Transitional challenges faced by medical intern doctors (IDs) in Vanuatu: a qualitative study.

The transition from being a medical student to a fully qualified registered doctor is a challenging time in the lives of intern doctors (IDs). Throughout those challenging times they face many challenges which significantly impact their professional lives as well as their transitional experience. This study aimed to identify the transitional challenges experienced by IDs in Vanuatu. This qualitative study was conducted using a phenomenological approach whereby data collection is done through semi-structured in-depth interviews. Ethical approval was obtained before the commencement of this study. Twenty-seven participants were IDs of Vila Central Hospital and Northern Provincial Hospital in Vanuatu who were either current IDs and had worked for more than 6 months or had completed internship within the past 2 years. The willing IDs were consented on paper before they participated in the interview. The interview data was then transcribed verbatim and interpreted thematically. The participating IDs in the study were between the ages of 27 and 36 years old. Twenty two were current interns while the remaining five had recently completed their internship and now working as registered doctors. Three subthemes were identified as challenges through thematic analysis in this study; intern's welfare not met; different medical training institution; and transitional shock. Those subthemes were later categorized. The study findings have identified that intern's welfare needs improvement along with diverse training medical schools, and the transitional internship encounters were significant challenges experienced by IDs. There is indeed a need for healthcare providers, medical leaders, and relevant stakeholders to recognize and address these challenges.

Research on effects of EMR on ability training of intern doctors' history-collecting and medical-records writing / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Objective To know the effects of electronic medical records(EMR) on the training quality of intern doctors' history-collecting and medical-records writing.Methods 195 students from Nantong University,Suzhou University and Xuzhou medical college were chosen as the subjects.For better effects,we divided the 195 students into two groups,81 students of Grade 2007 as the control group(hand-written medical record group) and 114 students of Grade 2008 as study group (electronic medical record group).The control group was arranged to complete EMR by transcribing the teacher's handwriting records into formal medical records after teachers' guidance and modification while the study group was arranged to write and directly modify the records on computer under the guidance of teachers and submit them for formal records.After the teaching,the medical record writing quality of two groups of interns was conducted centralized assessment to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of electronic medical records on the training of interns' collection and writing ability.SPSS 18.0 was used for statistical analysis,with count data using the number(percentage) and measurement data using mean +/-standard deviation.Measurement data of two groups of medical record writing scores were compared with t test,test level for α=0.05.Results The result of handwritten group was significantly better than EMR group(t=6.33,P＜0.001),which indicated training effectiveness of intern doctors' ability of writing medical record had digressive tendency on EMR group.Conclusion Negative effects of EMR are shown in intern doctors' history-collecting and medical-records writing.Cultivation quality of intern doctors' history-collecting and medical-records writing should be ensured by the combination of EMR and handwriting-medical training,the combination of daily inspection and key examination of medical record writing quality and establishment of feedback-rectification mechanism.

Application of 360-degree evaluation in evaluating professional ethics and communication skills of intern doctors / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of intern doctor training by 360 degree evaluation scale and to provide references for formulating targeted training plan. Methods A 360-degree evaluation scale with 6 subscales(Attendings, Peers, Nurse, Patients, Directors and Students) was employed to measure the status quo of medical education , represented by professional ethics and communication skills, among 129 intern doctors in medical clinical college. Cronbach's alpha was used to evaluate the reliability of the scale,one-way ANOVA was used to compare the difference of score among different scorers,and t test and Mann-Whitney test were employed to compare scores be-tween male group and female group, 5-year class and 8-year class (The significance level was set at P0.05). Conclusions 360 degree evaluation scale has reasonable reliability and it can provide valuable references for future similar survey in China. Meanwhile, intern doctors exhibit rela-tively good performances in professional ethics and communication ability & interpersonal relationship in the present study.

The approach of a way to enhance interns’skills of physician-patient communication / 中华医学教育探索杂志

From the current state of the medical environment and health issues,we dis-cuss the necessity of physician-patient communication skills and find the way to enhance the skills of interns.