a model was developed to provide an innovative approach in working together as a “virtual placement” which meets the above requirements but also affords a wealth of additional opportunities to build that early partnership with the workforce of the future and afford them early exposure to critical learning.
In its response, the RCN welcomed the NMC’s view that all nurses, whatever their field of practice, should be able to undertake full assessments of patients, while also calling on the regulator to increase the amount of assessed simulation in the training of nurses to 600 hours, up from 300.
Employers often tell us that the different routes into nursing can be confusing. It can be difficult to weigh up the different options and to map out a clear pathway for registered nurses. We have therefore created a new resource to help employers think through the different routes. This resource has been tested with employers to ensure it is as helpful as possible.
Nicky Lambert on recent IPPR report on improving student mental health in the UK's universities, which paints a stark picture that demands urgent attention.
Open access. This work builds on a survey first done in 1999 to understand how old age psychiatry teaching is embedded in undergraduate medical schools in the UK and Ireland and the influence of academic old age psychiatrists on teaching processes. We invited deans of 31 medical schools in the UK and Ireland in 2015 to complete an online survey to reassess the situation 16 years later.
Interpreting, performing and applying research is a key part of evidence-based medical practice, however, incorporating these within curricula is challenging. This study aimed to explore current provision of research skills training within medical school curricula, provide a student-focused needs assessment and prioritise research competencies.
The authors developed and evaluated a mathematical formulation whereby a common group mark could be distributed among group members using peer assessment of individual contributions to group work, maintaining inter-group variation in group work scores. This was motivated by community health projects undertaken by large groups of year four medical students at the National University of Singapore, and the new and old formulations are presented via application to 263 students in seven groups of 36 to 40 during the academic year 2012/2013.
It is known that medical students suffer from high rates of mental health difficulties. In recent years there has been an increasing focus on the need to improve support and treatment services for those in difficulty. In order to meet these needs it is important to clarify the relevant aetiological factors. There is robust evidence from general population studies that a history of childhood trauma (including physical and sexual abuse and emotional neglect) predisposes to the subsequent development of mental health difficulties in adult life. It has previously been speculated that students with a history of such trauma might preferentially apply to study medicine.
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a long-term condition that affects between 1 and 5% of the general population and lies within the spectrum of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). FMS can be difficult to diagnose and is usually done so as a diagnosis of exclusion. There is continuing debate regarding its legitimacy excluding other causes of symptoms. It is known that the diagnosis and management of MUS, including FMS, receives little attention in medical curricula and attitudes towards patients with FMS amongst medical professionals and trainees can be negative. The purpose of this study was to investigate how attitudes and perspectives of undergraduate medical students towards FMS are acquired during their training.
Developing professionalism is a core task in medical education. Unfortunately, it has remained difficult for educators to identify medical students’ unprofessionalism, because, among other reasons, there are no commonly adopted descriptors that can be used to document students’ unprofessional behaviour. This study aimed to generate an overview of descriptors for unprofessional behaviour based on research evidence of real-life unprofessional behaviours of medical students.
Use of podcasts has several advantages in medical education. Podcasts can be of different types based on their length: short (1–5 min), moderate (6–15 min) and long (>15 min) duration. Short-duration podcasts are unique since they can deliver high-yield information in a short time. The perceptions of medical students towards short-duration podcasts are not well understood and this study aimed to analyze the same. An exploratory analysis of students’ podcast usage and performance in summative assessments was also undertaken.
Sent on behalf of employers in the NHS, the response outlines the issues raised, as well the positive elements organisations feel the proposed changes will bring.
It is known that many trainee doctors around the world experience work satisfaction but also considerable work stress in the training period. Such stress seems to be linked to multiple factors including workload, level of support and growing cultural inculcation into unwillingness to show any personal or professional weakness. In the United Kingdom, junior doctors are qualified medical practitioners who have gained a degree in Medicine and are now working while training to become a specialist (consultant) or a general practitioner. The period of medical training can be particularly stressful for some UK junior doctors, in common with their counterparts in other countries. UK Postgraduate Medical Deaneries provide support for those who need it via Professional Support Units (PSUs); however little is known about the perceptions and experiences of the doctors who access and utilise this support. This study aimed to generate qualitative insight into how the (PSU) provided by one UK Deanery is experienced by the trainees who accessed it. We aimed to investigate whether such experience intersects with the progressive socialisation of trainee doctors into the notion that doctors do not get ill.
Open access. Health leadership and management capacity are essential for health system strengthening and for attaining universal health coverage by optimising the existing human, technological and financial resources. However, in health systems, health leadership and management training is not widely available. The use of information technology for education (ie, eLearning) could help address this training gap by enabling flexible, efficient and scalable health leadership and management training. We present a protocol for a systematic review on the effectiveness of eLearning for health leadership and management capacity building in improving health system outcomes.
Editorial. Although the study of medicine and the tradition of medical students gaining clinical experience on hospital wards have not significantly changed over the years, the experience of physicians practicing in the current climate has changed dramatically. Physicians are confronted with increasing regulations aimed at improving quality of care and are often overwhelmed by their position in a tug-of-war between administrators, staff, colleagues and most importantly, patients. With more than half of the US physicians experiencing professional burnout, questions arise regarding their mental health and work-life balance. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
To identify the theories used to explain learning in simulation and to examine how these theories guided the assessment of learning outcomes related to core competencies in undergraduate nursing students. To read the full article, log in using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens details.
Little is known about how best to implement portfolio-based learning in medical school. We evaluated the introduction of a formative e-portfolio-based supervision pilot for final year medical students by seeking views of students, supervisors and graduates on use and educational effects.
The UK Shape of Training Steering Group (UKSTSG), chaired by Professor Ian G Finlay, has today published its report providing policy advice and structure to guide implementation of the recommendations from Professor David Greenaway’s independent Shape of Training review.