A phenomenological exploration of the feedback experience of medical students after summative exam failure.

BACKGROUND: Preventing medical students entering cycles of underperformance following assessment is a priority due to the consequences for the student, faculty, and wider society. The benefits from feedback may be inadequately accessed by students in difficulty due to the emotional response evoked by examination failure. This study aims to explore medical students' experiences of receiving feedback after summative assessment failure and investigate the role of emotions on motivation for learning after underperformance, to better support remediation and preparation for future assessments. METHODS: This study used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore the experiences of four medical students who failed summative assessments. Additionally, a content analysis was conducted using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) to investigate the characteristics and use of language to describe their emotional response. RESULTS: Anger, fear, anxiety, and sadness were emotions frequently experienced after examination failure. These emotions led to feelings of mistrust of the medical school and subsequent distrust in the university's assessment processes, impacting on the desire to engage with feedback. There was dissonance between the students' perceptions of what feedback should provide and what benefit feedback provided after summative assessments. The linguistic inquiry further confirmed an initial (and sometimes long lived) negative affective state after experiencing failure, and a barrier to engagement with remediation when not effectively managed. CONCLUSIONS: A range of emotions, directed at themselves and the medical school are experienced by students following exam failure. These emotions lead to a range of negative feelings and responses that affect how students make sense of and move on from the failure experience. There is a need for educators to better understand and support students to manage, reflect and contextualise their emotional responses, minimise external attribution and to enable focus on remediation and learning.

Diversifying the medical curriculum as part of the wider decolonising effort: A proposed framework and self-assessment resource toolbox.

The narrative of decolonisation has recently amassed momentum, with the student and public voice providing the greatest advocacy, resulting in medical schools and universities embarking on a broader range of initiatives in response to the wider decolonisation agenda. Part of this wider effort is the diversification of the curriculum to create a more culturally responsive and equity focussed experience and training. Diversifying the curriculum poses considerable challenges due to limited expertise and/or relevant resources. It is from identification of this deficit, as well as our own experience in a UK medical school of diversifying our medical curriculum in the context of our decolonising efforts and the nature of the work required, that we developed a framework and created a toolbox of reflective questions, examples and resources to aid this work. As authors, we acknowledge that this process will be ongoing as we educate ourselves and reframe perceptions of the world, learn from lived experiences and incorporate advice from experts. The aspiration of this toolbox is to support those involved in efforts and initiatives to undo the effects of colonialism in medical education and research, and more specifically those who seek to diversify their curriculum within this context. This will ultimately benefit the education of our students, with the objective of equipping them with the knowledge, understanding and skills to provide equitable care to their patients.

Correction to: A systematic review of the literature describing the outcomes of near-peer mentoring programs for first year medical students.

Following publication of the original article [1], the author reported incorrect referencing in Table 1 as the references of the papers in the table don't match with the text.

A systematic review of the literature describing the outcomes of near-peer mentoring programs for first year medical students.

BACKGROUND: Transition into higher education has been identified as one of the most stressful periods for learners. Interventions targeting the transition phase such as near- peer mentoring might help address some of these challenges. We were however unable to identify a published systematic review of the literature describing outcomes of near-peer mentoring of medical students during the transition phase into medical school. The aim of this paper is to review the literature and describe the outcomes of near-peer mentoring schemes for first-year medical students in the transition phase. METHODS: A search of different electronic databases was carried out, using the search terms peer, buddy, mentor*, counsel*, advise*, tutor*, student, medical, school. 1861 articles were identified, however only 5 studies met the inclusion criteria- primary mentees should be first-years, and mentors must be inclusive of second-years but not limited to them. In reporting this paper, the PRISMA guidelines were followed. RESULTS: Published material on near-peer mentoring for medical students is scarce. Three outcomes for peer mentoring were identified- professional and personal development, stress reduction, and ease of transitioning. Incidentally, peer-mentoring was also found to have facilitated the development of personal and professional attitudes in the mentors. The quality of the evaluation methods in the studies was however low to moderate. CONCLUSION: Near-peer-mentoring is a way of promoting professional and personal development. It is also promising to aid transition and maintain well-being of first-year medical students. However, larger, better quality longitudinal studies, are needed to ascertain its true value for these students.

Effectiveness of an evidence-based curriculum module in nursing schools targeting safe patient handling and movement.

Nursing schools in the United States have not been teaching evidence-based practices for safe patient handling, putting their graduates at risk for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The specific aim of this study was to translate research related to safe patient handling into the curricula of nursing schools and evaluate the impact on nurse educators and students' intentions to use safe patient handling techniques. Nurse educators at 26 nursing schools received curricular materials and training; nursing students received the evidence-based curriculum module. There were three control sites. Questionnaires were used to collect data on knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about safe patient handling for both nurse educators and students, pre- and post-training. In this study, we found that nurse educator and student knowledge improved significantly at intervention schools, as did intention to use mechanical lifting devices in the near future. We concluded that the curriculum module is ready for wide dissemination across nursing schools to reduce the risk of MSDs among nurses.

Prioritizing safe patient handling: The American Nurses Association's Handle With Care Campaign.

Nurses continue to suffer debilitating injuries secondary to manual patient handling. Patient care ergonomics has emerged to redesign patient care with reduced exposure to physical hazards. Safe patient handling programs are being increasingly accepted by healthcare organizations to prevent occupational injury and to enhance patient safety. The authors discuss national-level efforts to promote patient care ergonomics principles and safe patient handling programs and their impact on nursing shortages and quality patient care.