Curriculum Recommendations Research Articles

Academic program recommendations for graduate degrees in medical physics: AAPM Report No. 365 (Revision of Report No. 197).

Academic program recommendations for graduate degrees in medical physics: AAPM Report No. 365 (Revision of Report No. 197).

History, Current Practice, and the Future of Wound Care for Occupational and Physical Therapists.

History, Current Practice, and the Future of Wound Care for Occupational and Physical Therapists.

International consensus conference recommendations on ultrasound education for undergraduate medical students

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study is to provide expert consensus recommendations to establish a global ultrasound curriculum for undergraduate medical students.Methods64 multi-disciplinary ultrasound experts from 16 countries, 50 multi-disciplinary ultrasound consultants, and 21 medical students and residents contributed to these recommendations. A modified Delphi consensus method was used that included a systematic literature search, evaluation of the quality of literature by the GRADE system, and the RAND appropriateness method for panel judgment and consensus decisions. The process included four in-person international discussion sessions and two rounds of online voting.ResultsA total of 332 consensus conference statements in four curricular domains were considered: (1) curricular scope (4 statements), (2) curricular rationale (10 statements), (3) curricular characteristics (14 statements), and (4) curricular content (304 statements). Of these 332 statements, 145 were recommended, 126 were strongly recommended, and 61 were not recommended. Important aspects of an undergraduate ultrasound curriculum identified include curricular integration across the basic and clinical sciences and a competency and entrustable professional activity-based model. The curriculum should form the foundation of a life-long continuum of ultrasound education that prepares students for advanced training and patient care. In addition, the curriculum should complement and support the medical school curriculum as a whole with enhanced understanding of anatomy, physiology, pathophysiological processes and clinical practice without displacing other important undergraduate learning. The content of the curriculum should be appropriate for the medical student level of training, evidence and expert opinion based, and include ongoing collaborative research and development to ensure optimum educational value and patient care.ConclusionsThe international consensus conference has provided the first comprehensive document of recommendations for a basic ultrasound curriculum. The document reflects the opinion of a diverse and representative group of international expert ultrasound practitioners, educators, and learners. These recommendations can standardize undergraduate medical student ultrasound education while serving as a basis for additional research in medical education and the application of ultrasound in clinical practice.

UP- PGH Division of Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship Training and COVID-19: Opportunities and Innovations

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected training programs because of changes in patient load and service assignments. This posed certain challenges in the implementation of the pre–COVID-19 training curriculum recommendations by the Philippine Heart Association Specialty Board on Adult Cardiology. OBJECTIVE: This article describes the challenges, training adjustments and innovations, and the impact on the training program of these changes instituted by the University of the Philippines–Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) Division of Cardiovascular Medicine (DCVM) during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This is a descriptive article based on review of changes and improvements of the UP-PGH DCVM training manual and guidelines adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. FINDINGS: The COVID-19 pandemic challenges provided opportunities for innovation of the training program. The program emphasized focus on maximizing team-based learning from every clinical encounter toward achievement of learning outcomes and competency. The training committee closely monitored the learning environment and trainee’s learning progress to achieve outcomes beyond the traditional metrics such as census and procedural numbers. It adopted online clinical encounters, conference, and case discussion. To enhance learning, virtual engagement supplemented physical encounters between consultants and training fellows assigned to various clinical rotations. Real-world research results on the impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular health were utilized to enhance knowledge. Risk mitigation and transmission reduction strategies were adopted to ensure safety of all staff. The division also incorporated a strong wellness program to provide holistic approach to trainees’ and trainers’ health. New competencies were developed such as telemedicine, infection prevention and control, and creation of virtual patient education programs. CONCLUSION: The training institution met the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic with resiliency and unity. The adjustments and innovations in training instituted by PGH DCVM proved useful in addressing the challenges posed by the pandemic. The situation was viewed as an opportunity to innovate and pursue a better program adaptive of the ever-changing environment, toward forming competent future cardiologists by enhancing focus not only on numbers but rather on the process of achievement of learning outcomes, embracing virtual and online strategies, institutionalization of wellness program, and development of new guidelines in the approaching patient management cognizant of both health care provider and patient safety and new competencies such as patient virtual education and telemedicine in cardiology.

‘Should We Be Doing It, Should We Not Be Doing It, Who Could Be Harmed?’

Many science educators have argued in favour of including socioscientific issues (SSI) in general, and ethical issues in particular, in school science. However, there have been a number of objections to this proposal, and it is widely acknowledged that such teaching places additional demands on science teachers. This study examined the curricula, textbooks and views of both student teachers and established teachers in England and in Germany regarding the teaching of ethical issues in secondary school science, particularly the ethical issues surrounding animal tests. Analysis of the curriculum documents for secondary or upper secondary school science showed that in both countries, ethical considerations feature strongly. However, in both countries, the overall treatments in the school textbooks of the ethical issues of animal testing were generally ‘thin’, and little opportunity was given for students to consider different ethical frameworks. The teacher and student teacher interviews revealed that interviewees generally gave ethical issues less emphasis than fundamental science. A number of interviewees referred to a lack of appropriate teaching material, and many of them also had concerns that such teaching could give rise to classroom management issues or that they might be accused of indoctrinating their students. Given the increasing acknowledgement of the need for school science to address so-called wicked socioscientific problems, these findings are a concern. We end with recommendations for curricula, for textbooks and for teacher education.

Female sexual medicine: What are students learning in undergraduate medical education?

ABSTRACT Introduction In the United States, medical education on sexual medicine varies throughout the country and between institutions. With limited standardization, medical students and subsequent trainees have little to no training in how to approach a patient with concerns surrounding their sexual health. In 2018, half of the medical institutions in the United States required formal instruction in sexual medicine. Of those institutions that do include didactic material on sexual medicine, most of the material is dedicated to anatomy, physiology, and sexually transmitted infections, with limited or no information on sexual dysfunction and sexual history taking. Therefore, we identified a need to determine which components of sexual medicine, particularly female sexual medicine, are currently being covered in undergraduate medical education with the goal of proposing and developing standardized curriculum materials to be utilized by medical students during their preclinical education. Objective The aim of this study is to examine current preclinical curricula at all seven medical schools, including six allopathic and one osteopathic institution, in the Chicago, Illinois area to investigate which aspects of female sexual anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology are being taught to medical students. Methods Curriculum materials on female sexual anatomy, physiology and pathology were collected from all seven medical schools in Chicago, Illinois. Courses covering topics on female sexual medicine varied between institutions due to differences in preclinical curriculum and coursework. To standardize our needs assessment, we utilized previous literature to identify specific components of anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, social sciences, and history and physical exam skills. Upon reviewing each institution's preclinical educational materials, we assessed curriculum content for saturation of specific concepts within each of the above areas. Results Curriculum materials were collected from seven (n=7) total medical schools in the surrounding Chicago, Illinois area. Out of the 7 institutions, 4/7 discussed clitoral anatomy, with 6/7 mentioning the glans, 1/7 mentioning the corona, 2/7 mentioning the clitoral hood, 6/7 mentioning the corpora cavernosa, 4/7 mentioning the corpus spongiosum, 6/7 mentioning the crus, 6/7 mentioning the bulb and 5/7 detailing the clitoral neurovasculature. In addition to the anatomy, 4/7 discussed the physiology of the female orgasm, 3/7 highlighted the rate and epidemiology of female sexual dysfunction (FSD), 3/7 included information on treatment for FSD, 1/7 taught a genitourinary physical exam specific to assessing FSD (external exam, internal exam, pelvic floor assessment), and 6/7 institutions included information on how to take a sexual history asking about sexual function, pleasure, and satisfaction. Conclusion Overall, our focused needs assessment of both allopathic and osteopathic medical schools in the Chicago, Illinois area highlights the need for restructuring of curriculum as it pertains to female sexual medicine and FSD in undergraduate medical education. Next steps include proposing individual curricular recommendations to institutions, due to the variation in current curriculum design, as to how they can better teach on areas surrounding FSD, while also aiming to standardize what medical students are learning during their preclinical years. Disclosure Work supported by industry: no.

Human-centered design in acoustics education for undergraduate music majors.

An acoustics course for undergraduate music majors should take advantage of the natural affinity between acoustic science and musical practice. In this study, current students and recent graduates of one university's music school were surveyed with the goal of assessing their unique needs in an acoustics curriculum. The results of the survey are reported, and several curriculum recommendations are provided based on the principles of human-centered design. In particular, the acoustics course can harness musicians' intuitive understanding of sound by incorporating musical instruments into classroom demonstrations. Also, acoustics instructors should strive to introduce students to acoustical software, which is also used in the music industry. Finally, the survey findings suggest that the contemporary shift toward active learning and technology-based instruction in acoustics pedagogy is beneficial to music students.

Reply to Critics

Reply to Critics

Recommendation Optimization of Physical Education for Developing the Intelligence of Autistic Children following Intelligent Collaborative Filtering Algorithm

Autism, a developmental disorder affecting social and communication skills, differs from most the mental handicap in showing a characteristic pattern of poor, intact, and even superior cognitive abilities. This study aims to solve the mismatch of the teaching content and mental health education for autistic children. Inspired by artificial intelligence, an improved neural network matrix factorization (NeuMF) model is designed based on the theory of collaborative filtering, and time data is added to improve the NeuMF by using the K-means clustering algorithm. Several evaluation indexes such as root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) are selected to assess the performance of the proposed model. Results show that RMSE and MAE of the improved NeuMF model are 1.251 and 0.625, respectively, which are better than collaborative filtering and traditional neural network factorization models. Moreover, the proposed model is used to recommend the activities of physical education (PE) for developing the intelligence of autistic children. This proves that the optimized model has better performance and can be used to recommend online courses for autistic users. This dynamic personalized curriculum recommendations model can help autistic children recover in a short time.

Evolution of Post Graduate Curricula in Pakistan

Evolution of Post Graduate Curricula in Pakistan

Fundamentals of Transaction Management in Enterprise Application Architectures

Transaction management is a key issue in the development of enterprise application. During the payment of purchases, when dealing with bank operations or when making hotel reservations, transactions are everywhere. Curricula recommendations mainly consider specific knowledge units for transactions in the context of information management knowledge area. Thus, from a curricular point of view, transactions are usually related to Database Management Systems (DBMS). However, in the development of enterprise applications, designers and programmers use frameworks that manage transactions from the business tier. Therefore, there is a significant gap between the concept of transaction usually presented in degree courses and the real use of transactions made during the development of enterprise applications. There are excellent books that provide detailed descriptions of the transactional management in enterprise application from the business tier, but these are detailed and complex books beyond the reach of most students and, what is worse, beyond the reach of those lecturers without a significant background both in DBMS and enterprise application architectures. This paper provides a core of knowledge distilled from these books, as well as some examples of transactional architectures used in the grade software engineering courses taught by the author. The main goal is to describe in detail a knowledge unit focused on what I have called <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">service transactions</i> that helps to fill the gap between the learning outcomes provided in university courses and the use of transactions made in enterprise application development.

Use of a Knowledge-Based Governance Approach to Plan a Post-COVID-19 Predoctoral Dental.

COVID-19 abruptly changed dental education, forcing educators out of their comfort zones and into using new technologies and teaching approaches. At the University of Washington School of Dentistry, a task force evaluated the curricular changes that resulted from COVID and made recommendations for the future predoctoral dental curriculum. This manuscript reports the process employed, the findings of the task force, and how these findings will impact the curriculum. A knowledge-based governance (KBG) approach was employed. KBG focuses on gathering all relevant information and identifying all choices. It separates dialogue from deliberation. Information was gathered via literature review, focus group interviews, electronic surveys, and other metrics. The task force evaluated: (1) delivering didactic content remotely; (2) administering assessments remotely; (3) duplicating preclinical simulation lab courses due to social distancing; and (4) the conversion from a numerical to a credit/no credit grading scale. Key recommendations resulted from focus groups and electronic surveys that allowed any student or faculty member an opportunity to provide input. Some topics were relatively non-controversial and strong recommendations were evident. The most controversial issue was which grading scale should be utilized. A KBG approach is an effective means to address mega issues in the dental school environment.

Deconstructing Racism, Hierarchy, and Power in Medical Education: Guiding Principles on Inclusive Curriculum Design.

In the context of current U.S. racial justice movements, analysis of racism in medicine within medical education is a critical task for all institutions. To educate the next generation of physicians about racism in medicine and out of concern that the curriculum required critical assessment and change, a group of students and faculty at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) initiated a longitudinal curricular analysis through a vertical integration group, commissioned by the Medical Education Committee, from May 2019 to June 2020. The curriculum analysis and the major outcomes and guiding principles that emerged from it are described as a path forward, toward a more inclusive curriculum. The major elements of this analysis included a comprehensive internal curricular assessment and an external assessment of peer institutions that led to the development of key curricular recommendations and overarching equity and specific racially focused equity competencies. The curricular recommendations fall into the following domains: (1) challenging the persistence of biological/genetic notions of race, (2) embedding structural practices in medical education to dismantle racism in medicine, and (3) promoting institutional climate change. Initial steps to implement these recommendations are described. The authors believe that the historic and present reality of racism in America and in medicine has impacted medical education specifically, and more broadly, the practice of medicine, trainee experience, and patient outcomes. The key findings of the BUSM analysis are transferable to other medical education institutions, and the described review process can support peer institutions as they engage in the imperative work of institutional reflection and addressing the salient ideas and practices that uphold racism in medicine.

Curricular Recommendations for a National Family Medicine Subinternship: A Qualitative Analysis From Multiple Stakeholders.

The 2011 Alliance for Clinical Education panel recommended the development of a specialty-specific curriculum for all subinternships (sub-Is). A 2019 CERA survey found that 58% of family medicine clerkship directors agreed that a standardized curriculum would be helpful. The goal of this study was to explore attitudes and preferences regarding a national family medicine sub-I curriculum among a broad set of stakeholders. Focus groups were conducted with medical students, residents, residency faculty, and undergraduate medical education faculty at the 2020 STFM Conference on Medical Student Education. Focus groups were transcribed, and a qualitative analysis was conducted with participants' responses about the benefits and characteristics of a family medicine sub-I, recommendations for core sub-I skills/objectives, likelihood of using a national curriculum, and preferred student and program evaluation methods. There were four focus groups with a total of 24 participants. The following main themes emerged: the family medicine sub-I has distinctive characteristics from other sub-Is and provides unique benefits for students and residency programs, a standardized curriculum should allow for adaptability and flexibility, and the sub-I evaluation for the students and program should be specific and experience-focused. These themes were classified into specific subthemes. The stakeholder emphasis on themes of uniqueness, adaptability, and specificity within evaluation will help educators structure a comprehensive framework for national recommendations for the sub-I curriculum. A well-designed family medicine sub-I may provide rigorous educational training for students and may also encourage career commitment to the discipline.

Should dental amalgams be used in dental training? The perspectives of dental academics at a university in South Africa

Dental amalgam has been used in dentistry for the last 150 years to restore posterior teeth. Concerns regarding the safety issues with amalgam due to its mercury content have lead to the introduction of composite dental material to restore posterior teeth. This has transformed the teaching and training trends of direct restorative materials for posterior teeth. This descriptive study aimed to gain insight into academic staff and clinical supervisors’ perceptions regarding the use of dental amalgams in the teaching of restorative dentistry. This study used a qualitative method of data collection. Two focus group discussions were conducted between March and May 2020. Seventeen participants were invited to participate. Fourteen responded and participated, yielding an 82% response rate. The data identified two major themes, viz. the challenges experienced with the teaching of dental amalgam and curriculum development recommendations. Clinical quota requirements, disposal of waste products, and occupational and environmental risks regarding mercury exposure were sub-themes. Some of the curriculum recommendations included the skills gained during cavity preparations, the training and quota requirements of dental materials, and teaching trends locally, nationally and internationally.This study revealed that dental amalgam is still an integral part of the restorative dentistry curriculum at the university. However, the teaching of resin composite now occupies more than fifty percent of the restorative dentistry curriculum. Academics and clinical supervisors show a greater affinity for the placement of composite restorations.

Vascular Surgery Curriculum for Medical Students: A National Targeted Needs Assessment

BackgroundAt present, neither the American College of Surgeons (ACS) nor the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) provides curriculum recommendations for medical students rotating on a vascular surgery service. We sent a targeted needs assessment to vascular surgeons across the country in order to investigate the need for a structured curriculum for medical students participating in a vascular surgery rotation during their clinical clerkships. MethodsThe survey was developed with input from medical students, vascular surgeons, and medical educators. Respondents were identified from the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database (FREIDA). The needs assessment was sent to program directors of vascular residencies and fellowships and to other vascular surgery educators. The survey collected data regarding the existing vascular surgery curriculum at the respondent's institution, the need for a standardized curriculum, desired experiences for medical students, and important vascular topics for medical students to cover while on rotation. ResultsResponses were obtained from 50 of the 146 surveyed individuals (response rate = 34.2%). 48 respondents (96%) worked in an academic hospital or academic affiliated hospital. With regard to the existing vascular surgery curriculum, only 28 respondents (61%) indicated that they had a curriculum approved by the surgery clerkship director. 37 respondents (77.1%) said there were at least goals and objectives for students on the vascular surgery service, and 29 respondents (60.4%) indicated that there was dedicated time for didactic sessions. Only 17 respondents (35.4%) indicated students gave a case presentation on the service. 29 respondents (63%) agreed or strongly agreed that there should be a standardized vascular curriculum for medical students. When asked to rank 9 topics from most important to least important for students to learn, respondents ranked peripheral arterial disease, aortic disease, and carotid disease highest. Simulation experience was most frequently indicated as a desired addition to the curriculum, and only 16 respondents (33.3%) reported opportunities for vascular surgery specific simulation experiences. ConclusionsThis study identified the lack of an existing structured curriculum for medical students, the desire for a standardized curriculum, and key topics and experiences that are felt to be important for students to cover. With this information in hand, vascular educators have the potential to enhance the learning experience of medical students rotating through the service by developing a standardized curriculum.

Back Translation of Literary Texts and Its Effectiveness in Developing Creative Writing Skills and Academic Self-Efficacy among English Department First-level Students

Varied strategies are proposed for the development of creative writing skills and academic self-efficacy among EFL students. Translation use, although pedagogically effective and educationally desirable, has been frequently ignored. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a proposed unit based on the back translation strategy to develop creative writing skills and academic self-efficacy among English Department first-level students at Port Said Faculty of Education. (43) participants contributed to this experimental study of one-group design, conducted in the second semester of the academic year 2018/2019. A proposed unit based on the back translation strategy was designed to train the participating sample on translating multiple literary texts such as poems, short stories and songs. Additionally, a test on participants’ creative writing skills as well as a scale on participants academic self-efficacy, both prepared by the researcher, were used as instruments to collect data. Later, sets of data were statistically analyzed using different statistical techniques. The results of the analyses revealed that the proposed unit based on the back translation helped to develop creative writing skills and academic self-efficacy among English Department first-level students. Implications, suggestions for further research, and recommendations for curricula and policy makers are included.

EUS and ERCP in the Same Session for Biliary Stones: From Risk Stratification to Treatment Strategy in Different Clinical Conditions.

Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) with sphincterotomy and stone extraction is the treatment of choice for choledocholithiasis, reaching a successful clearance of the common bile duct (CBD) in up to 90% of the cases. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has the best diagnostic accuracy for CBD stones, its sensitivity and specificity range being 89–94% and 94–95%, respectively. Traditionally seen as two separate entities, the two worlds of EUS and ERCP have recently come together under the new discipline of bilio-pancreatic endoscopy. Nevertheless, the complexity of both EUS and ERCP led the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy to identify quality in endoscopy as a top priority in its recent EUS and ERCP curriculum recommendations. The clinical benefits of performing EUS and ERCP in the same session are several, such as benefiting from real-time information from EUS, having one single sedation for both the diagnosis and the treatment of biliary stones, reducing the risk of cholangitis/acute pancreatitis while waiting for ERCP after the EUS diagnosis, and ultimately shortening the hospital stay and costs while preserving patients’ outcomes. Potential candidates for the same session approach include patients at high risk for CBD stones, symptomatic individuals with status post-cholecystectomy, pregnant women, and those unfit for surgery. This narrative review discusses the main technical aspects and evidence from the literature about EUS and ERCP in the management of choledocholithiasis.

Student behavior in undergraduate physics laboratories: Designing experiments

We investigated physics students' learning experience and behaviour in a second-year laboratory by analyzing transcribed audio recordings of laboratory sessions. One student group was given both a problem and procedure and asked to analyze and explain their results. Another was provided with only the problem and asked to design and execute the experiment, interpret the data, and draw conclusions. These two approaches involved different levels of student inquiry and they have been described as guided and open inquiry respectively. The latter gave students more opportunities to practice "designing experiments," one of the six major learning outcomes in the recommendations for the undergraduate physics laboratory curriculum by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). Qualitative analysis was performed of the audio transcripts to identify emergent themes and it was augmented by quantitative analysis for a richer understanding of students' experiences. An important finding is that significant improvements can be made to undergraduate laboratories impacting both student learning experience and behaviour by increasing the level of inquiry in laboratory experiments. This is most easily achieved by requiring students to design their own experimental procedures.

Korthagen’s Onion Model and its Effectiveness in Developing Reflective Thinking Skills and Attitudes Toward the Profession among EFL Student-Educators

Abstract: Korthagen’s Onion model is one of the influential novelties of the Core Reflection approach, including exterior layers of reflection expanding from the surface to the interior ones. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a proposed training program based on the Onion model in developing reflective thinking skills and attitudes towards the profession among EFL student-educators. This experimental study was conducted with 59 EFL student-educators involved in the program of teaching practice at Port Said Faculty of education. The data were collected using two scales designed to measure participants reflective thinking skills and attitudes towards the profession. The proposed training program based on the Onion model included (20) sessions and lasted for (10) weeks. Data of the pre-, post- and follow-up applications of the scales were collected and statistically analyzed. The results of the analyses revealed that the proposed training program based on the Onion Model helped to develop reflective thinking skills and positive attitudes towards the EFL profession among EFL Student-Educators. Implications, suggestions for further research, and recommendations for curricula and policy makers of teacher education programs are included.