Students In Early Years Research Articles

Impact of medical school experiences on the career choice of neurosurgery: a cross- sectional study from Pakistan

BackgroundPakistan grapples with the issue of an inadequate neurosurgery workforce but the reasons for such a disparity remain uncertain. Previous studies have highlighted how various factors including medical school experiences have an impact on career choice, but no study has delved into the impact of medical school exposure among Pakistani medical students, especially for the field of neurosurgery. This study aims to evaluate the impact of neurosurgery exposure, mentorship, and interest groups on medical students' decision to pursue neurosurgery.MethodsA national cross-sectional survey was conducted in Pakistan, collecting data from medical students, interns, and medical officers over a one-month period. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethical Review Committee at Aga Khan University, Pakistan. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 26.ResultsOut of 2618 participants, 38.0% were male and 62.0% were female, with an average age of 21.82 years (± 2.65). Among them, only 358 (13.6%) were interested in pursuing neurosurgery as a career, while the remaining 2,260 (86.3%) were not. More females (58.9%) than males (41.1%) expressed interest in pursuing neurosurgery as their intended career. Most medical students interested in pursuing neurosurgery were in the early years of their medical school (1st Year: 19.6%, 2nd Year: 26.0%, 3rd Year: 20.9%). In our study, students from public sector institutions (52.2%) showed more interest in neurosurgery as a career choice compared to those from private sector institutions (44.1%). The main deterrents for choosing neurosurgery were intense training (42.2%), work-life balance (39.9%), limited residency slots (56.7%), medical knowledge (34.1%), and surgical skills (36.6%).ConclusionThis study highlights the need for increased student engagement to inculcate the decision to pursue neurosurgery among medical students in Pakistan. A significant gap is highlighted, with the majority of interested students in early years. Public sector students show higher interest than their private sector counterparts. However, barriers like intense training, limited residency slots, and work-life balance concerns influence career choice. Targeted interventions like mentorship programs are crucial for fostering future neurosurgeons and advancing patient care and research. By addressing the identified disparities in experiences and promoting a supportive educational environment, it is possible to cultivate a future generation of skilled and dedicated neurosurgeons who can contribute to advancements in patient care and research in the field.

Stress and its Effects on Medical Students in Early Years

Introduction: Stress can have a variety of effects on a medical student’s performance. It can cause decreased concentration and memory retention, making it difficult to remember information. Furthermore, stress can cause anxiety, which can result in poor decision-making and mistakes in patient care. This study aims to assess the stress level among medical students during their early year of study. Methods and Instruments: A descriptive quantitative cross-sectional study was utilized on medical students in first, second and third years of their study in Fakeeh College for Medical Sciences, Jeddah, KSA; data collection was carried out to assess the medical students stress level. The levels of stress were assessed among these students using the Perceived Stress Scale- 10 item version (PSS-10), self-report scale measures the degree to which one feels overwhelmed and unable to predict the future. Results: A descriptive statistic of the ten items of the PSS questionnaire reveals that the high percent of students perceive two items (one and three) very often. The majority of respondents reported moderate level of stress level. However, The Pearson’s correlations between GPA and the average score of PSS was not statistically significant. Conclusion: There is a high percentage of moderate stress among medical students at Fakeeh College for Medical Sciences especially first year medical students; this requires special orientation program to improve students time management and study skills sessions. Further research is needed to explore the predisposing factors for this stress.

Role of Peer Assessment in Modifying Professional Behavior among Phase 1 Medical Undergraduates: A Prospective Interventional Study

Abstract Background: India’s competency-based medical education curriculum has now included professionalism as a core competency for medical graduates. However, assessing professionalism and interpersonal skills remains challenging. This study explores the impact of peer assessment (PA) on MBBS first-phase students’ professional behavior and its association with gender and academic performance. Methodology: We conducted a prospective interventional study. Over three iterations which were done at the interval of 1 month, each student evaluated six peers using the “Rochester PA tool” comprising 15 standardized items. Statistical analysis employed t-tests, Chi-square tests, analysis of variance, and correlation tests. Results: Hundred and forty students were enrolled and their responses were analyzed. “Unable to answer” responses significantly decreased over time (P < 0.0001), particularly when students did not consider peers as close friends (P < 0.001). PA scores remained stable over three timelines, but in the first and second iterations, females received higher scores for all the factors except for intrapersonal attributes. Academic grades correlated positively with PA scores for work habits, global items, and overall performance but not for interpersonal attributes. Conclusions: This study highlights PA as a valuable training tool for inculcating an understanding of professionalism among medical students in early years of MBBS course. We did not find any improvement in the professional behavior after repeated implementation of PA probably because the gap between the two evaluations was insufficient to bring about noticeable behavioral changes. Further research is required to explore if early introduction of such assessments in medical school can nurture the professional development leading to improvement in the accuracy of later peer evaluations.

Exploring Traces of Equity in Teachers’ Instructional Practices, Assessment and Treatment with Students in Early Years of Education

Culturing equitable practices in learners’ early years of education are significant for their sound development and upbringing. According to OECD (2012), the education systems are highest in performance when quality and equity exist in them. The extent to which schools are equitable depends upon the learners how the learners perceive education as equitable. Most recently, Pakistan’s global commitment to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) compelled policy developers and researchers to address equity issues of early childhood education in Pakistan. For the study, the researchers collected evidences from students of grade-level three of public schools in Punjab pertaining to their experience of equity in teachers’ instructional practices, assessment and treatment. Convergent mixed-methods design was used for the study. Data were collected from teachers, head teachers, students and parents were major stakeholders. Teachers teaching students of early years of education were randomly selected. For quantitative data, 2023 teachers responded on the questionnaires, while, for qualitative data, interviews were conducted from 20 head teachers, parents and students. We concluded that students have had fewer equitable experiences at schools. Mostly, teachers had been inequitable in their instructional practices, treatment, and assessment in early years of education. It was recommended for schools to address inequitable situation particularly in terms of teachers’ treatment, assessment and instructional practices during early years of students’ education

The relationship between medical students’ empathy, mental health, and burnout: A cross-sectional study

Objective To investigate how medical students’ empathy is related to their mental health and burnout. Methods This cross-sectional study included 886 medical students from curriculum years 1–6. The cognitive, affective, and behavioural dimensions of empathy were measured with self-report questionnaires and an emotion recognition test. Regressions were used to test the relationship between the empathy dimensions, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and burnout as well as the influence of curriculum year and gender. Results Cognitive and behavioural empathy were significantly related to less mental health issues and burnout, whereas affective empathy was related to more mental health issues and burnout. Students in later curriculum years reported less mental health issues and burnout than students in earlier years, whereas no systematic difference could be observed for empathy. Female students reported more mental health issues and burnout as well as higher empathy, except for behavioural empathy for which male students scored higher. Conclusions The cognitive, affective, and behavioural dimensions of empathy were differently related to the mental health and burnout of medical students. Students presenting mental health issues or burnout might have more difficulty to adapt their behaviour in social situations and keep a certain distance when taking others’ perspective.

Difficulties in Learning and Teaching Programming at Lower Secondary Level in Mauritius

The rapid evolution of technology around the world has created a rapid growth and efficient learning environments. In Mauritius, for example, the government is investing huge amount of money in the educational sector with initiation of programming at an early stage. The ideology behind this push is to strengthen the link between the younger generation and the technological growth that will continue to have an ever-increasing impact on their lives and to fuel the pace of innovation. One of the core themes of this area is that of computer programming, which has now become a mandatory subject in early years’ education. As a result of this change, many challenges are being faced by educators and students; for example, educators require more training and students need appropriate tools that suit their level of learning. Therefore, this research aimed at exploring the difficulties in learning and teaching programming at lower secondary schools in Mauritius. Consequently, it can be interpreted from the research findings that an automated teaching and learning programming system that supports the right pedagogical aspects, example, assessment-driven learning with the inclusion of game-based learning, would make the learning process more successful and enjoyable for students in early years of education. Students with higher problem-solving abilities find programming easy and they can master programming with no or little difficulties regardless of the programming environment. On the contrary, students with lower problem-solving abilities find programming difficult to understand and are often unable to master it.

El proyecto común de lectura: explotación didáctica interdisciplinar de Las aventuras de Pinocchio (1882-1883), a partir de la metodología del centro de interés

The Proyecto Común de Lectura is an initiative of different educational members related to the reading and use of literary texts. This article presents and critically evaluates the reading activities that the members of this project implemented from a common interest in reading. Those activities included facilitating the solid construction of reading and literary competence in students in early years, Primary Education and Secondary Education. The literary text that was selected for this purpose was The Adventures of Pinocchio (1882-1883), by Carlo Collodi. This approach also shows how interdisciplinary reading contributes, through focused methodology, to its use in several fields of knowledge at different levels of teaching and learning, and from different perspectives of reading and comprehension of the literary text.

DigiMe: An Online Portal to Support Connectivity through E-Learning in Medical Education

Connectivity is intrinsic to all aspects of our life today, be it political, economic, technological, scientific, or personal. Higher education is also transcending the previous paradigm of technology enabled content delivery and e-learning, with a new emphasis on connectivity, enabling participants to exchange knowledge and collaborate to meet educational goals. In this study, a social media technology supported website—digiMe—was developed and evaluated at the School of Medicine of one Australian university. Connectivity to other medical learners and health professionals is intrinsic to digiMe. This paper reports the functionalities of this website, results of a post-intervention evaluative survey, and statistics of website usage generated from Google Analytics. The results revealed more active adoptions and a more positive attitude towards digiMe from Year 4 students compared to Year 5 students. The participants showed a desire for access to a recommended collection of apps, such as those offered through digiMe. However, many participants did not use digiMe beyond initial introduction to it. digiMe demonstrated its potential in raising awareness of web and mobile apps useful for enhancing connectivity, although it needs to be introduced to students in earlier years of their medical education to achieve a higher impact on their learning.

Self-reported patient safety competence among Canadian medical students and postgraduate trainees: a cross-sectional survey

BackgroundQuality and patient safety (PS) are critical components of medical education. This study reports on the self-reported PS competence of medical students and postgraduate trainees.MethodsThe Health Professional Education in Patient...

Project placements for undergraduate occupational therapy students: design, implementation and evaluation.

This study aimed to document the process undertaken to incorporate project placements as an effective fieldwork option for second- and third-year occupational therapy students, by evaluating the experience of both students and supervisors and identifying areas for improvement. Project placements are full- or part-time placements where a project is completed by a student under the supervision of an occupational therapist. The study is primarily descriptive, and includes a pre-post design using qualitative and quantitative data. The results indicate that the objectives of the study were achieved. Both supervisors and students expressed positive views about the placements. Students also identified changes that could improve the placements. Second- and third-year students gave similar ratings about aspects of the learning experiences during the project placements. The small cohort of third-year students and the low response rate from supervisors limited results. These project placements have shown an applicable model for students in earlier years of the course instead of the usual practice of non-traditional fieldwork being focused on final-year students. The project placements described are presented as one more potential fieldwork model in the range currently offered by curricula worldwide. Future research needs to concentrate on the longitudinal impact of these placements on the developing practice and attitudes of occupational therapy students.

Medical student attitudes toward the doctor-patient relationship

Medical educators have emphasized the importance of teaching patient-centred care. To describe and quantify the attitudes of medical students towards patient-centred care and to examine: (a) the differences in these attitudes between students in early and later years of medical school; and (b) factors associated with patient-centred attitudes. We surveyed 673 students in the first, third, and fourth years of medical school. Our survey utilized the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS), a validated instrument designed to measure individual preferences towards various aspects of the doctor-patient relationship. Total PPOS scores can range from patient-centred (egalitarian, whole person oriented) to disease- or doctor-centred (paternalistic, less attuned to psychosocial issues). Additional demographic data including gender, age, ethnicity, undergraduate coursework, family medical background and specialty choice were collected from the fourth year class. A total of 510 students (76%) completed data collection. Female gender (P < 0.001) and earlier year of medical school (P = 0.03) were significantly associated with patient-centred attitudes. Among fourth year students (n = 89), characteristics associated with more patient-centred attitudes included female gender, European-American ethnicity, and primary-care career choice (P < 0.05 for each comparison). Despite emphasis on the need for curricula that foster patient-centred attitudes among medical students, our data suggest that students in later years of medical school have attitudes that are more doctor-centred or paternalistic compared to students in earlier years. Given the emphasis placed on patient satisfaction and patient-centred care in the current medical environment, our results warrant further research and dialogue to explore the dynamics in medical education that may foster or inhibit student attitudes toward patient-centred care.