Medical teacher
-
Since appropriate treatment of patients in the first few hours of ischemic stroke may decrease the risk of long-term disability, prehospital providers should recognize, assess, manage and communicate about stroke patients in an effective and time-efficient manner. This requires the instruction and evaluation of a wide range of competencies including clinical skills, patient investigation and management and communication skills. The authors developed and assessed the effectiveness of a simulation-enhanced stroke course that incorporates several different learning strategies to evaluate competencies in the care of acute stroke patients. ⋯ From January to October 2000, 345 learners were assessed using multiple-choice tests as were randomly selected group of 73 learners using skills' checklists during two pre- and two post-course simulated patient encounters. Among all learners there was a significant gain in knowledge (pre: 53.9%+/-13.9 and post: 85.4%+/-8.5; p<0.001), and for the 73 learners a significant improvement in their clinical and communication skills (p<0.0001 for all). By using a simulation-enhanced, blended-learning approach, pre-hospital paraprofessionals were successfully trained and evaluated in a wide range of competences that will lead to the more improved recognition and management of acute stroke patients.
-
Peer-mediated learning is an effective educational strategy that is rarely used during clinical training for medical students. We developed a peer-mediated learning conference, Student-Faculty Rounds (SFR), for the ambulatory component of a medicine clerkship. Designed to broaden students' exposure to common medical problems and provide practice in small-group teaching, the 30-minute conference is conducted by each student once during their clerkship. ⋯ SFR is a popular conference that accomplishes its educational objectives. It recognizes students' ability to educate themselves, and introduces variability and challenge into the classroom curriculum. Adequate faculty guidance is needed to assure students design conferences for maximum educational effectiveness.
-
There is increasing awareness of the importance of international health and medicine (IHM) but there is a paucity of data regarding medical students' attitudes towards and knowledge of the subject. To the best of our knowledge there is currently no validated measure to assess this. The aim of the present study was to develop a validated measure of medical students' attitudes and knowledge of IHM and examine its correlates. ⋯ Attitude was negatively correlated with number of languages spoken r=-0.198. The survey may be a reliable and valid tool to assess and compare medical students' knowledge and attitude toward international health. This survey can be used to evaluate curricular innovations in the field.
-
This article describes the process that the authors have used in the Dundee Clinical Skills Centre to develop and maintain the core curriculum for the second-year programme in clinical skills. The programme provides medical students with basic, generic skills required in clinical medicine.