the course and 93.5% of students reported positive experiences with the course. There was a strong correlation between attitudes and experiences, which was statistically significant (rs = 0.687, p<0.001, N = 122). There were no relationships found between change test scores and attitudes or experiences (p>0.05). Students most frequently completed the e-learning course with Chrome (77.3%), and on Apple MacOS (61.0%) or Windows 10 (36.9%). Most students had devices with high-definition screens (83.0%). Most students (58.9%) completed the course in under 3 hours. CONCLUSIONS Multi-modal e-learning could be a viable solution to improving learning outcomes and experiences for undergraduate medical students, who do not have access to cadavers. Future research should focus on validating long-term learning outcomes. CLINICALTRIAL n/a


Author(s):  
Shikha Gautam ◽  
Salamah Parveen Imteyaz ◽  
Mohammed Iqbal Alam

Introduction: The coronavirus pandemic has involved nearly all the countries of the world. The lockdowns and closure of educational institutes to reduce the risk of disease transmission has brought a change in the medium of teaching as most educational institutes have moved to the online mode. There is a widespread increase in stress as the number of cases and mortality associated with Coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) continue each day. Aim: To assess the stress status of first year undergraduate medical students in reference to the coronavirus pandemic and the perception of first year undergraduate medical students in reference to the E-learning being carried out during the coronavirus pandemic. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional web-based online survey that was conducted using a questionnaire in August 2020 at Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, New Delhi, India. The questionnaire was prepared and reviewed by the involved faculty members of the project and it was approved by a faculty from Department of Psychiatry. Reliability of questionnaire was measured using Cronbach’s alpha (0.89). A questionnaire with 20 questions was administered via Google forms to all 100 students of first year MBBS course. Some of the questions in the questionnaire were framed to assess the stress status of the students; some were designed to study students’ perception of E-learning. Data was represented as the percentage distribution of response for each question. Results: Ninety five responses were received, after accounting for exclusion factors; data was compiled for 91 respondents. Out of the 91 participants in the study, 48.4% were males (n=44) and 51.6% were females (n=47). Most of the students in this study (84.6%) felt that online teaching had helped in learning Physiology theory; around 43% students found online practical teaching useful. Around 39% students have reported internet connectivity issues all the time while 59% faced problem sometimes. Total 51.6% of students had difficulty in accessibility to devices. Due to coronavirus pandemic, 37.4% of students have reported to be under stress. Around 33% reported feeling unsafe all the time while 39.5% felt unsafe some of the times. Conclusion: Students found online teaching more helpful in learning Physiology theory than practical. Majority of class reported internet connectivity issues. All the responders agreed that this pandemic affected their regular life. Most of the students felt that online classes have helped them to remain positive and motivated towards study.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
Momin Kashif ◽  
Mirza Nisar Baig

Background: The rapid growth and availability of smartphones and social media platforms (SMP) have changed the medical students' approach to learn and manage the information about their academic, personal and professional lives. Methods: An online survey was done in undergraduate medical students of PIMS, Karimnagar to collect information about usage pattern and perception of SMP, and willingness to participate for using SMP as a learning tool in medical education. Results: Total 433 (Females – 275) out of 600 students participated in the survey from the first year (125), secondyear (151) and third-year (157) MBBS students. Everyone is using some type of SMP. They find SMP nearly equal to lecture materials and subject notes as a useful learning tool and there was significantly increasing trend of perception of SMP being a useful learning tool from the first-year (79%), second-year (83%) to third-year (92%), (p=0.01). Almost 93% want to see SMP used at institute level in medical education. Female students (52.4%) are significantly more willing for active participation than male students (43%), p=0.04. First-year students (56%) are more ready for active participation followed by third (48.4%) and second (43.7%) year students, p=0.08. Conclusion: Most students are willing to include SMP in medical education as a learning tool and ready to participate in different activities if they get the required training. As all students have smartphones and efficiently utilizing different services on their devices, SMP can become an effective learning tool in medical education.


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.


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.


Author(s):  
Chitra Nagaraj ◽  
Shyamala Bhadravathi Yadurappa ◽  
Lakshmi Trikkur Anantharaman ◽  
Yogitha Ravindranath ◽  
Nachiket Shankar

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document