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A Needs-Based Analysis of Teaching on Vaccinations and COVID-19 in German Medical Schools.

ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for improving public confidence in vaccines. Academic gaps and redundancies on vaccinations must be identified to revise the medical curriculum for up-to-date training of medical students. This cross-sectional survey assessed the status of vaccine-related teaching in general and specific to COVID-19 in medical schools across Germany. A total of 4313 medical students completed a questionnaire comprising items on national learning goals and perceived needs for teaching on vaccinations. Mixed methods were used to analyse data quantitatively for relative frequencies (%) and correlations between teaching items and semesters (Spearman's rho), and qualitatively (content analysis). Our findings showed that 38.92% of the students were dissatisfied with teaching on vaccine-preventable diseases, but the perceived satisfaction increased in later semesters (r = 0.46, p < 0.001). Moreover, 75.84% and 68.15% of the students were dissatisfied with teaching related to vaccine scepticism and vaccine-related communication strategies, respectively. Furthermore, 63.79% reported dissatisfaction with teaching on COVID-19 disease and 72.93% with teaching on COVID-19 vaccines. A total of 79.12% stated they educated others on COVID-19 and its vaccines and 75.14% felt responsible to do so. A majority of the medical students were dissatisfied with teaching on dealing with vaccine scepticism, communication strategies and COVID-19 vaccines. We recommend practice-oriented vaccine education, especially for teaching communication skills to medical students.

SUBMITTER: Baessler F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9228741 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A Needs-Based Analysis of Teaching on Vaccinations and COVID-19 in German Medical Schools.

Baessler Franziska F Zafar Ali A Mengler Katharina K Natus Ricarda Nadine RN Dutt Anne Josephine AJ Kuhlmann Manuel M Çinkaya Emre E Hennes Simon S

Vaccines 20220619 6

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for improving public confidence in vaccines. Academic gaps and redundancies on vaccinations must be identified to revise the medical curriculum for up-to-date training of medical students. This cross-sectional survey assessed the status of vaccine-related teaching in general and specific to COVID-19 in medical schools across Germany. A total of 4313 medical students completed a questionnaire comprising items on national learning goals and perceived needs ...[more]

PMID: 35746584

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Project description:BackgroundWhat subjects UK medical schools teach, what ways they teach subjects, and how much they teach those subjects is unclear. Whether teaching differences matter is a separate, important question. This study provides a detailed picture of timetabled undergraduate teaching activity at 25 UK medical schools, particularly in relation to problem-based learning (PBL).MethodThe Analysis of Teaching of Medical Schools (AToMS) survey used detailed timetables provided by 25 schools with standard 5-year courses. Timetabled teaching events were coded in terms of course year, duration, teaching format, and teaching content. Ten schools used PBL. Teaching times from timetables were validated against two other studies that had assessed GP teaching and lecture, seminar, and tutorial times.ResultsA total of 47,258 timetabled teaching events in the academic year 2014/2015 were analysed, including SSCs (student-selected components) and elective studies. A typical UK medical student receives 3960 timetabled hours of teaching during their 5-year course. There was a clear difference between the initial 2 years which mostly contained basic medical science content and the later 3 years which mostly consisted of clinical teaching, although some clinical teaching occurs in the first 2 years. Medical schools differed in duration, format, and content of teaching. Two main factors underlay most of the variation between schools, Traditional vs PBL teaching and Structured vs Unstructured teaching. A curriculum map comparing medical schools was constructed using those factors. PBL schools differed on a number of measures, having more PBL teaching time, fewer lectures, more GP teaching, less surgery, less formal teaching of basic science, and more sessions with unspecified content.DiscussionUK medical schools differ in both format and content of teaching. PBL and non-PBL schools clearly differ, albeit with substantial variation within groups, and overlap in the middle. The important question of whether differences in teaching matter in terms of outcomes is analysed in a companion study (MedDifs) which examines how teaching differences relate to university infrastructure, entry requirements, student perceptions, and outcomes in Foundation Programme and postgraduate training.

Project description:BackgroundSince March 2020, COVID-19 has created a need for adaptation in many areas of life. This study explores medical students' perspectives on digital teaching under conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on expectations and concerns about digital teaching, the evaluation of specific aspects of teaching, and requests for future teaching.MethodsSix German faculties have joined forces within the Bavarian network for medical education to develop and deploy a common core questionnaire. Cross-sectional surveys were conducted at the end of the summer semester 2020 and winter semester 2020/21. Medical students from different semesters participated in the online survey. Data was analyzed descriptively and/or inferentially. Item differences across semesters were examined using contingency tables and Chi2 tests. Mean values were compared using the independent samples t-test; answer frequencies in retrospective and prospective concerns were compared using contingency tables and Chi2 tests with Yates' correction.ResultsIn the summer semester 2020, 1565 students and in winter semester 2020/21, 1727 students took part in the survey. Students' main prospective concern was lack of social exchange between fellow students (70%), but also with teachers. Second and third most often concerns were a lack of practical training (68%) and lack of integration of on-site digital teaching (50%). Approximately 7% of the students lacked sufficient access to technical equipment.. Approximately 39% of the students lacked a sufficient internet connection for synchronous digital teaching, 17% for asynchronous digital teaching. On-site teaching was the preferred form of teaching (60%), and there was a preference for asynchronous (24%) over synchronous (15%) digital teaching. Teaching recordings (79%) were particularly popular to complement future on-site teaching.ConclusionsThe following areas of education under COVID-19 conditions are highly important to medical students: adequacy of information sharing, integration of opportunities for exchange with fellow students and teachers, possibility to perform practical trainings. After the normalization of the pandemic situation, on-site teaching should be supplemented with blended learning concepts such as the inverted classroom model. Percentages of results are rounded averages from summer and winter semesters.

Project description:PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has imposed severe challenges on medical education at German university hospitals. In this first German nationwide expert survey, we addressed the responsible university teaching coordinators in obstetrics and gynecology departments and investigated their experiences during the pandemic as well as their opinions on future developments, especially with regard to the broader implementation of e-learning in the standard curriculum.MethodsThe questionnaire included 42 items and was disseminated among teaching coordinators at all 41 departments of obstetrics and gynecology at German university hospitals via an email that included a weblink to the online survey provider. Responses were collected between 19 April and 7 June 2021.ResultsIn total, 30 responses were collected from 41 departments across Germany and their respective teaching coordinators in obstetrics and gynecology. The general opinion of the medical teaching provided during the pandemic was positive, whereas the teaching quality in practical skills was considered inferior and not equivalent to the standard face-to-face curriculum. Lectures and seminars had to be substituted by remote-learning alternatives, while clinical clerkships were reduced in length and provided less patient contact. Students in their final year experienced only a few differences in the clinical and teaching routine. Teaching coordinators in obstetrics and gynecology stated that they intend to incorporate more e-learning into the curriculum in the future.ConclusionThe medical educators' views presented here may help to complement the already-thoroughly investigated experiences of students under the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Medical educators in obstetrics and gynecology at German university hospitals have successfully established online and hybrid teaching alternatives to their standard face-to-face courses. Building on recent experiences, digitalization could help to improve future medical education.

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Project description:BackgroundWith the advancement of information technology, teachers have become able to overcome the limitations of time and room capacity by carrying out teaching activities online. This practice, however, also presents new challenges. The present study explores how to fully capitalize on the advantages of online and offline teaching and improve the quality and impact of the teaching delivered. This article presents an analysis of the planning, implementation, evaluation, and reflection process of reforming the Fujian Medical University (FJMU) medical ethics course.MethodsAfter early attempts using the Small Private Online Course (SPOC) and flipped classroom formats, this paper focuses on the comprehensive active implementation of blended teaching practice. In terms of teaching practice, this research makes targeted improvements to overcome the known shortcomings of SPOCs and flipped classrooms, including the significant preparatory workload and lacking enthusiasm for classroom participation, by redesigning the course and evaluation method and changing the role of the teacher in blended teaching. Subsequently, the study used a stratified sampling method to select 20 students enrolled in the clinical medicine course at Fujian Medical University (FJMU). Their course experience was investigated using a semi-structured interview. Interview content related to evaluating teaching effect was extracted and encoded for subsequent qualitative analysis.ResultsA qualitative analysis of the student evaluation of blended teaching as implemented on the medical ethics course showed that the main factors influencing student engagement are the method of assigning tasks and that of testing learning outcomes. Student participation in class is influenced by the richness of the curriculum resources available and the role played by the teacher.ConclusionThis research presents a discussion of blended teaching and suggests improvements that can be made to address low student engagement and poor classroom participation. This round of blended teaching was shown to improve learning autonomy and classroom participation and to support students in the development of their clinical abilities and higher-order thinking skills. These findings provide a reference for the implementation of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dataset Information

A Needs-Based Analysis of Teaching on Vaccinations and COVID-19 in German Medical Schools.

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A Needs-Based Analysis of Teaching on Vaccinations and COVID-19 in German Medical Schools.

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