Ethics teaching in a medical education environment: preferences for diversity of learning and assessment methods.

BACKGROUND: Ethics and professionalism are an integral part of medical school curricula; however, medical students' views on these topics have not been assessed in many countries. OBJECTIVE:  The study aimed to examine medical students' perceptions toward ethics and professionalism teaching, and its learning and assessment methods. DESIGN: A self-administered questionnaire eliciting views on professionalism and ethics education was distributed to a total of 128 final-year medical students. RESULTS: A total of 108 students completed the survey, with an 84% response rate. Medical students reported frequently encountering ethical conflicts during training but stated only a moderate level of ethics training at medical school (mean = 5.14 ± 1.8). They noted that their education had helped somewhat to deal with ethical conflicts (mean = 5.39 ± 2.0). Students strongly affirmed the importance of ethics education (mean = 7.63 ± 1.03) and endorsed the value of positive role models (mean = 7.45 ± 1.5) as the preferred learning method. The cohort voiced interest in direct faculty supervision as an approach to assessment of knowledge and skills (mean = 7.62 ± 1.26). Female students perceived greater need for more ethics education compared to males (p = < 0.05). Students who claimed that they had experienced some unprofessional treatment had a more limited view of the importance of ethics as a subject (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Medical students viewed ethics education positively and preferred clinically attuned methods for learning.

An Enhancement-focused framework for developing high quality single best answer multiple choice questions.

BACKGROUND: The primary goal of any assessment of students is to provide valid and reliable evaluations of students' knowledge and skills as well as provision of accurate feedback to students about their performance. Contrary to best practice guidelines for development of multiple choice questions (MCQs), however, items used within medical schools are often flawed. This disappoints students and discourages examiners from using in-house MCQ databases. Vetting and reviewing items can improve the quality of MCQs. In this paper, we describe our approach to standardize the format used for MCQ assessment and provide recommendations for quality enhancement of high-stakes assessment. METHODS: A collaborative enhancement-focused vetting and review approach to development of high quality single best answer MCQs has been described. RESULTS: Implementation of a collaborative strategy to blueprint, vet, review and standard set MCQ items for high stakes examinations can effectively contribute to assessment quality assurance. Similarly, shared responsibility for post examination analyses of items may reveal the psychometric properties of items in need of improvement and contribute to closure of the assessment outcomes feedback loop. DISCUSSION: Devolving responsibility for implementation of assessment processes as an integral part of educational practices and values can maximize reliability and standards of assessment processes. We contend that while logistics and time constraints are of concern to busy faculty members, judicious utilization of resources to develop well-written MCQ items are well worth the effort to produce reliable and valid examinee scores. An enhancement-focused approach can be institutionally rewarding and lead to improved quality of high stakes assessments.

Seeking Emirati women's voices: the use of focus groups with an Arab population.

Focus groups have gained increasing acceptability as a data collection technique in qualitative research in recent years. Although used extensively with Western populations, they have been used only in a limited way in cross-cultural research. The authors describe a series of focus groups with women of childbearing age in the United Arab Emirates. The purpose was to identify Emirati women's health needs as a prelude to planning additional services and programs. Recommendations are outlined, with the appropriate cultural modifications for using this data collection tool. Major considerations that might be relevant to other parts of the Arab world include timing, location, topic, group composition, culture, religion, and selection of a facilitator and translator.