Effect of a conflict management workshop with simulated mediation and mock court proceedings: a mixed-methods study.

Background Inadequate medicolegal training contributes to physician anxiety and defensive medicine practices. To address this issue, we implemented a novel pedagogical approach incorporating simulated mediation and mock court proceedings into a medical course to enhance medicolegal competency among medical students. Methods This study was conducted in August 2022 that recruited medical students preparing for clinical rotations. Students completed a 4-part 150-minute workshop that covered simulated mediation, mock court, debriefing, and reflection sessions. During the simulated mediation session, the participants watched expert-recorded videos of different medical mediation perspectives, followed by small-group discussions with real-time feedback. During the mock court session, a judge-led multidisciplinary expert group demonstrated actual litigation process. Data were collected by using an online questionnaire, including structured and semi-structured items. Results For quantitative analysis, 157 valid responses were analyzed and the questionnaire had satisfactory internal consistency. Quantitative analysis revealed significant improvements in medicolegal knowledge, empathy, and physician–patient communication, with postworkshop mean scores being significantly higher than preworkshop scores. Participant feedback indicated high satisfaction levels, with 66.9% of participants endorsing the effectiveness of simulations for learning. Qualitative analysis of 113 student reflections identified 3 themes: medicolegal competencies, mutual engagement in communication, and legal and professional reflections. Conclusions This brief conflict management workshop using simulated mediation and mock court proceedings effectively enhanced medical students' perceived medicolegal knowledge, empathy, and dispute resolution skills. However, students' unfamiliarity with legal terminology highlighted learning barriers that require interdisciplinary collaboration with legal professionals. Integrating such simulations with legal expert involvement in future medicolegal education is recommended.

BACKGROUND:Medical education is competitive across the globe. The long duration of the medical and paramedical courses and exposure to clinical settings potentially causes mental health issues. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress among undergraduate students in a private medical college in South India.MATERIALS AND METHODS:This cross-sectional study was conducted among paramedical and medical students at a private medical college hospital and research center in South India in the year 2021. The required sample size was calculated as 783 with an expected prevalence of 53%, 95% confidence interval (CI), design effect 2.0, and non-response of 10%. The study participants were selected based on simple random sampling. After obtaining informed consent, the data was collected using an email questionnaire. Standard data collection tools such as the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS); and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - 21 (DASS-21) questionnaire were used. The investigator computed the odds ratio (OR) and adjusted odds ratio (aOR) with a 95% CI.RESULTS:Out of 1200 students, 1015 (85%) responded to the email questionnaire. Among them, 639 were females (63%), and 925 were paramedics (91%). Prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress were 59%, 43% and 11%, respectively. Almost 95% of students experienced moderate-to-severe stress in the last one month. Prevalence was higher among females and students of medical courses. Students of final year of college (aOR = 2.0; 95% CI = 1.2–3.5) and students of medical course (aOR = 1.5; 95% CI = 1.1–2.4) were independently associated with stress among the study participants.CONCLUSION:There is high prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress among medical college students in south India. The final year of study and medical course were independently associated with higher stress than others. We recommend periodic assessment of mental health status and additional mental health care for final year students and medical students.

IntroductionWhile many medical schools provide opportunities in medical Spanish for medical students, schools often struggle with identifying a structured curriculum. The purpose of this module was to provide a flexible, organ system-based approach to teaching and learning musculoskeletal and dermatologic Spanish terminology, patient-centered communication skills, and sociocultural health contexts.MethodsAn 8-hour educational module for medical students was created to teach musculoskeletal and dermatologic medical communication skills in Spanish within the Hispanic/Latinx cultural context. Participants included 47 fourth-year medical students at an urban medical school with a starting minimum Spanish proficiency at the intermediate level. Faculty provided individualized feedback on speaking, listening, and writing performance of medical Spanish skills, and learners completed a written pre- and postassessment testing skills pertaining to communication domains of vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension as well as self-reported confidence levels.ResultsStudents demonstrated improvement in vocabulary, grammar, comprehension, and self-confidence of musculoskeletal and dermatologic medical Spanish topics. While students with overall lower starting proficiency levels (intermediate) scored lower on the premodule assessment compared to higher proficiency students (advanced/native), the postmodule assessment did not show significant differences in skills performance among these groups.DiscussionAn intermediate Spanish level prerequisite for this musculoskeletal and dermatologic module can result in skills improvement for all learners despite starting proficiency variability. Future study should evaluate learner clinical performance and integration of this module into other educational settings such as graduate medical education (e.g., orthopedic, rehabilitation, and dermatology residency programs) and other health professions (e.g., physical therapy and nursing).

This issue covers numerous and diverse topics related to health professions education and policy development. Contributions are truly global as we are publishing papers of authors from Africa, Argentina, Canada, China, India, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, and the United States. Of interest in this issue is that the scope goes beyond medicine alone, and in the spirit of health professions as a whole brings in disciplines such as dentistry and physiotherapy, as well as focus on the community. In the article, “Is Emotional Intelligence Related to Objective Parameters of Academic Performance in Medical, Dental and Nursing Students: A Systematic Review,” Singh et al. present the results of a systematic review aimed to address the question of the influence of emotional intelligence (EI) on objective parameters of academic performance in undergraduates in three disciplines. Databases were systematically searched for empirical studies which measured the EI of medical, nursing, or dental undergraduate students and compared it with academic performance. Findings of the review showed that EI has a greater role in the academic success of clinical year medical and dental students. In the paper, “Assessing Perceptions of Professionalism in Medical Learners by the Level of Training and Sex,” Spiwak et al. looked at male and female perceptions of 16 vignettes related to such items as lapse in excellence, inappropriate dress, lack of altruism, disrespect, shirking duty, and abuse of power. They found significant differences on many items, with females more likely to rate items as more severe. The authors conclude that more work is needed in the area of professionalism and sex. This is especially important in light of changing conceptions of gender. Rashid et al. – “Doctor, Teacher, Translator: International Medical Students' Experiences of Clinical Teaching on an English-language Undergraduate Medical Course in China”– offer a description of student experiences related to participation in and completion of an English language program. Nonnative English-speaking students indicate that while English proficiency was variable in their clinical teachers, they were able to navigate the challenges of studying clinical medicine from teachers with limited English skills. The students felt that other attributes such as enthusiasm, interactivity, and a desire to teach superseded English proficiency of the clinical teacher. The authors call for future study of clinical teacher perceptions of working with non native English-speaking students and graduate outcomes of students participating in the course. In “Rural Stream: An Effective Alternative to the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship Model for Small Rural Communities,” Carson et al. provide insight into a regionalized medical program where students spend the first two and one-half years of their undergraduate degree in district hospitals. The authors emphasize the importance of immersion and community engagement. While a challenge, Carson et al. show that effective medical education can occur locally, in small rural communities. There are four Letters to the Editor in this issue. Abu-Zaid (“Where do Medical Students Submit Their Work?”) replies to an Education for Health paper contending that main stream journals should encourage publication of student research work. Kuntz et al. (“Video Review with Sports Performance Software Improves Trainee Endotracheal Intubation Time, Performance, and Confidence”) where the researchers take success from one sector and apply it to another. Gali et al. (“Introducing a Communication Skills Course in an Indian Dental Institution: An Academic Experience”) where the educators share their experience in introducing a communication skills module to preclinical undergraduates. Finally, Paraskevopoulos and Papandreou (“Physiotherapy Clinical Placement during the COVID-19 Pandemic”) propose an alternative method of clinical education delivery through an online platform. Please feel free to submit a Letter to the Editor to Education for Health in response to any topics in this issue that spark your interest or attention.

A large body of evidence links exposure to childhood trauma with negative health outcomes. Training future physicians to recognize and respond to trauma is paramount, and engaging medical students in the preclinical years affords the opportunity to foster the development of a trauma-informed lens that can then be solidified during clinical clerkships. We developed and implemented a 4-hour trauma-informed care (TIC) symposium for 179 second-year medical students at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences during the Patients, Populations, and Systems course. The symposium included three interactive didactic sessions focusing on the connection between trauma and health and TIC principles. A facilitated small-group discussion allowed students to apply TIC principles to a patient case, followed by reflection and evaluation. The overall rating of the TIC symposium was 4 out of 5. Strengths included integration of a small-group case with discussion on application of TIC in practice, experience of the lecturers and small-group facilitators, and review of research relating adversity to specific health outcomes. Suggestions for improvement included incorporating role-play and standardized patients. Content analysis of student reflections mapped to the domains of physician competency. A 4-hour symposium can affect student knowledge and understanding of TIC. Teaching TIC presents an opportunity to prepare medical students for a career in medicine through cultivation of required physician competencies. Next steps include enhanced opportunities to practice TIC and follow-up analysis of participants to determine behavior change during clinical years.

Introduction: Medical science is developing very rapidly. One of the efforts to keep up with the development of medical science is to improve the quality of human resources in the health sector, especially in the medical field. However, efforts to improve the quality of human resources in the medical field are hampered because the implementation of professionalism in the field of medical education has not been achieved optimally. One of the basic foundations of the implementation of professionalism in medical students is professionalism during the teaching and learning process. Objective: This study aims to determine the implementation of the professionalism of medical faculty students during small group discussions in a qualitative study. Method: This study uses a qualitative method with a descriptive-analytical approach at the Faculty of Medicine, Nahdlatul Ulama University, Surabaya. Conducted for 3 weeks from June 25, 2024, to July 15, 2024, with 5 research respondents using purposive sampling. Data collection was carried out through in-depth interviews. Data analysis used a coding system with thematic analysis. Result: The Implementation of Professionalism of Medical Faculty Students during Small Group Discussions in Qualitative Study is influenced by two factors, namely supporting factors such as student personality, student environment, and supervisor, while less supportive factors such as limited facilities and infrastructure, certain students who have a negative influence on the learning environment, and students' readiness to receive courses. Conclusion: The implementation of student professionalism during small group discussions is influenced by several factors, so continuous holistic improvement is needed so that the values of professionalism as a doctor are possessed as early as possible.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to use qualitative analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary problem-based learning (PBL) small-group discussion. Methods: Purposive sampling was used to select fourth-year medical students and fifth-year pharmacy students who attended a 2016 pathological and pharmacological PBL-based small-group discussion course at a college of medicine in Taiwan. The researchers conducted a semi-structured interview with each student after class. The pre-designed questions aimed to explore how peers from different schools affected one another's learning experiences. Recordings were transcribed and the interview data reviewed and analyzed. Enrollment was discontinued as the data reached saturation (i.e., obtaining a comprehensive understanding by continuing to sample until no new substantive information is acquired). Results: A total of 17 medical students and 5 pharmacy students were interviewed. The medical students believed that co-learning with the pharmacy students had many advantages. These advantages included sharing clinical experiences that complemented their learning, facilitating communications across trainees in different professions, gaining an understanding about the work of their future partners, and encouraging each other in constructive competition. The pharmacy students believed that attending classes with the medical students motivated them to double their efforts to keep pace, learn new information to complement one another's knowledge, demonstrate the power of clinical internship experiences, and gain familiarity with future work partners. Conclusion: The introduction of an interdisciplinary PBL small-group discussion course into the basic science curriculum enabled the medical and pharmacy students to develop an atmosphere of constructive competition, complement each other's knowledge, and experience mutual assistance, communication, and cooperation.

University of South Carolina School of Medicine.

We aimed to examine the experiences of advanced trainees in forensic psychiatry as they practise testifying as expert witnesses in a mock court setting. Five advanced trainees (including the first author) submitted court-ordered forensic reports in advance of attending the mock court. Senior colleagues had roles of Judge, prosecution and defence lawyers. House officers and medical students were summoned as jury. Over a year, each trainee had the experience of direct and cross-examination by opposing legal teams. Following the mock trial, each participant was given immediate feedback and subsequently asked to complete a semi-structured questionnaire. The experience of participating in a mock court has learning value for advanced trainees specialising in forensic psychiatry in anticipation of giving evidence in a court of law. Constructive feedback enabled attendees to gain valuable education in a supportive setting. Of particular value was guidance in the use of technical language in presenting evidence in a court setting, knowledge of the breadth of questions that could be put forth to an expert witness, desensitisation training in an adversarial albeit simulated setting, and acquiring skills in staying calm under pressure. The importance of a well-written report, good preparation and anxiety management were significant learning points.

Names are a reflection of identity and often have personal meaning. The chronic mispronunciation of names can undermine one's identity and be experienced as a microaggression. This workshop aims to provide historical context for names as well as resources for correct name pronunciation. We developed a 60-minute interactive virtual workshop with didactics, small-group sharing of personal experiences, and case discussions. We used an anonymous postworkshop survey to evaluate workshop effectiveness. We presented the workshop at one local academic conference and two local educational conferences to learners of all levels from medical students to faculty. We collected postworkshop survey results from 78 participants of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Participants reported learning historical context, ways to ask about correct name pronunciation, correcting name mispronunciation, documenting pronunciation, and sources for applications to practice. The main barriers to implementing workshop lessons included personal and structural factors. This workshop effectively fills an educational gap by addressing the importance of correct name pronunciation in order to provide a more inclusive environment for clinicians and patients alike.

It is clear that the teaching of medical statistics needs to be improved, yet areas for priority are unclear as medical students’ learning and application of statistics at different levels is not well known. Our goal is to assess the attitudes of medical students toward the learning and application of medical statistics, and discover their learning needs. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of learning and application of medical statistics among graduates and undergraduates at a medical school in Chongqing. More than 70% of the medical students thought that the medical statistics course was as important as other medical courses. Among them, 62.58% of graduate students thought that it was very hard to learn medical statistics, whereas only 27.72% undergraduate students held the same opinion. Both graduates and undergraduates stated that the main difficulties involved in learning medical statistics were its abstract principles and the large quantity of concepts and formulas. In all, 70% of both graduates and undergraduates could conduct a basic statistical analysis of general medical data independently, although undergraduates demonstrated greater proficiency in applying basic statistical methods than did graduates (p<0.05). The most common mistake students made in solving statistical problems was the misuse of statistical methods. In conclusion, medical students do not perform well in learning and applying medical statistical methods despite a clear recognition of the importance of the course, and we should start to make the necessary reforms in the teaching of medical statistics.

Medical colleges are using various teaching methods and educational resources in education. In order to explore the attitude of medical students towards these educational methods and resources and the factors playing a major role in their use in a medical school in an Arabic culture, a self answered questionnaire was directed to 283 medical students in their clinical years. Questions on the possible factors which affect the attendance and the use of these education resources were also included. Traditional methods of teaching, lectures, and clinical rounds were found to be the backbone of the educational process in this college. Attendance to lectures was related to both quality of subjects and to the lecturer, emphasizing the importance of a good lecture and lecturer. Clinical bedside teaching was found to be a popular and effective way of teaching medical knowledge, skill, and patient interactions to medical students. The library in this college was the least used resource and student appreciation of its importance was very low. General recommendations are to reduce dependence on lectures gradually in clinical years and to introduce new methods of clinical teaching.

Background and aim: Teaching is an important part of the medical curriculum. Different teaching methods include small group discussions, demonstrations, inquiry approaches, lectures, problem solving methods, and tutorials. Group discussions are at the core of medical education because they help students learn more effectively. As a result, the current study sought to analyze the efficacy of small group discussions in teaching biochemistry to undergraduate medical students. Place and Duration: Gomal Medical College MTI, Dera Ismail Khan and Department of Biochemistry of Amna Inayat Medical College Lahore for the duration from March 2022 to August 2022. Method: This study included 50 undergraduate medical students of first year registered in international medical program. Prior to study conduction, ethical approval and informed written consent was taken. Student’s perception regarding small group discussion sessions were elicited based on unknown questionnaires provided to them. Likert scale was used to show their level of agreement with the questionnaire's claims. Results: Of the 50 undergraduate medical students, 28 (56%) were male and 22 (44%) were females students. About 64.6% (n=32) students believed that their grasp over the study material improved with small group discussion and 52.4% (n=26) agreed to the facilitation of active learning in small group discussion. Communication skills and clinical reasoning improved by small group discussion were claimed by 36% (n=18) medical students. Majority of undergraduate medical students 68% (n=34) strongly agreed to the claims that small group discussion helped them to correlate medical problems with biochemical concepts. Conclusion: The present study concluded that small group discussion in combination with lectures appears to provide the best instruction for the learner or medical students. Mostly students emphasized on importance of small group discussion in terms of topic better comprehension, promoting knowledge, correlation of biochemical ideas with medical issues, and interest. Similarly, they discussed the need of developing effective communication skills, as well as leadership and teamwork abilities. Keywords: Medical students, Undergraduate, Small group discussion, Biochemistry, Effectiveness

The aim: To define peculiarities of the medical students and medical PhD students’ distance learning, basing on the academic performance and survey results. Materials and methods: Forty-two medical students and thirty-eight PhD students of O.Bogomolets National medical university were randomly chosen for the study. Students’ knowledge of English was initially “ live” assessed in February, online assessments were held in April and May, concluded with the credit final assessment. Upon passing the final test the students were asked to fill in the questionnaire containing the following items: satisfaction with the distance learning, level of the distance learning hardness, comparison of distance learning by quality and understanding, choosing the best sections for the English distance learning, level of technical problems. Results: All students during the 2020 distance learning have improved their English language level: the medical students from 3.8 to 3.99, the PhD students- from 4.36 to 4.56. The questioning of both groups showed significant dissatisfaction of medical students ( 52-57% by different positions) with the distance learning. The PhD students showed higher satisfaction level (76-86% by different positions). Conclusions: The assessed groups of the O.Bogomolets National medical university improved their English knowledge level during the distance learning. The authors relate significant dissatisfaction of medical students with the distance learning to their low motivation and learning maturity. The PhD students’ higher satisfaction level may be related to the wider variability of the issues to study. The problem of distance learning of both medical and PhD students should be studied more thoroughly.

BackgroundMost of medical schools in Brazil still maintain a traditional discipline-based curriculum. In this context, a recent survey of medical students at clerkship in the UFRN, Natal, RN, Brazil, showed...