BMC medical education
-
BMC medical education · Apr 2018
Correction to: Psychosocial issues discovered through reflective group dialogue between medical students.
Following publication of the original article [1], the authors reported that they had had mistakenly put the wrong IRB number in the last paragraph of the Methods section (as IRB NO.: IRB101-80 instead of IRB102-20 as given in the Ethics approval and consent to participate in Declarations). The corrected last paragraph on the Method section should read as follows.
-
BMC medical education · Apr 2018
Can elearning be used to teach palliative care? - medical students' acceptance, knowledge, and self-estimation of competence in palliative care after elearning.
Undergraduate palliative care education (UPCE) was mandatorily incorporated in medical education in Germany in 2009. Implementation of the new cross-sectional examination subject of palliative care (QB13) continues to be a major challenge for medical schools. It is clear that there is a need among students for more UPCE. On the other hand, there is a lack of teaching resources and patient availabilities for the practical lessons. Digital media and elearning might be one solution to this problem. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the elearning course Palliative Care Basics, with regard to students' acceptance of this teaching method and their performance in the written examination on the topic of palliative care. In addition, students' self-estimation in competence in palliative care was assessed. ⋯ Elearning is a promising approach in UPCE and well-accepted by medical students. It may be able to increase students' knowledge in palliative care. However, it is likely that there are other approaches needed to change students' self-estimation in palliative care competencies. It seems plausible that experience-based learning and encounters with dying patients and their relatives are required to increases students' self-estimation in palliative care competencies.
-
BMC medical education · Apr 2018
Implementation of modified team-based learning within a problem based learning medical curriculum: a focus group study.
While Problem Based Learning (PBL) has long been established internationally, Team-based learning (TBL) is a relatively new pedagogy in medical curricula. Both PBL and TBL are designed to facilitate a learner-centred approach, where students, in interactive small groups, use peer-assisted learning to solve authentic, professionally relevant problems. Differences, however, exist between PBL and TBL in terms of preparation requirements, group numbers, learning strategies, and class structure. Although there are many similarities and some differences between PBL and TBL, both rely on constructivist learning theory to engage and motivate students in their learning. The aim of our study was to qualitatively explore students' perceptions of having their usual PBL classes run in TBL format. ⋯ Students found their learning experience in TBL and PBL qualitatively different. There were advantages and disadvantages to both. This suggests a hybrid approach utilising the strengths of both methods should be considered for wide scale implementation.
-
BMC medical education · Apr 2018
Passing MRCP (UK) PACES: a cross-sectional study examining the performance of doctors by sex and country.
There is much discussion about the sex differences that exist in medical education. Research from the United Kingdom (UK) and United States has found female doctors earn less, and are less likely to be senior authors on academic papers, but female doctors are also less likely to be sanctioned, and have been found to perform better academically and clinically. It is also known that international medical graduates tend to perform more poorly academically compared to home-trained graduates in the UK, US, and Canada. It is uncertain whether the magnitude and direction of sex differences in doctors' performance is variable by country. We explored the association between doctors' sex and their performance at a large international high-stakes clinical examination: the Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians (UK) Practical Assessment of Clinical Examination Skills (PACES). We examined how sex differences varied by the country in which the doctor received their primary medical qualification, the country in which they took the PACES examination, and by the country in which they are registered to practise. ⋯ As found in a previous format of this examination and in other clinical examinations, female doctors outperformed male doctors. Further work is required to explore why sex differences were greater in non-UK graduates, especially those without GMC registration, and to consider how examination performance may relate to performance in practice.
-
BMC medical education · Apr 2018
LetterDesign and Implementation of a postgraduate curriculum to support Ethiopia's first emergency medicine residency training program: the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration in Emergency Medicine (TAAAC-EM).
To design and implement an emergency medicine (EM) postgraduate training curriculum to support the establishment of the first EM residency program at Addis Ababa University (AAU). ⋯ We have outlined the design and implementation of the TAAAC-EM curriculum; an evaluation of this curriculum is currently underway. As EM spreads as a specialty throughout Africa and other resource-limited regions, this model can serve as a working guide for similar bi-institutional educational partnerships seeking to develop novel EM postgraduate training programs.