The Lockdown Impact Scale for Students (LISS)

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in many student populations learning online in lockdown. While the mental health consequences of lockdown are increasingly understood, the core features of ‘cabin fever’ are poorly described. Methods: We conducted a questionnaire survey of 649 undergraduate medicine and health sciences students. Item content was developed based on current literature and input from student representatives. Results: Mokken scaling identified seven questions that together formed a strongly unidimensional scale which comprised two domains : social isolation/cabin fever and demotivation / demoralisation. Scale scores were significantly associated with depression, self-rated mental health, impaired study efficacy and doomscrolling. Conclusions: The adverse effects of lockdown on student wellbeing appear to be driven to an important extent by an experience of isolation and demotivation that correspond to narrative descriptions of cabin fever. In the foreseeable event of future pandemics, these experiences are a promising target for health promotion in students studying in lockdown.

Are Stories and Anecdotes an Underused Pedagogic Technique in Undergraduate Medicine? A Qualitative Study

Background: Arguably storytelling is a recognised teaching method used in different fields such as teaching children, religion, and culture. Its use in medical teaching is apparent, but little is known of how valuable this method is within medical teaching. This study aimed to explore the perceptions stakeholders have of using stories within teaching and learning at Dundee Medical School. We hope to understand how stories are perceived and to consider how educators might optimise their use. Methods: A qualitative approach allowed for the exploration of participants perceptions of storytelling within medical teaching. Purposive sampling was used to sample medical students and educators. Eleven students participated in one of three group semi-structured interviews and five individual semi-structured interviews with educators took place. The data collected was coded and analysed to reveal themes and sub-themes regarding storytelling at Dundee Medical School. Results: Both stakeholder groups sampled highly valued the use of stories and anecdotes within medical teaching. Whilst both suggested the same purposes, types and impact of stories and identified similar barriers to using storytelling such as confidence and experience. Students were more focused on the importance of the relevance, delivery, and context of where a story was being told for stories to be effective, whilst for faculty, their perceptions didn’t involve these themes. Conclusions: The findings from this small study have provided insight into how storytelling is perceived and developed some recommendations for optimising its use within medical education at Dundee Medical School. This highlights the value of this method to educators and exemplifies the important qualities stories can help to foster amongst students, whilst suggesting a possible theory on how to successfully utilise them.

Extensionist experience of undergraduate students in medicine as part of the Mais Médicos para o Brasil [more doctors for Brazil] program

Problem: The new National Curriculum Guidelines of Undergraduate Medicine in Brazil propose that academics have contact with the health system and its users at an early stage. However, practical activities in undergraduate courses proved to be insufficient for the adequate development of this new perspective. Consequently, the experiences of university extension have the proposal to fill in this gap. Method: This article aimed to report the experiences of the scholarship holders of the Extension Project in Family and Community Medicine - ProMFC (Projeto de Extensão em Medicina de Família e Comunidade) under the More Doctors for Brazil Program – PMMB (Programa Mais Médicos para o Brasil). This is a qualitative, experience-type study with lexical and content analysis from the software IRaMutTeQ, version 0.7 alpha 2, to establish an association between the terms used in the discourse of the ProMFC. Results: The opportunity to immerse in environments in which students can learn about the problems and share the daily life of the assisted community was highlighted. The exchange of knowledge and experiences among students, physicians working in Primary Health Care (fellows of the PMMB, supervisors and tutors) and local managers was also relevant, as well as the students’ ability to develop/train skills, such as teamwork, assertive communication, and health planning. Conclusion: The PMMB, tutored and integrated into an extension project, the ProMFC, is an alternative that, although embryonic, has many potentialities, as it allows the extensionists to be early inserted into the Attention Primary Health Care.

A Scoping Review of Differential Attainment in Undergraduate Medicine

Differential attainment exists in all professions and is a manifestation of systemic factors creating an unequal environment where individual careers and aspirations may be thwarted. Although this inequality which affects some groups of students unfairly, has been recognised over the last 2 decades, it remains a significant issue. This scoping review explores the causes and contributors in relation to undergraduate medical education. Using thematic analysis, the authors present the case for tackling the disparity in education and training. There are evidence-based solutions for individuals, organisations and at a societal level. The recommendations from this review will be discussed and debated in the series of workshops, as part of the ‘Bridging the Gap’ series from the Alliance for Tackling Inequalities in Health, chaired by the British Association of Physicians of Indian origin. The output of the consensus-building workshops and thematic synthesis with the accompanying qualitative research will be presented in the final report due in 2021.