The academic half-day (AHD) appears to have become widespread in Canadian neurology residency programs, but there is little published information about the structure, content, or impact of the AHD.
A written questionnaire was sent to the directors of all active Canadian adult and child neurology residency programs.
All 21 program directors responded. An AHD was operating in 15/15 adult and 5/6 child neurology programs. The AHD typically lasts three hours, and occurs weekly, 10 months per year. Most of the weekly sessions are lectures or seminars, usually led by clinicians, with about 90% resident attendance. Course-like features (required textbook, examinations) are present in many AHDs. There is a wide range of topics, from disease pathophysiology to practice management, with considerable variation between programs.
Almost all Canadian neurology programs now have an AHD. Academic half-days are broadly similar in content and format across the country, and residents now spend a substantial portion of their training attending the AHD. The impact of the AHD on how residency programs are organized, and on the learning, clinical work, and professional development of residents merits further study.
To evaluate and compare the preferences and attitudes of Ontario ophthalmologists and ophthalmology residents toward screencasting as an educational tool with potential use for continuing medical education (CME) events.
Cross-sectional study.
Eighty of 256 participants completed the survey.
The surveys were sent to participants by email, with follow-up via telephone. Study participants were urban and rural Ontario ophthalmologists, registered with the Canadian Ophthalmological Society, and University of Toronto ophthalmology residents. Pre-recorded online presentations-screencasts-were used as the main intervention. Online surveys were used to measure multiple variables evaluating the attitudes of the participants toward screencasting. This data was then used for further quantitative and qualitative analysis.
Over 95% of participants replied favourably to the introduction and future utilization of screencasting for educational purposes. Rural ophthalmologists were the most enthusiastic about future events. Practising in rural Ontario was associated with a higher interest in live broadcasts than practising in urban centres (p
The authors conducted a nine-item mail questionnaire of the 16 Canadian family medicine teaching programme directors to determine the accessibility and operation of palliative care education for their respective family medicine residents. All 16 faculties of medicine responded (100%). The survey revealed that while all universities offer elective time in palliative care only five out of 16 (31%) have a mandatory rotation. The median durations of the mandatory and elective rotations are limited to two and three-and-a-half weeks, respectively. The majority of the universities offer formal lectures in palliative care (12/16, 75%) and educational reading material (13/16, 81%), with the main format in 14/16 (87%) of the sites being case-based learning. The two most common sites for teaching to occur for the residents are the community/outpatient environment and an acute palliative care unit. Fifty-six per cent (9/16) of the universities have designated faculty positions for palliative medicine with a median number of two positions per site. Only one centre offers a specific palliative medicine examination during the rotation. Feedback from the residents regarding their respective palliative medicine programmes were positive overall. Findings from our survey indicate an ongoing need for improved education in palliative medicine at the postgraduate level.
This is an intervention-study discussing the long-term effects of a 3-day "Train the trainers course" (TTC). In the intervention (I) group 98.4% of doctors participated in a TTC, both specialists and trainees. Knowledge about teaching skills increased in the I group by 25% after the TTC; a result which was sustained at six months. Teaching behaviour was significantly changed as the use of feedback and supervision had increased from a score of 4 to 6 (max. score = 9).
A 3-day residential TTC has a significant impact on knowledge gain concerning teaching skills, teaching behaviour and clinical learning culture after six months.
Interprofessional competence can be defined as knowledge and understanding of their own and the other team members' professional roles, comprehension of communication and teamwork and collaboration in taking care of patients.
To evaluate whether students perceived that they had achieved interprofessional competence after participating in clinical teamwork training.
Six hundred and sixteen students from four undergraduate educational programs-medicine, nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy-participated in an interprofessional course at a clinical education ward. The students filled out pre and post questionnaires (96% response rate).
All student groups increased their perceived interprofessional competence. Occupational therapy and medical students had the greatest achievements. All student groups perceived improved knowledge of the other three professions' work (p = 0.000000) and assessed that the course had contributed to the understanding of the importance of communication and teamwork to patient care (effect size 1.0; p = 0.00002). The medical students had the greatest gain (p = 0.00093). All student groups perceived that the clarity of their own professional role had increased significantly (p = 0.00003). Occupational therapy students had the greatest gain (p = 0.000014).
Active patient based learning by working together in a real ward context seemed to be an effective means to increase collaborative and professional competence.
A reproduction of a work of art by the Swedish artist Lena Cronquist was introduced into clinical practice in student nurse education. Student nurses (n = 366) in a first semester course served as the study population, and the study was undertaken at two university colleges of health sciences in Sweden. The students studied the painting from the point of view of a situation that depicted an elderly woman in a sickbed. The study findings implied a valuable learning situation in which the students perceived aging in a sensitive and nuanced manner.
The purpose of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is to make the best possible summary of the evidence regarding specific health interventions in order to influence health care and policy decisions. The need for decision makers to find relevant HTA data when it is needed is a barrier to its usefulness. These barriers are highest in rural areas and amongst isolated practitioners.
A multidisciplinary team developed an interactive case-based instructional strategy on the topic of chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) management using clinical evidence derived by HTA. The evidence for each of 18 CNCP interventions was distilled into single-sheet summaries. Clinicians and HTA specialists ('Ambassadors') conducted 11 two-hour interactive sessions on CNCP in eight of Alberta's nine health regions. Pre- and post-session evaluations were conducted.
The sessions were attended by 130 individuals representing 14 health and administrative disciplines. The ambassador model was well received. The use of content experts as ambassadors was highly rated. The educational strategy was judged to be effective. Awareness of the best evidence in CNCP management was increased. Although some participants reported practice changes as a result of the workshops, the program was not designed to measure changes in patient outcome.
The ambassador program was successful in increasing awareness of the best evidence in CNCP management, and positively influenced treatment decisions. Its teaching methods were felt to be unique and innovative by participants. Its methods could be applied to other clinical content areas in order to increase the uptake of the results of HTA.
Notes
Cites: J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2002 Fall;22(4):214-2112613056
Cites: J Health Soc Policy. 2002;15(3-4):23-3712705462
[Algorithm for the morphological diagnosis of tumors and practical tasks for students in acquining tumor diagnostic skills in a pathological anatomy course]
Although clinical bioethics teaching (CBT) is not a required component of the essential curriculum for pediatric surgery residency, ethical considerations often accompany surgical decision making for infants and children. This study was designed to quantitate CBT during pediatric surgery residency (PSR) and to determine preferences about formal bioethics instruction.
An 80-item questionnaire was mailed to 140 graduates of accredited PSR in the United States and Canada. Questions included demographic data, experience in CBT during and after PSR, preferred topics and teaching methods, and self-assessed and objective competency in bioethics.
The response rate was 78% (n = 109); 72% completed PSR between 1990 and 1995 (mean, 1991). Formal CBT within the curriculum of PSR was reported by 9% of respondents; lecture and consultation with an ethicist were the most frequent teaching methods. Informal CBT was noted by 88% of pediatric surgeons; observation of patient cases with ethical dilemmas was the primary mode of instruction. Quality of life, withholding/withdrawal of care, informed consent, child abuse, and economics ranked highest for most important CBT topics, while euthanasia, clinical research trials, and cultural diversity were given low priority. The preferred teaching methods were case-based discussions and consultation with an ethicist. Although 97% favored additional CBT in all postgraduate training, respondents who completed advanced study in medical ethics (P
E-learning is used by most medical students almost daily and several studies have shown e-learning to improve learning outcome in small-scale interventions. However, few studies have explored the effects of e-learning in immunology.
To study the effect of an e-learning package in immunology on learning outcomes in a written integrated examination and to examine student satisfaction with the e-learning package.
All second-year students at a Norwegian medical school were offered an animated e-learning package in basic immunology as a supplement to the regular teaching. Each student's log-on-time was recorded and linked with the student's score on multiple choice questions included in an integrated end-of-the-year written examination. Student satisfaction was assessed through a questionnaire.
The intermediate-range students (interquartile range) on average scored 3.6% better on the immunology part of the examination per hour they had used the e-learning package (p = 0.0046) and log-on-time explained 17% of the variance in immunology score. The best and the less skilled students' examination outcomes were not affected by the e-learning. The e-learning was well appreciated among the students.
Use of an e-learning package in immunology in addition to regular teaching improved learning outcomes for intermediate-range students.
