BMC medical education
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BMC medical education · Sep 2014
A research education program model to prepare a highly qualified workforce in biomedical and health-related research and increase diversity.
The National Institutes of Health has recognized a compelling need to train highly qualified individuals and promote diversity in the biomedical/clinical sciences research workforce. In response, we have developed a research-training program known as REPID (Research Education Program to Increase Diversity among Health Researchers) to prepare students/learners to pursue research careers in these fields and address the lack of diversity and health disparities. By inclusion of students/learners from minority and diverse backgrounds, the REPID program aims to provide a research training and enrichment experience through team mentoring to inspire students/learners to pursue research careers in biomedical and health-related fields. ⋯ This approach has the potential to train a highly qualified workforce, change lives, enhance biomedical research, and by extension, improve national health-care.
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BMC medical education · Sep 2014
"Concerns" about medical students' adverse behaviour and attitude: an audit of practice at Nottingham, with mapping to GMC guidance.
The development and maintenance of students' professional behaviour and attitude is of increasing importance in medical education. Unprofessional behaviour in doctors has the potential to jeopardise patient safety, compromise working relationships, and cause disruption and distress. The General Medical Council issues guidance to medical schools and students describing the standards that should be attained.Nottingham University medical school introduced a 'Concerns' form in 2009, to create a standardised, transparent and defensible means of recording and handling complaints about adverse attitudes or behaviours. This paper reports an audit of the system over the first three years. ⋯ A simple form, freely available, but designed to prevent frivolous or malicious use, has provided valuable data on unprofessional behaviour and the responses elicited. Some parts of the form require improvements, and these are underway to provide more efficient use, audit and review in future.
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BMC medical education · Sep 2014
Barriers to, and enablers of, participation in the Allied Health Rural and Remote Training and Support (AHRRTS) program for rural and remote allied health workers: a qualitative descriptive study.
Allied health professionals play a critical role in enhancing health outcomes in primary and tertiary settings. Issues affecting the recruitment and retention of allied health workers in rural and remote areas are multifactorial. Access to relevant and effective continuing professional development is argued to be a recruitment and retention strategy for health professionals in non-metropolitan areas, however trial of the effectiveness of professional development programs and identification of enablers and barriers to participation is needed. The Allied Health Rural and Remote Training and Support (AHRRTS) program aimed to provide an integrated program of education and professional support activities for allied health professionals working within Queensland Health in rural and remote locations. The aim of this study was to explore enablers and barriers to access to, and effective participation in, the AHRRTS program from various allied heath stakeholders' perspectives. ⋯ The study suggests that while a program such as AHRRTS is accessible and facilitates participation in a number of ways, significant barriers to participation continue to persist at the coal face. Addressing these barriers will require a targeted, multifaceted approach. Lessons from this study provide unique insights into factors which influence the successful implementation and sustainability of recruitment and retention initiatives for rural and remote allied health workers.
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BMC medical education · Sep 2014
The effect of medical students' gender, ethnicity and attitude towards poetry-reading on the evaluation of a required, clinically-integrated poetry-based educational intervention.
Art-based interventions are widely used in medical education. However, data on the potential effects of art-based interventions on medical students have been limited to small qualitative studies on students' evaluation of elective programs, and thus their findings may be difficult to generalize. The goal of this study is to examine, in an unselected students' population, the effect of students' gender, ethnicity and attitude towards poetry on their evaluation of a clinically-integrated poetry-based educational intervention. ⋯ According to students' evaluation, a format of integrated, obligatory poetry-based intervention may be suitable for enhancing "student-patient" aims in heterogeneous student populations. The higher evaluation of the "patient-student" effect among Arab and Druze as compared to Jewish students may be related to cultural differences in the perception of this component of medical professionalism. Further research can provide insight into the effect of cultural and ethnic differences on actual empathy of medical students in patient encounters.
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BMC medical education · Sep 2014
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyBasic life support is effectively taught in groups of three, five and eight medical students: a prospective, randomized study.
Resuscitation is a life-saving measure usually instructed in simulation sessions. Small-group teaching is effective. However, feasible group sizes for resuscitation classes are unknown. We investigated the impact of different group sizes on the outcome of resuscitation training. ⋯ Resuscitation checklist scores and pass rates after training were comparable in groups of three, five or eight medical students, although smaller groups had advantages in teaching interventions and hands-on time. Our results suggest that teaching BLS skills is effective in groups up to eight medical students, but smaller groups yielded more intense teaching conditions, which might be crucial for more complex skills or less advanced students.