Medical Education Electives Can Promote Teaching and Research Interests Among Medical Students.

Introduction: Although all residents routinely teach medical students, not all residents are involved in teaching or trained in teaching during undergraduate medical school, as accreditation bodies do not mandate the promotion of teaching skills to undergraduate medical students. With relatively inadequate formal training and residents' intrinsic time constraints, tactically incorporating formal medical education elective experiences in medical school curricula is understandable. This study explores if medical education electives at Avalon University School of Medicine (AUSOM) can enhance medical students' interest in teaching and research. Methods: The medical education elective at AUSOM was developed to give interested medical students an elective experience. The course modules include accreditation/regulation, curriculum development, learning theories, assessments, and research methodology. Students can choose any one of the modules. We offered the medical education elective to twenty-five students in the year 2021. All of them gave feedback at the end of the elective. The data was analyzed qualitatively through framework analysis, which includes familiarization, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing, and defining and naming themes. Results: Different themes emerged, enhancing the interest in academic medicine, understanding research methodologies, supporting learners, and awareness of learning theories. Conclusion: Doing medical education electives at AUSOM enhanced students' interest in teaching, and students reported that they could understand research methodologies, especially those related to medical education. Medical students should have opportunities for electives in medical education, and more research is required to evaluate the effectiveness of medical education electives across medical schools.

Effectiveness of Small Group Discussions for Teaching Specific Pharmacology Concepts.

Small group discussions are used in medical education to reinforce learning and to promote the application of knowledge. Small group discussions can involve a variety of tasks, such as critical thinking, self-directed learning, problem-solving, and brainstorming. The objective of this study is to find out if small group discussions can improve students' learning of specific pharmacology topics and students' performance on assessments. In the present study, small group discussions were utilized for six unique topics in the pharmacology course, and knowledge-based tests were administered before and after small group discussions to examine their efficacy. Statistically significant improvement in knowledge gains was observed for antimicrobials and neuropharmacology topics, but not for anticancer agents. Students' performance in topics that had group discussions was better on summative assessments compared with the overall performance on the summative assessment in the pharmacology (study group; summer 2018). Students' (study group; summer 2018) overall grade on the summative assessment of the pharmacology course was better than overall pharmacology grade on the summative assessment of students who had no group discussions (control group; winter 2018). Students' perceptions of the small group discussions were satisfactory, suggesting group discussions may be an enjoyable way to improve students' performance in some pharmacology topics.

The hybrid model of clinical skills teaching and the learning theories behind it.

INTRODUCTION: There are two popular methods of clinical skills teaching. One is Peyton's method, and the other one is Robert Gagne's method. A hybrid model which is a combination of both teaching methods is developed and implemented at Avalon University School of Medicine in Clinical Skills. The aim of the study was to evaluate the hybrid model of clinical skills teaching. METHODS: This is a quasi-experimental study where a control group with a sample size of 26 was compared with two study groups; one group included 24 participants, and as the other one consisting of 16 subjects selected without randomization. All students in the class were included in the study, except for those withdrew voluntarily. The quantitative data were gathered in the form of a questionnaire on the Likert scale which was collected as the end of course evaluations. The quantitative data for the responses on the Likert scale was analyzed for descriptive statistics: Mean, Median, and Mode. The quantitative data also included the students' performance on assessments of clinical skills which was analyzed using ANOVA test. The qualitative data were gathered in the form of open-ended questions in the end of course evaluations. The qualitative data were also collected from the faculty members who were the examiners for the clinical skills course as the feedback taken from them. RESULTS: There was a significant improvement in the feedback of students (end of course evaluations) after implementing the hybrid model of clinical skills teaching which was shown by increased Mean, Median, Mode for the most pointers on the Likert scale. Also, there was a notable improvement in the performance of students with a significant p-value (p<0.05) on ANOVA test. CONCLUSION: The hybrid model is very effective in teaching clinical skills. This teaching method can be evaluated by replicating this study at larger institutions with more number of students.

Implementation of formative assessment and its effectiveness in undergraduate medical education: an experience at a Caribbean Medical School.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. BACKGROUND: Two types of assessments used in the medical education are summative and formative assessments. Summative assessments evaluate a student's learning progress and typically provide concrete grades or pass/fail decisions. The main purpose of the formative assessments is to provide the feedback and improve the learning behavior of the students. However, it is less known about the impact of the formative assessments on overall student's performance in summative assessments. This study is intended to study the effects after the implementation of formal formative assessments on students overall performance in summative assessments or any changes in the total grade point average in a Caribbean Medical School which is a low resource context. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A longitudinal cohort study was conducted among the basic sciences students at AUSOM in May 2017. The study was supported by quantitative data, quantitative and qualitative questionnaires to address the objectives of the study. Data collected and analyzed with Stata (Stata 15). RESULTS: 58, among 67 total students took part in the study. The mean grade point average (GPA) with and without formative assessment was 2.83 (SD±.624745) and 2.29 (SD±.76575) respectively. There was a significant improvement in the overall GPA after the introduction of the formative assessments t (58) = 0.000567, p < .001. CONCLUSION: There was a significant improvement in the student's academic performance after the implementation of formative assessments. Formative assessments consolidate the learning and reinforce the learning behavior. It is necessary that formative assessments should be incorporated into the regular assessment system for the optimal educational output.

Students' perceptions on community-based education at Avalon University School of Medicine during the first two years of the program.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Objectives The socio-cultural learning theory can be divided into a social and cultural process. Learner's learning occurs within the context rather than anticipating and preparing for the future context. It may happen in the workplace through apprenticeship, experiential learning, or community-based learning. Community-based education and community services have always been part of the students' volunteer services at Avalon University School of Medicine. The importance of community-based education has led to its recent integration into the curriculum. The objective of this study is to observe the community services in the field and to record the perceptions of students regarding community-based education at Avalon University School of Medicine. Methods This is a qualitative study. The research was conducted in the form of an observational study and framework analysis was done. The community-based education and community services were observed and recorded along with individual interviews. Students from different semesters were selected randomly for the interviews. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Results All interviewed students (100%) reported that they are involved in community services. 53.8% of students were not able to recognize the health issues of Curacao. 84.6% of students recognized and acknowledged the local health issues after reminding them of the activities conducted in the community services. 84.6% of students believed community services enhanced their clinical skills and increased their confidence in communication skills. Conclusion Community-based education enhances the competency of future physicians in clinical and communication skills.