Journal of Advances in Medical Education & Professionalism

Lifelong learning along the education and career continuum: metaanalysis of studies in health professions

OKSANA BABENKO; SUDHA KOPPULA; LIA DANIELS; LINDSEY NADON; VIJAY DANIELS

Volume 5, Issue 4 , October 2017, Pages 157-163

Abstract

Introduction: Lifelong learning is an integral part of healthprofessionals’ maintenance of competence. Several studies haveexamined the orientation toward lifelong learning at variousstages ... Read More

Interdisciplinary and inter-institutional differences in learning preferences among Malaysian medical and health sciences students

REBECCA S.Y. WONG; HENG LOKE SIOW; VINOTH KUMARASAMY; NAZRILA SHAHERAH FADHLULLAH SUHAIMI

Volume 5, Issue 4 , October 2017, Pages 164-171

Abstract

Introduction: The learner-centred approach in medical and healthsciences education makes the study of learning preferences relevant andimportant. This study aimed to investigate the ... Read More Introduction: The learner-centred approach in medical and healthsciences education makes the study of learning preferences relevant andimportant. This study aimed to investigate the interdisciplinary, interinstitutional, gender and racial differences in the preferred learningstyles among Malaysian medical and health sciences students in threeMalaysian universities, namely SEGi University (SEGi), University ofMalaya (UM) and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR). It alsoinvestigated the differences in the preferred learning styles of thesestudents between high achievers and non-high achievers.Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on medical andhealth sciences students from three Malaysian universities following theapproval of the Research and Ethics Committee, SEGi University. Purposive sampling was used and the preferred learning styles were assessed using the VARK questionnaire. The questionnaire was validated prior to its use. Three disciplines (medicine, pharmacy and dentistry) were chosen based on their entry criteria and some similarities in their course structure. The three participating universities were Malaysian universities with a home-grown undergraduate entry medical program and students from a diverse cultural and socioeconomic background. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software, version 22. VARK subscale scores were expressed as mean±standard deviation. Comparisons of the means were carried out using t-test or ANOVA. A p value of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant, and <0.001 as highly significant.Results: Both statistically significant interdisciplinary and inter-institutional differences in learning preferences were observed. Out of the 337 students, a majority of the participants were unimodal learners (n=263, 78.04%). The most common type of learners was the reading/writing type (n=92, 27.30%) while the kinesthetic subscale (M=6.98, SD=2.85) had the highest mean score. Female students (M=6.86, SD=2.86) scored significantly higher than male students (M=6.08, SD=2.41; t(249), p=0.014) in the auditory subscale, whereas Chinese students (M=5.87, SD=2.65) scored significantly higher than Malay students (M=4.70, SD=2.87; p=0.04) in the visual subscale.However, the mean VARK subscale scores did not differ significantlybetween high achievers and non-high achievers (p>0.05).Conclusion: This study gives an insight into the learner characteristicsof more than one medical school in Malaysia. Such multi-institutionalstudies are lacking in the published literature and this study gives abetter representation of the current situation in the learning preferencesamong medical students in Malaysia.Keywords: Learning; Medical students; Health sciences

Early clinical exposure program in learning renal physiology

ARMAN DEHGHAN; MITRA AMINI; MOHAMMAD MAHDI SAGHEB; SEYED MOSTAFA SHIDMOOSAVI; PARISA NABEIEI

Volume 5, Issue 4 , October 2017, Pages 172-176

Abstract

Introduction: Teaching renal physiology for undergraduatemedical students in an understandable way using methods whichimprove their deep learning has always been a problem. In thisstudy, ... Read More Introduction: Teaching renal physiology for undergraduatemedical students in an understandable way using methods whichimprove their deep learning has always been a problem. In thisstudy, Early Clinical Exposure (ECE) was used in teaching renalphysiology for the second year medical students in Shiraz MedicalSchool. This article aims to introduce and develop this programand also measure the attitude of medical students toward ECE inlearning renal physiology.Methods: This is a mixed method study conducted on 120 secondyear undergraduate students. After performing the course, bothqualitative and quantitative methods were used for measuring theviewpoints of the students. In the qualitative part, 10 high rankmedical students were selected. These students participated inbrain storming sessions to express their opinion about the programbased on the strengths and weaknesses. For trustworthiness of thequalitative part, member check and peer check were done. In thequantitative part, a researcher-made questionnaire was used basedon the objectives of the program in a 4 point Likert scale. Thevalidity of questionnaire was determined by medical educationexperts and reliability was determined after a pilot study.Results: Based on the results of the quantitative part of the study,98 percent of the students stated that the ECE program wasgenerally a useful program. In the qualitative part, the students’comments were obtained. The benefits of the program weresummarized in 4 main themes. These themes are “understandingof renal physiology”, “Integration of basic and clinical knowledge”,“Improvement of attitude toward importance of physiology”, and“encouragement to study”. In response to the questions aboutnegetive aspects of this program in qualitative part, the two mainthemes were insufficient time and large grup size.Conclusion: Students reported that ECE was useful, but theystated that they needed to have more encounter with patientsand more hospital teaching. The results also reveal that this ECEprogram is an excellent approach to strengthen learning in adifficult subject like renal physiology. This approach is adjustableto other basic science topics and subjects as well.Keywords: Early clinical exposure; Integration; Learning

Models of clinical reasoning with a focus on general practice: a critical review

SHAHRAM YAZDANI; MOHAMMAD HOSSEINZADEH; FAKHROLSADAT HOSSEINI

Volume 5, Issue 4 , October 2017, Pages 177-184

Abstract

Introduction: Diagnosis lies at the heart of general practice.Every day general practitioners (GPs) visit patients with awide variety of complaints and concerns, with often minor butsometimes ... Read More Introduction: Diagnosis lies at the heart of general practice.Every day general practitioners (GPs) visit patients with awide variety of complaints and concerns, with often minor butsometimes serious symptoms. General practice has many featureswhich differentiate it from specialty care setting, but during thelast four decades little attention was paid to clinical reasoningin general practice. Therefore, we aimed to critically review theclinical reasoning models with a focus on the clinical reasoningin general practice or clinical reasoning of general practitionersto find out to what extent the existing models explain the clinicalreasoning specially in primary care and also identity the gaps ofthe model for use in primary care settingsMethods: A systematic search to find models of clinical reasoningwere performed. To have more precision, we excluded the studiesthat focused on neurobiological aspects of reasoning, reasoningin disciplines other than medicine decision making or decisionanalysis on treatment or management plan. All the articles anddocuments were first scanned to see whether they include importantrelevant contents or any models. The selected studies whichdescribed a model of clinical reasoning in general practitioners orwith a focus on general practice were then reviewed and appraisalor critics of other authors on these models were included. Thereviewed documents on the model were synthesizedResults: Six models of clinical reasoning were identified includinghypothetic-deductive model, pattern recognition, a dual processdiagnostic reasoning model, pathway for clinical reasoning, anintegrative model of clinical reasoning, and model of diagnosticreasoning strategies in primary care. Only one model hadspecifically focused on general practitioners reasoning.Conclusion: A Model of clinical reasoning that included specificfeatures of general practice to better help the general practitionerswith the difficulties of clinical reasoning in this setting is needed.Keywords: Problem solving, General practitioners, Diagnosis

Learning style preferences: A study of Pre-clinical Medical Students in Barbados

NKEMCHO OJEH; NATASHA SOBERS-GRANNUM; UMA GAUR; MD. ANWARUL AZIM MAJUMDER

Volume 5, Issue 4 , October 2017, Pages 185-194

Abstract

Introduction: Educators need to be aware of different learningstyles to effectively tailor instructional strategies and methodsto cater to the students’ learning needs and support ... Read More Introduction: Educators need to be aware of different learningstyles to effectively tailor instructional strategies and methodsto cater to the students’ learning needs and support a conductivelearning environment. The VARK [an acronym for visual (V),aural (A), read/write (R) and kinesthetic (K)] instrument isa useful model to assess learning styles. The aim of this studywas to use the VARK questionnaire to determine the learningstyles of pre-clinical medical students in order to compare theperceived and assessed learning style preferences, assess genderdifferences in learning style preferences, and determine whetherany relationships exists between awareness of learning styles andacademic grades, age, gender and learning modality.Methods: The VARK questionnaire was administered to preclinicalstudents taking a variety of courses in the first three yearsof the undergraduate MB BS degree programme at the Faculty ofMedical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Cave HillCampus, Barbados in 2014.Results: The majority of the students were multimodal learnerswith no differences observed between males (59.5%) and females(60.0%), with tetramodal being the most common. Read/write(33.8%) followed by kinesthetic (32.5%) were the most commonlearning style preferences. The sensory modality preference forfemales was read/write (34.2%) and for males it was kinesthetic(40.5%). Significant differences were observed between theperceived and assessed learning style preferences with amajority of visual and read/write learners correctly matchingtheir perceived to their actual learning styles. Awareness oflearning styles was associated with learning modality but notwith academic performance, age or gender. Overall, 60.7% ofhigh achievers used multimodal learning compared to 56.9%low achievers.Conclusion: The findings from this study indicated that theVARK tool was useful in gathering information about differentlearning styles, and might assist educators in designing blendedteaching strategies to cater to the students’ needs as well as helpthe students in becoming aware of their learning style preferencesto enhance learning.Keywords: Education; Learning; Teaching; Medical students

Presenting the students’ academic achievement causal model based on goal orientation

EBRAHIM NASIRI; ALI POUR-SAFAR; MAHDOKHT TAHERI; ABDULLAH SEDIGHI PASHAKY; ATAOLLAH ASADI LOUYEH

Volume 5, Issue 4 , October 2017, Pages 195-202

Abstract

Introduction: Several factors play a role in academic achievement,individual’s excellence and capability to do actions and tasks thatthe learner is in charge of in learning areas. ... Read More

Experiences of nursing students of evidence-based practice education according to rogers’ diffusion of innovation model: a directed content analysis

SHAHZAD PASHAEYPOOR; TAHEREH ASHKTORAB; MARYAM RASSOULI; HAMID ALAVI_MAJD

Volume 5, Issue 4 , October 2017, Pages 203-208

Abstract

Introduction: Evidence based practice (EBP) education isessential in promoting of clinical care, but an effective educationalstrategy for teaching EBP in nursing faculties is not available.The ... Read More

Commentary

Addressing the physicians’ shortage in developing countries by accelerating and reforming the medical education: Is it possible?

MUSTAFA AL-SHAMSI

Volume 5, Issue 4 , October 2017, Pages 209-212

Abstract

Introduction: Doctors’ shortage has remained a concernworldwide. The developed countries started aids to recruitinternational medical graduates (IMG) to cope with the defectsthat ... Read More

Letter to Editor

PhD supervisor-student relationship

FILIPE PRAZERES

Volume 5, Issue 4 , October 2017, Pages 213-214

Abstract

Dear Editor, The relationship between the PhD supervisorand the PhD student is a complex one. Whenthis relationship is neither effective nor efficient,it may yield negative consequences, ... Read More Dear Editor, The relationship between the PhD supervisorand the PhD student is a complex one. Whenthis relationship is neither effective nor efficient,it may yield negative consequences, such asacademic failure (1).The intricacy of the supervisor-studentrelationship may be in part comparable to the onebetween the physician and his/her patient [see,for example (2)]. Both interactions develop overseveral years and the players involved in eachrelationship – PhD supervisor-student on the oneside and physician-patient on the other side – mayat some point of the journey develop differentexpectations of one another [see, for example (3,4)] and experience emotional distress (5).In both relationships, the perceived satisfactionwith the interaction will contribute to the successor failure of the treatment in one case, and inthe other, the writing of a thesis. To improve thementioned satisfaction, not only there is a needto invest time (6), as does the physician to his/her patients, but also both the supervisor andthe PhD student must be willing to negotiate aresearch path to follow that would be practicaland achievable. The communication between thephysician and patient is of paramount importancefor the provision of health care (7), and so is thecommunication between the supervisor and PhDstudent which encourages the progression of boththe research and the doctoral study (8).As to a smooth transition to the postgraduatelife, supervisors should start thinking aboutproviding the same kind of positive reinforcementthat every student is used to experience in theundergraduate course. The recognition for a jobwell done will mean a lot for a PhD student, asit does for a patient. One good example is theincrease in medication compliance by patientswith high blood pressure who receive positivereinforcement from their physicians (9).Supervisors can organize regular meetingsfor (and with) PhD students in order to not onlydiscuss their projects but also improve theircoping skills, including critical thinking andproblem-solving methods (5). The act of sharingknowledge and experiences can motivate the PhDstudents to persevere in their studies (10).When needed, supervisors should use theirpower of influence to increase the time that thestudent has available to devote to research whilemaintaining a part of their employment activities(health care‑related or not), since many PhDstudents are also full-time workers.Last but not least, supervisors and facultymembers must encourage PhD students topursue the available funding opportunities.Socioeconomic problems are known to be an issuefor PhD students (5). Without the supervisor’ssupport – by dealing with PhD student’s emotionsand personality –, research time, funding, and thestudent’s proactiviness, the doctoral journey may not attain success.

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Volume & Issue: Volume 5, Issue 4, October 2017 (25)

Lifelong learning along the education and career continuum: metaanalysis of studies in health professions

Abstract

Interdisciplinary and inter-institutional differences in learning preferences among Malaysian medical and health sciences students

Abstract

Early clinical exposure program in learning renal physiology

Abstract

Models of clinical reasoning with a focus on general practice: a critical review

Abstract

Learning style preferences: A study of Pre-clinical Medical Students in Barbados

Abstract

Presenting the students’ academic achievement causal model based on goal orientation

Abstract

Experiences of nursing students of evidence-based practice education according to rogers’ diffusion of innovation model: a directed content analysis

Abstract

Addressing the physicians’ shortage in developing countries by accelerating and reforming the medical education: Is it possible?

Abstract

PhD supervisor-student relationship

Abstract