Problem-Based Learning: Cervical Adenocarcinoma Three-Session Case for First-Year Medical Students-Patient Minnie Pauls.
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ABSTRACT: Introduction
Cervical adenocarcinoma represents a critical health problem in many underserved regions of the world and parts of the U.S. This module provides learning opportunities in the areas of female anatomy, physiology, histology, and pathology. This includes diagnosis by ultrasound and CT/PET scan, detailed staging and treatment of the cancer by various criteria, and future prevention by vaccination and screening.Methods
Authors include a fourth-year medical student and a seasoned PBL facilitator with a basic science interest in cancer. In this problem-based learning module (PBL), a group of first-year medical students review the material that is released online for each of three weekly 90-minute sessions. Key learning issues are identified, researched out-of-class, and discussed at the beginning of the subsequent session. A differential diagnosis is weighed and the module culminates with a concept map drawn by students to integrate all relevant aspects and mechanisms of the case.Results
The module was implemented twice with a small group of seven students. Students learned to correlate relevant biochemical mechanisms, histological, and anatomical features with the clinical signs and symptoms, to diagnose and suggest treatment options. The module was well-liked, and revised for publication by rebalancing the material based on specific student feedback.Discussion
The PBL small-group format provides a unique opportunity over both semesters for first-year medical students to study clinical cases in a student-directed fashion and develop professional skills at various levels. Potential pitfalls lie in the online format, as this requires clear rules on computer usage and data sharing.
SUBMITTER: Suter B
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6342052 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:IntroductionNegative physician attitudes toward people with disabilities create barriers to health care for these individuals. Barriers can include withholding of standard medical and preventive care, provision of inferior treatment, and patient mistrust of the health care system. Thus, preparing medical students to care for people with disabilities is especially important. Educating health care providers early in their careers can shape their interactions while their approach to patients is still deliberate.MethodsWe developed an interactive introductory session for first- and second-year medical students on how to approach individuals with observable disability in clinical settings. In the session, we explored-through a combination of lecture, discussion, and patient perspective-how negative physician behavior can create health care barriers, as well as proposed a framework for approaching patients with disability. We presented this session in two formats: (a) a slide deck with instructions that a presenter can use to deliver the session and (b) a stand-alone video introduction with reflective questions.ResultsThe session was evaluated by 151 first-year medical students, with 79% reporting either somewhat or much more comfort approaching individuals with disability following the session.DiscussionThe integration of patient and physician perspectives, as well as the use of reflective questions, provides the opportunity for students to actively explore reasons for provider discomfort with disability and delineate clinical setting strategies to approach patients with disability.
| S-EPMC7331955 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In medical and healthcare-related education, case-based learning (CBL) is a teaching strategy that uses clinical cases to engage students in active learning using course concepts to solve important problems. Here we describe the design and implementation of a CBL module to teach first year medical students about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acute retroviral syndrome, clinical progression to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, HIV diagnostics, assays used to assess stage of disease and response to antiretroviral treatment, and highly active antiretroviral therapy. A team of basic science and clinical faculty in the disciplines of microbiology, immunology, infection prevention and control, clinical medicine, pharmacology, and medical ethics collaboratively designed the CBL module. The results of a questionnaire indicated that the students found the CBL case interesting, engaging, and a useful educational strategy for linking basic science concepts to important clinical problems. In our experience, the CBL promoted student synthesis of basic science concepts across disciplines and engaged learners in the application of basic science knowledge to address significant real-world clinical problems.
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| S-EPMC1534040 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ProblemThe World Health Organization calls on all with quality medical information to share it with the public and combat health misinformation; however, U.S. medical schools do not currently teach students effective communication with lay audiences about health. Most physicians have inadequate training in mass communication strategies.ApproachIn August 2018, a novel 90-minute class at the University of Minnesota Medical School introduced fourth-year medical students to basic skills for communicating with lay audiences through mass media. Instructors were physicians with experience interacting with the general public via radio, op-ed articles, social media, print media, television, and community and legislative advocacy. After a 20-minute lecture and sharing of instructors' personal experiences, students completed two 30-minute small-group activities. They identified communications objectives and talking points for a health topic, drafting these as Tweets or an op-ed article outline, then presented talking points in a mock press conference with their peers, practicing skills just learned. Pre- and postsurveys documented students' previous engagement and comfort with future engagement with mass media messaging.OutcomesOver 1 week, 142 students participated in 6 separate classes, and 127 completed both pre- and postsurveys. Before the course, only 6% (7/127) of students had comfortably engaged with social media and 14% (18/127) had engaged with traditional media in their professional roles. After the course, students self-reported an increase in their comfort, perceived ability, and likelihood of using specific communications skills to advocate for their patients (all P < .001).Next stepsThe course will be expanded into a 5-session thread for third- and fourth-year medical students spread over 2 years. This thread will include meeting physicians who engage with lay audiences, identifying best practices for mass health communication, identifying bias and misinformation, "dos and don'ts" of social media, and communication skills for legislative advocacy.
| S-EPMC9170836 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Medical students need more exposure to and a greater understanding of their role in public health throughout their training, which may influence more of them to pursue careers in public health or change how they practice medicine in the future. A novel colorectal cancer education session was created for first year medical students to attempt to increase public health interest, improve colorectal cancer knowledge and discuss barriers to colorectal cancer screening. We constructed a novel integrated interactive peer led colorectal cancer educational session of panelists with a wide range of experiences in colorectal cancer and colorectal cancer screening. The session involved a didactic component, case presentation, and group exercises followed by assembly discussion. We surveyed first-year medical students over two consecutive years to assess their interest in public health, knowledge of colorectal cancer, and perceptions of barriers to colorectal cancer screening before and after the educational session. We also evaluated student satisfaction with the session. We compared the pre- and post-survey results to assess for changes in interest, knowledge and perceptions. 74.63% of students in 2018 and 67.7% in 2019 evaluated the session as excellent or good, with knowledge regarding colorectal cancer screening markedly increased after the educational session. Students reported knowledge and access to healthcare among the biggest patient barriers to colorectal cancer screening. Interest in public health increased by 7.5% and 5.6% in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The implementation of this interactive educational peer led exercise can increase interest in public health, improve knowledge of colorectal cancer prevention and facilitate discussions of colorectal cancer screening barriers. We hope to encourage other programs to adopt this preliminary model.
| S-EPMC8457545 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Students commencing their medical training arrive with different educational backgrounds and a diverse range of learning experiences. Consequently, students would have developed preferred approaches to acquiring and processing information or learning style preferences. Understanding first-year students' learning style preferences is important to success in learning. However, little is understood about how learning styles impact learning and performance across different subjects within the medical curriculum. Greater understanding of the relationship between students' learning style preferences and academic performance in specific medical subjects would be valuable.This cross-sectional study examined the learning style preferences of first-year medical students and how they differ across gender. This research also analyzed the effect of learning styles on academic performance across different subjects within a medical education program in a Central Asian university. A total of 52 students (57.7% females) from two batches of first-year medical school completed the Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire, which measures four dimensions of learning styles: sensing-intuitive; visual-verbal; active-reflective; sequential-global.First-year medical students reported preferences for visual (80.8%) and sequential (60.5%) learning styles, suggesting that these students preferred to learn through demonstrations and diagrams and in a linear and sequential way. Our results indicate that male medical students have higher preference for visual learning style over verbal, while females seemed to have a higher preference for sequential learning style over global. Significant associations were found between sensing-intuitive learning styles and performance in Genetics [β = -0.46, B = -0.44, p < 0.01] and Anatomy [β = -0.41, B = -0.61, p < 0.05] and between sequential-global styles and performance in Genetics [β = 0.36, B = 0.43, p < 0.05]. More specifically, sensing learners were more likely to perform better than intuitive learners in the two subjects and global learners were more likely to perform better than sequential learners in Genetics.This knowledge will be helpful to individual students to improve their performance in these subjects by adopting new sensing learning techniques. Instructors can also benefit by modifying and adapting more appropriate teaching approaches in these subjects. Future studies to validate this observation will be valuable.
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Project description:IntroductionThe AAMC has recognized the importance of effective teamwork and collaboration. One core Entrustable Professional Activity emphasizes creating a climate of mutual respect and trust and prioritizing team needs over personal needs, which leads to safe, timely, effective, efficient, and equitable patient care. Relationship conflicts, specifically, are associated with decreased productivity, complex information processing, and work satisfaction. Given the prevalence of conflict and its impact on health care workers, the lack of conflict resolution curricula in undergraduate medical education is surprising. We developed a curriculum formally introducing these skills and allowing practice in a simulated environment before students entered residency.MethodsFourth-year medical students completed a conflict resolution exercise in a mandatory transition-to-residency course. Students completed online prework including reflection on teamwork and information on conflict resolution styles, participated in a simulated conflict with a standardized patient acting as a nurse, and afterward completed a self-evaluation with video review by the students' assigned coach and feedback on the session.ResultsWe collected complete responses from 108 students. We evaluated the curriculum for feasibility and acceptability by faculty and students. Most students agreed with faculty on their entrustment and milestone levels. Students found that the session prompted self-reflection and was a good review of conflict resolution. The standardized patient and faculty feedback was found to be the most useful by the students.DiscussionWe successfully implemented a simulated but realistic conflict resolution exercise. Students found the exercise helpful in their preparation for residency.
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Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC11312873 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundMedical students have access to a wide range of learning resources, many of which have been specifically developed for or identified and recommended to them by curriculum developers or teaching staff. There is an expectation that students will access and use these resources to support their self-directed learning. However, medical educators lack detailed and reliable data about which of these resources students use to support their learning and how this use relates to key learning events or activities.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to comprehensively document first-year medical student selection and use of online learning resources to support their bioscience learning within a case-based curriculum and assess these data in relation to our expectations of student learning resource requirements and use.MethodsStudy data were drawn from 2 sources: a survey of student learning resource selection and use (2013 cohort; n=326) and access logs from the medical school learning platform (2012 cohort; n=337). The paper-based survey, which was distributed to all first-year students, was designed to assess the frequency and types of online learning resources accessed by students and included items about their perceptions of the usefulness, quality, and reliability of various resource types and sources. Of 237 surveys returned, 118 complete responses were analyzed (36.2% response rate). Usage logs from the learning platform for an entire semester were processed to provide estimates of first-year student resource use on an individual and cohort-wide basis according to method of access, resource type, and learning event.ResultsAccording to the survey data, students accessed learning resources via the learning platform several times per week on average, slightly more often than they did for resources from other online sources. Google and Wikipedia were the most frequently used nonuniversity sites, while scholarly information sites (eg, online journals and scholarly databases) were accessed relatively infrequently. Students were more likely to select learning resources based on the recommendation of peers than of teaching staff. The overwhelming majority of the approximately 70,000 resources accessed by students via the learning platform were lecture notes, with each accessed an average of 167 times. By comparison, recommended journal articles and (online) textbook chapters were accessed only 49 and 31 times, respectively. The number and type of learning resources accessed by students through the learning platform was highly variable, with a cluster analysis revealing that a quarter of students accessed very few resources in this way.ConclusionsMedical students have easy access to a wide range of quality learning resources, and while some make good use of the learning resources recommended to them, many ignore most and access the remaining ones infrequently. Learning analytics can provide useful measures of student resource access through university learning platforms but fails to account for resources accessed via external online sources or sharing of resources using social media.
| S-EPMC5643842 | biostudies-literature