The relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and innovative behavior among medical postgraduates in China: the mediation role of academic engagement and the moderating effect of relaxation.

This study investigated the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and innovative behavior of medical postgraduates in China, examining the mediating role of academic engagement and the moderating effect of relaxation. Drawing from a sample of 437 medical postgraduates from three Chinese universities, our findings revealed that challenge stressors positively correlated with innovative behavior, while the direct relationship between hindrance stressors and innovative behavior was not statistically significant. Furthermore, academic engagement mediated the relationship between two types of stressors and innovative behavior. Challenge stressors enhanced academic engagement, which in turn fostered innovative behavior. Conversely, hindrance stressors were found to diminish academic engagement, which in turn indirectly limited innovative behavior. Additionally, relaxation was identified as a moderating factor that helped mitigate the negative effects of hindrance stressors on academic engagement and indirectly on innovative behavior. These results suggested that academic engagement as a mechanism played a pivotal role in determining how different stressors influenced innovative behavior, underscoring the need for stress management, particularly through relaxation techniques, to maintain high levels of academic engagement and innovative behavior. This study offers practical insights for medical education policymakers and educators in China, emphasizing the importance of balancing stressors and incorporating relaxation practices to enhance the innovative capabilities of medical postgraduates in demanding academic environments.

Team-, case-, lecture- and evidence-based learning in medical postgraduates training.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of team-, case-, lecture-, and evidence-based learning (TCLEBL) methods in cultivating students' clinical and research abilities, as compared to traditional lecture-based learning (LBL) approaches. METHODS: Forty-one medical postgraduates were divided into two groups, a TCLEBL group and an LBL group. Teaching effectiveness was evaluated through student- and teacher-feedback questionnaires, scores from theoretical examinations and written literature reviews, and student learning burdens. RESULTS: Compared to the LBL approach, both teachers and students were more satisfied with the TCLEBL model (p < 0.001 for both teachers and students). The TCLEBL group performed significantly higher on the theory test compared to the LBL group (p = 0.009). There were significant differences between the LBL and TCLEBL groups, respectively, in terms of literature review and citations (12.683 ± 2.207 vs. 16.302 ± 1.095, p < 0.001), argument and perspective (12.55 ± 1.572 vs. 16.333 ± 1.354, p < 0.001), comprehensiveness of content (13.3 ± 2.268 vs. 16.683 ± 1.344, p < 0.001), and scientific rigor and accuracy (10.317 ± 1.167 vs. 12.746 ± 0.706, p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the total extracurricular time expended between the two groups (323.75 ± 30.987 min vs. 322.619 ± 24.679 min, respectively for LBL vs. TCLEBL groups, p = 0.898). CONCLUSIONS: TCLEBL is an effective teaching method that cultivates students' clinical and research abilities.

Challenge-Hindrance Stressors and Academic Engagement Among Medical Postgraduates in China: A Moderated Mediation Model.

Background: Improving academic engagement of medical postgraduates is crucial for enhancing the quality of learning and the development of medical education. Due to medical postgraduates face high levels of stress and rigorous demands, yet the mechanisms linking challenge-hindrance stressors to academic engagement in this context remain largely unexplored. This study aims to explore the comprehensive relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and academic engagement among medical postgraduates in China. Methods: Data were collected from 437 medical postgraduates in China, to investigate their challenge-hindrance stressors, emotional exhaustion, learning, relaxation and academic engagement. Among these postgraduates, 40.3% were male and 59.7% were female, with the mean age of the participants being 25.71 years. Statistical procedures were conducted using Mplus 8.3, ensuring a robust analysis of the data collected. Results: Our study showed that both challenge and hindrance stressors are significantly positively correlated with emotional exhaustion among Chinese medical postgraduates, and emotional exhaustion is negatively associated with academic engagement. Emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and academic engagement. Learning plays a protective role, moderating the challenge stressors and emotional exhaustion relationship and its indirect effect on academic engagement. However, relaxation was not identified as a significant moderating factor in this context. Conclusion: Our findings not only revealed emotional exhaustion as a potential mechanism underlying the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and academic engagement but also validated the moderating role of learning in mitigating the adverse effects of challenge stressors on emotional exhaustion and academic engagement among Chinese medical postgraduates. This comprehensive insight into the complex dynamics between different stressors and academic engagement provides both theoretical and empirical evidence for medical universities. It underscores the importance of interventions to enhance academic engagement in stressful environments and serves as a valuable reference for the development of reasonable assessment systems. These contributions are crucial for fostering a supportive educational atmosphere and promoting the well-being of medical postgraduates.

The impact of journal clubs on postgraduate medical education in China.

PURPOSE: Journal clubs hold significant importance in medical education, with numerous studies highlighting their contributions worldwide. However, studies specifically examining their role in China, particularly among Chinese medical postgraduates categorized into academic and clinical types, remain scarce. This research aims to investigate the participation, performance, and benefits of journal clubs, and explore the influence of student type and study phase on these aspects. METHOD: A survey encompassing demographic information, participation rates, performance evaluations, and perceived improvements was distributed to postgraduates at Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. A total of 232 completed questionnaires were included for further analysis. Statistical analysis employed the Mann-Whitney U test and Gamma tests, with statistical significance set at p-value < 0.05. RESULTS: Overall participation and performance in journal clubs among Chinese medical postgraduates were comparable to global findings. Notably, academic postgraduates exhibited higher levels of attendance rate and gained more research assistance than clinical postgraduates, while their performance levels were similar. When considering the study phase, a downward trend in academic postgraduates' attendance rate and listening attitude and an upward trend in clinical postgraduates' participation were observed with the seniority phase. Additionally, presentation comments, post-presentation progress, and research assistance showed improvements over time for both student types. CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals academic postgraduates' fatigue, contrasting with clinical postgraduates' enthusiasm, and underscores academic postgraduates' superior research assistance. To address these findings, we recommend supporting and encouraging scientific research training for clinical postgraduates, aiding academic postgraduates in better time management and reducing non-essential responsibilities, and implementing critical appraisal skill education.

Knowledge and attitudes of Chinese medical postgraduates toward research ethics and research ethics committees: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Research ethics provides the ethical standards for conducting sound and safe research. The field of medical research in China is rapidly growing and facing various ethical challenges. However, in China, little empirical research has been conducted on the knowledge and attitudes of medical postgraduates toward research ethics and RECs. It is critical for medical postgraduates to develop a proper knowledge of research ethics at the beginning of their careers. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitudes of medical postgraduates toward research ethics and RECs. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted from May to July 2021 at a medical school and two affiliated hospitals in south-central China. The instrument of the study was an online survey that was distributed via WeChat. RESULTS: We found that only 46.7% were familiar with the ethical guidelines for research with human subjects. In addition, 63.2% of participants were familiar with the RECs that reviewed their research, and 90.7% perceived RECs as helpful. However, only 36.8% were fully aware of the functions of RECs. In the meantime, 30.7% believed that review by an REC would delay research and make it more difficult for researchers. Furthermore, most participants (94.9%) believed that a course on research ethics should be mandatory for medical postgraduates. Finally, 27.4% of the respondents considered the fabrication of some data or results to be acceptable. CONCLUSION: This paper serves to suggest that research ethics education should be prioritized in medical ethics curriculum, and course syllabi or teaching methods should be revised to provide medical postgraduates with a deeper understanding of the principles, regulations, and specifics of research ethics. We also recommend that RECs provide diverse approaches in their review procedure to facilitate the understanding of medical postgraduates of the functions and processes of RECs and to enhance their awareness of research integrity.

The association between physical activity and mental health in medical postgraduates in China during COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Chinese medical postgraduates (CMPs) are a special subpopulation that has a great risk of mental health due to high workload, and heavy academic and clinical pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Physical activity has been demonstrated to be positive for the mental health of human being. However, little is known about the risks to mental health among CMPs as well as the potential effects of physical activity on mental health in CMPs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aims: In the present study, the aims are to (1) investigate the levels of PA and mental health that CMPs had; (2) to identify the potential factors that contribute to mental health among CMPs; (3) to explore the potential effects of PA on the mental health in CMPs. Methods: The survey was conducted online across 25 provinces of mainland China in 28 medical colleges or universities with structured questionnaires. Physical Activity Rating Scale-3 (PARS-3), Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales (DASS-21), and General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) were employed to assess the levels of PA, Negative emotional states, and self-efficacy of the participants, respectively. Resilience was evaluated using Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). The chi-square and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were used to compare inter-group differences in demographic data and mental health conditions. Spearman's rank correlation test and partial correlation analysis were used to assess associations between exercise scores and mental health. Results: We found some socio-demographic variables such as the location, education levels of parents and the levels of degrees they are training had potential effects on outcomes of mental health among 2,217 CMPs (P < 0.05); furthermore, we also found that PA was negatively correlated with the negative emotion (r = -0.045, P < 0.05) such as depression (r = -0.052, P < 0.05), anxiety and stress, (r = -0.051, P < 0.05) but positively correlated with the self-efficacy (r = 0.143, P < 0.001) and resilience (r = 0.192, P < 0.001) among Chinese postgraduate medical students. Conclusion: We concluded that for Chinese postgraduate medical students, taking part in physical activity would depress negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, and stress, but improve their self-efficacy and resilience, which will benefit them in completing their studies and training.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and academic performance of medical postgraduates.

Background: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has presented a major challenge to the health, economic, and social sectors of the entire world. This study aimed to investigate the mental health and academic performance of medical postgraduates during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted from March 20 to April 20, 2022 at the Zhejiang University School of Medicine in China. The questionnaire consisted of three parts: general information, mental health and academic performance. Mental health outcomes were assessed according to the Generalized Anxiety Scale (GAD-7) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Scale (PHQ-9). Results: A total of 153 valid questionnaires were obtained. Of the medical postgraduates in this study, (1) 41.8% had no anxiety symptoms. In addition, 51.0% had mild anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. None of the participants had a severe anxiety or depression disorder; (2) Females experienced significantly more symptoms in mental health measure scores than the males (P < 0.01); (3) 78.4% believed that the COVID-19 pandemic had varying degrees of impact on their academics. Doctoral postgraduates showed greater academic stress, and they were more worried about not meeting graduation standards than the master's postgraduates (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences between the surgical postgraduates and internal postgraduates in either mental health or academic performance. Conclusions: Our study found that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a mild impact on the mental health and academic performance of medical postgraduates in China. Females experienced significantly more symptoms on mental health measure scores than the males. Doctoral postgraduates showed greater academic stress than the master's postgraduates. There is uncertainty regarding how long this COVID-19 situation will persist and increasing recognition that there may be periods of recurrence in the future. We need more active curricular innovation and transformation to maintain and improve medical postgraduates' mental health and academic performance.

Learning gain in web (internet) sourced seminars versus textbook sourced seminars in postgraduate medical students.

BACKGROUND: In the past, textbook or printed material was the only source of information for medical students or post-graduate students. After the introduction of internet, knowledge can be accessed easily which is updated with various aids such as animation, videos which improve the learning efficiency. This study was conducted to compare the learning efficiency between textbook-based seminar to that of internet-based seminar in postgraduate students of the department of dermatology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a non-randamized controlled study. The postgraduate students in the department of dermatology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical college, DMIMS(DU),Sawangi (Meghe), Wardha, Maharashtra, India were divided into two equal groups by simple randomization method by flipping the coin. Totally 20 seminar topics were divided into two groups (A and B) consisting of 10 seminars in each group. Postgraduate students assigned in group A were asked to prepare seminar solely from textbooks while in group B, students were asked to prepare seminar by referring internet. Feedback form which consists of 7 points, i.e. appearance, completeness of preparation, clarity of presentation, appropriate use of audio visual aids, understanding of subject, ability to answer questions, and overall performance were filled up from faculties and postgraduate students after completion of each seminar. Pretest and post-test were filled up from postgraduate students before and after each seminar respectively. Learning gain was calculated by comparing the scores of pretest and posttest. Paired t-test was used to compare results in the group and unpaired t-test was used to compare results between the two groups. RESULTS: Faculties' feedback on overall performance was higher (4.59 ± 0.15) in web-based seminars as compared to in textbook-based seminars (3.85 ± 0.1) with significant P = 0.008. Furthermore, postgraduate students' feedback showed statistical significant value of 0.02 in web-based seminars (4.65 ± 0.06) compared to textbook-based seminars (3.2 ± 0.06). Learning gain was significantly higher in web-based seminar compared to textbook-based seminar with P = 0.02. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that web-based learning can improve the learning efficiency in postgraduate medical students.

Enhancement of Online Education to the Teaching Paradigm: Taking Academic Medical Postgraduate Cultivation as an Example.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic posed enormous challenges to postgraduate teaching in 2020. Large-scale and continuous online teaching explorations were introduced to cope with this difficult situation, which incidentally shifted the paradigm of postgraduate teaching. Purpose: A review of the online teaching of local medical schools for postgraduates was performed to identify the success factors in realizing the practice. Methods: We retrieved medical postgraduate online teaching publications mainly from the local database, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), via the keywords stated below and then performed a retrospective analysis. Results: We analyzed key success factors in improving online learning engagement that were considered exclusive to offline classroom teaching, including emotional interaction, the immediacy of communication, and enthusiasm for participation. With these positive effects, the integration of online and offline teaching advantages is beneficial for the initiative of academic medical postgraduates and promotes the construction and development of medical postgraduate education. Conclusion: Online education can overcome the limitations of time, space, and teaching frequency, with great advantages in terms of flexibility and mobility over traditional classroom teaching. It can effectively cope with difficulties in the education of academic medical postgraduates in challenging times. In the post-pandemic era, blended online and offline teaching approaches continue and will become the new normal pedagogy for the training of medical postgraduate students.

Anxiety, depression, psychological stress and coping style in medical postgraduates in southeastern China when restricted to commuting between the campus and hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: As the COVID-19 epidemic was gradually brought under control, a new autumn semester began in 2020. How was the mental health of postgraduates as they experienced quarantine at home, only commuting between the school and hospital? Methods: The research was conducted in a cross-sectional online survey in October 2020. The data were collected from 1,645 medical postgraduates (master's and doctoral students) by using the demographic information questionnaire, the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), the Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), the Questionnaire on Psychological Stressors of Postgraduates (QPSP), the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ) and the Social Support Rate Scale (SSRS). One-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation were used to explore the relationships among anxiety, depression, psychological stressors, social support and coping style. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to assess the mediation model. Results: Among the total of 1,645 medical postgraduates, 21.6% (n = 356) had self-rated depression symptoms, and 9.4% (n = 155) had self-rated anxiety symptoms. The main disturbances they experienced were employment, academic and interpersonal pressure. The master of third grade students had the highest employment pressure, and the master of second grade students had the highest academic and interpersonal pressure. Negative coping played a negative mediating role and social support played a positive mediating role in the relationships between perceived stress and anxiety (ß = 0.027, P < 0.01; ß = 0.124, P < 0.01) and depression (ß = 0.016, P < 0.01; ß = 0.193, P < 0.01). Conclusion: Medical postgraduates in China restricted to studies on campus and in the hospital experienced psychological distress. Our results suggest that providing employment and learning guidance, while strengthening social support and guiding positive coping may be effective at improving the mental health of the medical graduate students, mediating their perceived stress and negative emotions.

Exploration on writing features and learning strategies of English biomedical research papers / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Writing and publishing biomedical research papers in English for academic purposes (EAP) has become an essential requirement for medical postgraduates in China. To face this challenge, medical postgraduates need adapt themselves to the local environment of English as a second language and the transformation from writing for examinations to writing for application. This change determines the features of biomedical research papers, including being application-oriented, using clear and concise language, organizing the discourse by specific genre rules, and assessing the quality according to the completion of communicative purposes. Based on these features, students can exploit the learning strategies of choosing a word suited for the style, structuring a sentence according to the logic, creating a paragraph of continuity and one main idea, and composing the discourse in line with the genre. These strategies may help medical postgraduates effectively improve their ability to write biomedical research papers in English.

Investigation of the Cognitive Attitudes and Behaviors of Medical Post-graduates in Clinical Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic in China.

The cognitive attitudes and behaviors of medical post-graduates may be influenced by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A cross-sectional study was used from a questionnaire survey in hospitals affiliated with the Zhejiang University School of Medicine. Questionnaire was distributed online including demographic information, cognitive attitudes, and personal protective behaviors. Moreover, personal protective behaviors such as wearing protective equipment were compared between different academic major and gender, respectively. A total of 176 valid questionnaires were obtained. Of the medical post-graduates in this study, (1) 89.67% believed that the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on their clinical internships, and 40.34% expressed concerns about their infection on inadequate personal protection; (2) 91.48% took personal protection in hospital and 86.36% enhanced personal hygiene; (3) There were no statistically differences in the personal protection by academic major and gender (p > 0.05). This study suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the medical post-graduates' clinical practice, and affected their cognitive attitudes and behaviors. As such, universities and hospitals should increase pandemic prevention training and investment, provide more psychological counseling to their medical post-graduates to reduce their psychological burden, and take measures to reduce the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on their medical post-graduates' clinical practice.

The application of PDCA cycle in the bio-safety training for research-oriented medical postgradu-ates / 中华医学教育探索杂志

The laboratory of science and technology center at general hospital explored the appli-cation of PDCA cycle in the bio-safety training for research-oriented medical postgraduates, and then analyzed the effect of the training. The laboratory applied the PDCA cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) into the bio-safety training practice based on its own characteristics. The 4 links of bio-safety practice including bio-safety factors analysis, training plan implementation, training effectiveness evaluation and problems feed-back were integrated with 4 processes of PDCA cycle management. In view of the problems existing in the laboratory bio-safety training, the PDCA cycle model was applied to bio-safety training. Though the PDCA cycle, the laboratory can establish a bio-logical safety quality monitoring mechanism and achieve the system-atization, standardization and normalization of biosafety training.

Investigation and analysis of professional ethics of clinical medical postgraduates / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Objective To understand the cognition of clinical medical postgraduates' professional ethics,in order to provide the basis for the further development of graduate professional ethics education.Methods The survey was carried out among 650 graduate students of the first hospital of Jilin University by self-designed questionnaires.The questionnaires included the general situation and the understanding of professional ethics of medicine.All data were analyzed by SPSS 17.0,using Chi-square test to compare the results in different grades about the understanding of professional ethics.Results In this study,a total of 650 questionnaires were issued,and 629 valid questionnaires were collected with a recovery rate of 96.7％.Most graduates' professional values were in line with the socialist core values.For example,for the attitude of medical workers to accept red envelopes,410 graduate students (65.2％) firmly opposed to accepting this behavior.For the purpose of the study medicine,there was no statistically significant difference among different grades (P=0.273).For the attitude of red paper,the main problem in medical ethics education and the biggest factor for graduates,there was statistically significant difference among different grades (P=0.012,P=0.002,P=0.002,respectively).Conclusion At present,the professional ethics of postgraduates in clinical medicine is in good condition,but still needs to be improved.We can give further education and guidance to students for the problems existing in graduate students of different grades.

Investigation on the Influence of Medical Postgraduates' Awareness of Mental Health Knowledge on Discrimination against Patients with Mental Disorders / 中国医学伦理学

Objective:To explore the discrimination against the patients with mental disorders and current situation of awareness of mental health knowledge of medical postgraduates and their relationship.Methods:A questionnaire survey was conducted among 132 medical postgraduates in October 2016 using the assessment scale of discrimination against patients with mental disorders and mental health knowledge awareness questionnaire,which derived from mental health work indicators survey and evaluation program issued by the General Office of the Ministry of Health in 2010.Results:There was significant gender difference (P ＜0.01)in the overall score and the score of each dimension of assessment scale of discrimination against patients with mental disorders,and the score of mental health knowledge was (13.93-± 3.13).There was significant negative correlation between scores of assessment scale of discrimination against patients with mental disorders and mental health knowledge.Multiple linear regression analysis showed that awareness of mental health knowledge could predict the discrimination against the patients with mental disorders and all its factors.Conclusion:Awareness of mental health knowledge in medical post graduates can predict the discrimination against the patients with mental disorders.Medical universities should carry out corresponding education and publicity work with pertinence.

Research on training quality guarantee system of medical graduate students based on project management / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Aiming at the problems faced by the medical postgraduate students in the cooperative medical education and the classified training mode,combined with the characteristics of the cultivation of medical postgraduates,the article constructed the quality guarantee system of graduate education based on project management.From the three dimensions of time dimension,corpus dimension and objective dimension,the article established a model of training quality guarantee system and analyzed the four work modules:construction of project organization,standardization of whole life cycle process,control of project quality and integration of project information.In addition,the article introduced the practice of this quality guarantee system in Binzhou Medical University.

Strategies to improve the writing quality of English abstracts in medical postgraduates′research papers / 医学研究生学报

In order to continuously improve the level of English abstracts for medical postgraduates , this paper introduces the definition, purpose, types, contents and writing strategies of English abstracts .It also introduces the writing difference and evolution of the word abstractand the writing tips of all kinds of abstracts , especially the structured abstract .In reference to international and do-mestic writing criteria , it points out the problems which should be paid attention to in writing English abstracts and tried to develop the students′consciousness in improving their level of writing English abstracts so that their thesis will be better recognized and cited by in -ternational experts , thus promoting the international academic exchanges as well as the development of China ′s medical undertakings .

Investigation of the influence of professional identity on the personal development of medical post-graduates / 中华医学教育探索杂志

The professional identity of medical postgraduates has great influence on their profes-sional learning, career development and realization of self-value. The effect factors of the professional iden-tity are as following:the conflict between personal needs and professional requirements, professional employ-ment prospect, the social recognition of medical profession and individuality. In this article, we suggest a feasible way to improve the professional identity for medical postgraduates by developing an interest in medical profession, optimizing specialty structure and improving personal comprehensive quality.

The application of coherent learning method in the training for clinical medical postgraduate / 中华医学教育探索杂志

To train self-learning ability,clinical reasoning and comprehensive analytical ability of clinical medical postgraduates,we introduced the classic cases from the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and made the coherent learning method of Learn classic cases-report clinical cases-write case reports.Students were required to learn the classic cases of NEJM independently,to report clinical cases based on classic cases' level and to write a high level case report.We encouraged students to learn independently and to learn to use it.The practice has proved that the coherent learning method is a gradual and systematic learning method,which can train clinical medical postgraduates' all-round abilities and help them to grow up to qualified doctors.

Compiling textbooks to reform the paper writing course for Chinese medical postgraduates / 中华医学教育探索杂志

As a new interdisciplinary course, the current paper writing course for medical postgraduates exhibits certaln disadvantages. For example, the course does not well target the learners' needs because of the absence of the needs analysis before class;English or biomedical teachers fall to combine English with medicine, thus unable to provide ideal courses. As textbooks are an important means to improve the quality of the course, one way to reform the course is to compile high-quality textbooks by interdisciplinary talents. Meanwhile, the compiling process should be guided by needs analysis as well as the teaching and editing experiences. In addition, the textbooks need to be con-tinuously improved in teaching practice.