Undergraduate Training Programs Research Articles

Understanding medical students' interests in family medicine in Vietnam: A qualitative study.

Family medicine has recently been introduced into undergraduate training programs after more than 10years of only being available for postgraduate doctors in Vietnam. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of sixth-year medical students towards family medicine and the factors that influence their career choice for - or against - family medicine. The authors used a qualitative approach with a criterion sampling technique, including 36 participants in eight interviews and four focus group discussions, with thematical analysis. Most students could explain well what they had learned about family medicine but showed little interest in it. Only a few of the interviewees indicated they would choose a career in family medicine. The following factors influenced their career choice: valuing continuing care, the doctor-patient relationship and work-life balance; family medicine clinical rotation and teachers' roles; and related health policies offering a clear practice pathway and patient allocation to capable family doctors. The students' perceptions of family medicine were positive, but their interests in and intention to pursue a career in family medicine were still low after a clinical rotation. The authors concluded that the family medicine rotation should be maintained, family medicine should become more prominent in more components of the medical curriculum, and health policies to support and encourage becoming a family doctor are necessary.

Comments: Development of an early career academic supervisor in Statistics - a discussion on a guiding rubric

This discussant paper provides commentary on the “Development of an early career academic supervisor in Statistics - A discussion on a guiding rubric”. Later in this discussant paper, we refer to the original work as the “discussion paper”. Our perspective is that of academic actuaries involved in undergraduate and postgraduate professional training programmes. We commend the authors on a well researched and carefully argued paper, and fully support the renewed attention that has been drawn to the crisis in statistics in South Africa. Actuarial and financial risk management programmes rely heavily on strong teaching capabilities in mathematical statistics. The local crisis in statistics could therefore also be regarded as a crisis for actuarial science and other professional statistics-based programmes, such as the qualifications offered by the Centre for Business Mathematics and Informatics (BMI) at the North-West University (NWU).

Evaluation of assessment marks in the clinical years of an undergraduate medical training programme: Where are we and how can we improve?

Background. In high-stakes assessments, the accuracy and consistency of the decision to pass or fail a student is as important as the reliability of the assessment. Objective. To evaluate the reliability of results of high-stakes assessments in the clinical phase of the undergraduate medical programme at the University of the Free State, as a step to make recommendations for improving quality assessment. Methods. A cohort analytical study design was used. The final, end-of-block marks and the end-of-year assessment marks of both fourth-year and final-year medical students over 3 years were compared for decision reliability, test-retest reliability, stability and reproducibility. Results. 1 380 marks in 26 assessments were evaluated. The G-index of agreement for decision reliability ranged from 0.86 to 0.98. In 88.9% of assessments, the test-retest correlation coefficient was <0.7. Mean marks for end-of-block and end-of-year assessments were similar. However, the standard deviations of differences between end-of-block and end-of-year assessment marks were high. Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) yielded good reliability results. Conclusion. The reliability of pass/fail outcome decisions was good. The test reliability, as well as stability and reproducibility of individual student marks, could not be accurately replicated. The use of MCQs and OSCEs are practical examples of where the number of assessments can be increased to improve reliability. In order to increase the number of assessments and to reduce the stress of high-stake assessments, more workplace-based assessment with observed clinical cases is recommended.

Mentorship Program Content Ratings: Advancing Diversity in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease Research and Careers

Dignity and well-being are central values in care of older people living in residential care facilities. In addition, care of older people living in residential care facilities should be person-centred. Dignity and well-being can according to the person-centred practice framework be interpreted as person-centred outcomes. Despite this older people living in residential care facilities have described that they not fully experience dignity and well-being and improvements are needed. To improve care it is important to know what to target. The aim of this qualitative study was therefore to describe residents’ perceptions and experiences of what is needed to live with dignity and a sense of well-being. Interviews were carried out with older people living at residential care facilities (n=20). Inductive content analysis was used to analyse data and one overarching theme and three categories emerged. The result revealed the importance of, and that staff and the care environment supported, to manage daily life by oneself, to be shown respect and to belong to a social context. For older people to experience the person-centred outcomes dignity and well-being managers at residential care facilities need to develop and support the staff prerequisites related to knowledge, skills and attitudes and to improve the care environment. According to the person-centred practice framework, the staff prerequisites and the care environment must be taken into account to achieve the person-centred outcomes dignity and well-being.

Rural Population and COVID-19: A Model for Assessing the Economic Effects of Drop-Out in Higher Education

Higher education is one of the ways to overcome social inequalities in rural areas in developing countries. This has led states to develop public policies aimed at access, retention and timely graduation of students in those sectors, yet the high drop-out rates among the rural student population, which were catalysed by COVID-19, prevent the intrinsic and extrinsic benefits of obtaining a higher education degree from materialising. Thus, the study of the phenomenon of dropout before and after the pandemic has not sufficiently addressed the economic issues raised by this phenomenon for the different actors at the educational level. The purpose of this paper is to model the economic effects of rural student dropout at the higher education level for students and families, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the State, based on public policies for access to higher education, in the pandemic and post-pandemic scenario. In order to delimit the operationalisation of the proposed model, a set of undergraduate training programmes in Colombia was taken as a reference. System dynamics was used as the main modelling technique. The model was based on data from the 20 training programmes with the highest number of students enrolled in rural areas for the year 2019, by running three computational simulations. The results showed the description of the dynamic model and the financial effects of dropout for the actors of the educational level with the current policies of access to higher education, the scenario in which COVID-19 would not have occurred and the consolidation of the public policy of tuition fee exemption in public HEIs as a result of the pandemic. It was concluded that the model developed is very useful for the valuation of these economic effects and for decision-making on policies to be implemented, given that the costs of dropout are characterised by high costs for students and their families as well as for HEIs, and where it was determined that current policies are inefficient in preventing and mitigating dropout.

Facilitators and Barriers to Student Learning and Impact of an Undergraduate Clinical Posting in Psychiatry: A Thematic Analysis.

Background:There is an absence of information on empirical evaluation of undergraduate psychiatry training programs in India. We aimed to evaluate a clinical posting in psychiatry for undergraduate medical students.Methods:We employed levels one and two of Kirkpatrick’s four-level program evaluation model. The qualitative study used written feedback that was collected using a semistructured questionnaire. For quantitative metrics, we used end-of-posting assessment scores and frequencies of standard comments provided by examiners on case-based discussions with students to evaluate their clinical skills.Results:We obtained written feedback from 40 female and 19 male fifth-semester students. We identified facilitators (patient interaction, outpatient department observation and teaching, demonstration of signs, case presentation and discussion, evening posting, observation of clinical work, use of anecdotes while teaching, and lectures by senior faculty) and barriers (organizational issues related to evening posting and disinterest in didactic teaching) to the students learning psychiatry, and the perceived impact of the posting for the students (changed attitudes, knowledge, self-efficacy, and skills acquired). The mean total score on case-based discussion, assigned to 22 groups of students, was 3.86 out of 5.Conclusion:We described the impact of the posting and identified unique facilitators and barriers to students’ learning in psychiatry. These findings will inform the choice of teaching-learning methods in the context of the new Competency-Based undergraduate Medical Education (CBME) curriculum.

Tailoring Recruitment and Outreach Strategies for Underrepresented Students in Public Health Pipeline Programs

Studies have shown that racial and ethnic minority health professionals are more likely than those in the majority to work in predominantly underserved, largely minority communities. Increasing the pool of underrepresented racial and ethnic professionals could help reduce health disparities. Summer programs giving minority students public health training and experiences can increase the number who enter the health professions. This article describes recruitment strategies for obtaining a diverse pool of applicants for such a program as part of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded multisite undergraduate training program intended to increase the diversity of the public health workforce. The recruitment strategies used included institutional linkages, collaborative partnerships, and interpersonal contacts. No one strategy was more effective; however, Hispanic/Latinas were more likely to be recruited through institutional linkages, but less likely to be recruited through interpersonal contacts than other female groups. Understanding successful recruitment strategies to achieve a diverse application pool for public health training programs is vital to achieve health equity.

The Effects of Self-regulated Learning Strategies on Computer Programming Achievement in Teacher Education

This study investigates the effects of student use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies on their computer programming achievement. Ninety-six students from undergraduate teacher training programmes offered by a Hong Kong university voluntarily participated in the study. Sixty-six of them were first-year students enrolling on an introductory Java programming course, while 30 were second-year students enrolling on an advanced Java programming course. The SRL strategies adopted by participants were measured by the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and were exemplified from the reflective writing of their electronic portfolios. Their achievement in computer programming was evaluated using continuous and end of course assessments. The findings of this study suggest that higher-order cognitive strategies (i.e. elaboration, organization, critical thinking), metacognitive control strategies (i.e. self-regulation) and resource management strategies (i.e. time and study environment management, help seeking) are likely to facilitate a prolonged achievement of computer programming for both novices and non-novices. They can provide insights into designing adequate SRL strategy training to support student learning in computer programming.

Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine Special Statement: Commitment to excellence in obstetrical care, research, and education for people with diverse sexual and gender identities

The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine seeks to ensure excellence in obstetrical outcomes for all people who desire or experience pregnancy, including people with diverse sexual and gender identities. The Society commits to the use of practices in clinical and research settings that affirm the sexual and gender identities of all people, encourages the development of undergraduate and graduate medical education curricula and training programs that address diverse pathways to pregnancy and support clinicians with diverse sexual and gender identities, and promotes the use of inclusive language that is accurate and, when possible, specific.

Modeling global transfusion medicine education.

Modeling global transfusion medicine education.

Teaching Minimally Invasive Interventions in Paediatric Dentistry: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Dental Schools in Iran

BackgroundDental caries is a significant public health problem in Iran. Teaching minimally invasive interventions in paediatric dentistry may facilitate the provision of treatment for untreated dental caries in children. We evaluated the teaching of such interventions in both undergraduate dental curriculum and Paediatric Dentistry Specialty Training Programme (PDSTP) in Iran.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey. Participants in this study were the directors of 40 undergraduate programmes and 15 PDSTPs in all Iranian dental schools (response rate = 100%). Descriptive statistics were reported.ResultsThe most commonly taught methods were preventive fissure sealant and preventive resin restoration (PRR), which were taught ‘both didactically and clinically’ in all undergraduate dental programmes. The least commonly taught methods were silver diamine fluoride (SDF), the Hall technique and resin infiltration, which were taught ‘both didactically and clinically’ in less than 5% of dental schools. The same three methods were the least commonly approaches taught in PDSTP, further, they were less often perceived to be ‘essential’.ConclusionsThere was a notable variation in the teaching of the management of dental caries in Iran’s dental education. Some minimally invasive approaches including SDF, the Hall technique and resin infiltration are not being commonly taught in Iranian dental schools despite the evidence base for these techniques.

Priming the Palliative Psychology Pipeline: Development and Evaluation of an Undergraduate Clinical Research Training Program.

Psychology adds value to palliative care research and practice, but palliative psychology training programs are underdeveloped, particularly prior to advanced graduate and post-doctoral training. The investigation aimed to examine the feasibility of developing an undergraduate clinical research training program focused on the application of palliative psychology to cancer care. Analyses described and examined predictors of trainee performance and post-graduate outcomes. Retrospective analyses of administrative data tracking trainee characteristics (degree programs and tracks, qualifications, and demographics), research trainee performance (satisfactory participation, training duration, scientific output, supervisor ratings, and overall performance), and post-graduate degree programs. The population included all undergraduate trainees in a cancer-focused palliative psychology research lab from inception in 2013 through 2020 at a US research-intensive university. Trainees (N = 25) typically majored in psychology (72.0%) or neuroscience (28.0%), often with second majors. The average participation in the lab was 3.4 semesters. Overall, 92.0% of trainees earned a conference abstract, 56.0% earned a publication, and 72.0% went on to a post-graduate degree program, most commonly psychology PhD, MD, or nursing programs. Trainees enrolling in psychology PhD programs were more likely than other trainees to have been on the pre-psychology PhD track (P < .001) and had higher overall research performance (P = .029), including higher supervisor ratings (P = .008) and higher scientific output (P = .019). This demonstration study provides evidence for the feasibility and beneficial impact of an undergraduate palliative psychology clinical research training program as an early component of cancer educational training. Findings support calls for the development and evaluation of novel palliative training programs worldwide.

Pedestrian Detection Method Based on Deep Convolution Neural Network

Compared with the traditional pedestrian detection technology, the pedestrian detection technology based on deep learning has achieved overwhelming advantages. However, due to the large scale of deep convolution network, the demand for dedicated processor limits the popularization of pedestrian detection system. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a deep convolution network model with moderate network scale, which improves the universality of the detection model on the premise of ensuring the detection accuracy. Based on the low dimensional shallow convolution neural network, the optimal network structure is found from three aspects of network layer number, sensor field size and characteristic graph, and the final network parameters are determined by guiding experimental evaluation. The pedestrian image to be detected is input into the above network model, and the pedestrian detection result is obtained. The pedestrian detection results on several popular pedestrian databases such as Daimler, MIT and INRIA show that the network structure designed in this paper not only has moderate network size, but also has good detection performance. Cross experiments also verify the robustness and generalization of the algorithm. The work of this article is funded by the undergraduate training program for innovation and entrepreneurship (202010373050, 202010373051, 202010373046).

ACQUIRING ESP TEACHER COMPETENCE THROUGH THEORY AND PRACTICE

The emergence of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), which is closely linked to particular professions, requires qualified language teachers. Despite the growing demand for courses in ESP in Romania, and the eagerness of universities and private institutions to include these courses in their curricula, insufficient attention has been given to teaching training in this domain. In the absence of under-graduate ESP teacher training programmes, ESP is taught by General English graduates who basically learn as they go. The aim of this paper is to map the territory, that is, to outline the main coordinates on which a framework of ESP teacher training can be developed in Romania. These coordinates refer to the particularities of teaching ESP and to the subsequent teaching practice. The research method consists in combining theoretical considerations with practical advice and suggestions for pre-service teachers.

Comparing Australian health worker and student attitudes and concerns about providing care to people living with hepatitis B.

Hepatitis B (HBV) is a major public health issue with over 250 million people chronically infected worldwide. In Australia, prevalence is higher among migrant communities and these groups may be reticent to attend health care services due to concerns about experiencing stigma and discrimination. The way health workers perceive their clients, particularly those of migrant backgrounds, may influence the way they treat these clients and the quality of care provided. This study investigated and compared the attitudes and concerns health workers and health students have towards working with clients living with HBV. Health workers (n=551) and students (n=199) completed an online survey which investigated attitudes towards people living with HBV, comfort with providing care for these clients and concerns they have about working with them. Health students expressed less comfort (U=47611, z=-2.73, P=.006) and reported more concerns about working with people with HBV than qualified health workers (U=61611.50, z=2.64, P=.008). Students' concerns were centred around their own ability to provide care rather than issues related to clients. There were no differences in overall attitudes towards people living with HBV between health workers and students. To address concerns that health workers and students may have in working with people living with HBV, particularly those from migrant communities, and to ensure that health workers feel comfortable and confident, HBV workforce development should be included in undergraduate and postgraduate training programmes as well as in continuing professional education. SO WHAT?: This will assist the health workforce to develop competency in the treatment of people living with HBV, with the ultimate aim of providing best quality, non-judgemental care to all people living with HBV.

Toward Conceptualizing Student Outcomes in Undergraduate Field Programs and Employer Expectations for Field Positions

AbstractA key outcome of an effective undergraduate experience is for students to gain disciplinary knowledge and develop a range of skills and habits of mind that prepare them for career success. In 2018, the Ecological Society of America (ESA) entered into an agreement with the US Geological Survey (USGS) to recruit students and recent graduates and place them into field ecology/biology internship positions at research sites across the United States. This paper focuses on field research jobs and presents a literature review to gain an understanding of workforce development issues and preliminary perspectives on critical skills in which employers might be interested. This paper is based on a case study of one employer (USGS) and investigates the potential alignment between employer expectations, field training, and perceived student outcomes. To conceptualize new graduates’ readiness and employer expectations, we identified a set of skill categories sought by field research sites. We did this by analyzing the job descriptions available through the 2019 ESA/USGS Cooperative Summer Internship Program and prior literature. These categories were incorporated into a new post‐internship student survey that was used to collect data from students. We found a potential gap in some transferable skills in both fieldwork and office work expected by employers and those offered by undergraduate field training programs. This could be explored in future studies involving a more extensive set of employers who seek to hire students with field ecology/biology skills.

Clinical Radiology Case Presentation: Do's and Don'ts.

Clinical case presentation is part of daily routine for doctors to communicate with each other to facilitate learning, and ultimately patient management. Hence, the art of good clinical case presentation is a skill that needs to be mastered. Case presentations are a part of most undergraduate and postgraduate training programs aimed at nurturing oratory and presentation design skills. This article is an attempt at providing a trainee in radiology a guideline to good case presentation skills.

Situating presence within extended reality for teacher training: Validation of the extended Reality Presence Scale (XRPS) in preservice teacher use of immersive 360 video

AbstractThe use of video is commonplace for professional preparation in education and other fields. Research has provided evidence that the use of video in these contexts can lead to increased noticing and reflection. However, educators now have access to evolving forms of video such as 360 video. The purpose of this study was to adapt and validate an instrument for assessing immersive 360 video use in an undergraduate preservice teacher university training program. Data provided evidence of the validity of the Extended Reality Presence Scale (XRPS) for 360 video research in preservice teacher professional development. Moreover, evidence from the study suggests that those with higher feelings of presence are less likely to jump around (or twitch) while watching 360 videos. The main implications are that: a) the XRPS is a validated and reliable instrument and b) more research is needed to examine the presence and practices for in‐service and preservice teachers while watching 360 video. Practitioners notesWhat is already known about this topic? Instructional videos are widely used in preservice teacher training. 360 videos show promise for improving preservice teacher professional development in terms of immersion and presence. What this paper adds? An instrument for assessing 360 video teacher presence is presented (XRPS), targeting a current gap in the literature. Data provided evidence of the validity of the tool for future 360 video research and integration. Implications for practice and/or policy Practitioners can use XRPS for assessing preservice teachers’ experiences in immersive environments and evaluating 360 videos. Higher feelings of presence are associated with more focused viewpoints. Therefore, practitioners should support and facilitate this watching behavior. Higher scores of presence are associated with a perceived sense of agency and emotional attachment. Therefore, 360 videos should include design elements promoting these feelings.

The process of evaluating students based on university program learning outcomes

As higher education tends to witness drastic changes, the quality of output is highly valued, which demands continuous innovation in the teaching process, especially on assessing students’ learning outcomes from the training program’s requirements. The paper outlines the relationship between student assessment and other components in the teaching process, performance indicator (PI) for the program learning outcomes, which refers to teaching, testing and assessment activities. At the same time, the article presents the process of setting up and evaluating the achievements of students through the method of PI evaluation based on the program’s learning outcomes. The current situation is that the learning outcomes of undergraduate training programs in various universities in the country tend to be developed in a general and highly integrated manner, thus widening the gap between the learning outcomes’ requirements and the actual teaching, testing, and evaluation activities of the module/ subject.

Escherichia coli K1 ibeA-mediated virulence enhances biofilm-associated adhesion to human brain microvascular endothelial cells

Background: Previous studies have confirmed that ibeA is a key virulence gene of E.coli K1 which plays an important role in the pathogenesis of E.coli K1. The adhesion of E.coli K1 to human brain microvascular endothelial cells is one of the key issues in the pathogenesis of bacterial neonatal meningitis. Biofilm is associated with bacterial adhesion. In this study, the biofilm formation was observed in the IbeA gene deletion mutant, confirming that IbeA is involved in biofilm formation. Methods and materials: The bacteria were divided into four groups: (1) DH5α, (2) E. coli K1, the IbeA knockout strain and the IbeA complemented strain. The biofilm formation was detected by crystal violet staining. The adhesion was measured specifically due to IbeA by comparing the adhesive properties of the IbeA complemented strain to those of the IbeA knockout mutant strain. Results: The formation of biofilm in the wildtype E. coli K1 group was significantly higher than that in the knockout group and in the negative group (p < 0.05). The biofilm formation of the IbeA complemented group was significantly higher than that in IbeA knockout group (p < 0.05). Besides, the adhesion of E. coli K1 was significantly higher than that in the knockout group and the negative group (p < 0.05). The adhesion rate of the IbeA complemented group was significantly higher than that of the IbeA knockout group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The biofilm formation of E. coli K1 strain is induced by ibeA which is a key virulence gene in the pathogenesis, and ibeA-mediated virulence enhances biofilm-associated adhesion to human brain microvascular endothelial cells in vitro. (Acknowledgements: *Corresponding author: Hong Cao, The study was supported by Undergraduate Training Program for Innovation and Entrepreneurship of SMU, China, No. 201912121275 and Scientific Research Enlightenment Plan of SMU, China,2019)