Medical teacher
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Medical school professors and lecturers are often called to be practicing clinicians, researchers in their own field, in addition to executing their education and curricular responsibilities. Some further accumulate healthcare management responsibilities. ⋯ This article tries to clarify some concepts and advance why training in management, leadership and health informatics would seem particularly useful for the medical academic. As opposed to the idea of educational dispersion/specialization, the concept of an integrative tetrahedronal education framework is advanced as a way to plan workshops and other faculty development activities which could be implemented transnationally as well as locally.
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Patient-centered communication skills, such as an empathic attitude towards patients and a holistic perspective on health, are difficult to acquire. Designing effective courses requires better understanding of the difficulties that students perceive with learning to talk with patients ⋯ Students experienced moral qualms about applying major aspects of patient-centered interviewing. Instruction in communication skills should aim at filling the students' knowledge gaps and fostering their awareness and expression of emotional perceptions. Long-term relationships with patients could help develop patient-centered communication.
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Comparative Study
Students' perceptions regarding educational environment in an Indian dental school.
As one of India's premier dental schools, the Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, has striven to be in the forefront of dental education ever since its inception in 1965. But one of our main drawbacks has been the lack of students' perceptions about the educational atmosphere in our institution. ⋯ The lack of congenial atmosphere in our institution seems to be due to the attitude of the course organizers.A need for makeover in attitudes and approach on the part of the teachers to make the learning experience more pleasant for the students was made obvious by this study.
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In recent years, the use of portfolios as learning and assessment tools has become more widespread across the range of health professions. Whilst a growing body of literature has accompanied these trends, there is no clear collated summary of the evidence for the educational effects of the use of portfolios in undergraduate education. This systematic review is the result of our work to provide such a summary. ⋯ At present, the strength and extent of the evidence base for the educational effects of portfolios in the undergraduate setting is limited. However, there is evidence of an improving trend in the quality of reported studies. 'Higher quality' papers identify improvements in knowledge and understanding, increased self-awareness and engagement in reflection and improved student-tutor relationships as the main benefits of portfolio use. However, they also suggest that whilst portfolios encourage students to engage in reflection, the quality of those reflections cannot be assumed and that the time commitment required for portfolio completion may detract from other learning or deter students from engaging with the process unless required to do so by the demands of assessment. Further work is needed to strengthen the evidence base for portfolio use, particularly comparative studies which observe changes in student knowledge and abilities directly, rather than reporting on their perceptions once a portfolio has been completed.