While problem-based learning (PBL) has been widely implemented in medical education, it has been ... more While problem-based learning (PBL) has been widely implemented in medical education, it has been acknowledged to be resource-intensive, particularly in terms of academics' time. In some institutions, such as Bond University (Australia), casual facilitators have been employed (paid hourly) to oversee the PBL tutorials. Apart from considerable experience as PBL facilitators, they also have expertise as allied health professionals or biomedical scientists. Several facilitators have educational qualifications. Recognising that their roles have expanded beyond the PBL tutorial room, we canvassed PBL facilitators in terms of their contributions to Bond University's medical programme. We can report that our facilitators have contributed to the renewal of Bond's medical programme, from design (e.g. curriculum structure, case-writing) to PBL case reviews. They are also involved in formative and summative assessment. Facilitators identified that, because of their prolonged involve...
Three questions are considered in the context of the possible effects of seed-associated mycoflor... more Three questions are considered in the context of the possible effects of seed-associated mycoflora, typified by Fusarium moniliforme, during hydrated storage of recalcitrant propagules of the tropical species, Avicennia marina. These pertain to storage lifespan, whether seed susceptibility to fungal attack changes and the possibility of discriminating ultrastructurally between inherent deteriorative changes and those that are fungallyinduced. The data indicate unequivocally that if fungal activity is curtailed, then the hydrated storage lifespan of A. marina seeds can be considerably extended. When inoculated immediately with F. moniliforme, newly harvested seeds were extremely susceptible to the adverse effects of the fungus, while seeds that had been wet-stored for 4 d showed a considerably heightened resilience to the effects of the fungus when inoculated at that stage. The enhanced resilience, although declining, persisted in seeds stored hydrated for up to 10 d prior to inocula...
Introduction: Critical thinking skills are important outcomes of many curricula as they are gradu... more Introduction: Critical thinking skills are important outcomes of many curricula as they are graduate attributes which are highly valued by employers. This is particularly important within health science programmes. Teaching critical thinking does not provide students with an obvious product to take when they leave the learning activity. Instead, its development requires each student to reflect, reason, interpret and comprehend. Critical thinking skills, like many other skills, take time to develop and one of the aims of teaching it across the sciences is to create an awareness of the transferability of critical thinking skills to their future careers. In our role as educators in various health science courses, including medicine, we have had the opportunity to review the expected learning and professional outcomes of each course and tailor our teaching accordingly. Purpose: This presentation will provide some insight into the various critical thinking considerations required across ...
Today's medical students (tomorrow's doctors) wil... more Today's medical students (tomorrow's doctors) will be entering a world of conflict, war and regular outbreaks of infectious diseases. Despite numerous international declarations and treaties protecting human rights, the last few decades has been fraught with reports of "lapses" in medical professionalism involving torture and force-feeding of detainees (e.g. captured during the War on Terror) and health care professionals refusing to treat infected patients (e.g. HIV and Ebola). This paper provides some historical background to the changing status of a physician's duty to treat and how medical practitioners came to be involved in the inhumane treatment of detainees during the War on Terror, culminating in reports of "lapses" in professionalism. The Theory of Planned Behavior, which takes into account the individual, the environment and the social context, is used to explain the factors that might influence an individual's behavior in challenging situations. The paper concludes with some recommendations for medical and health professions education. The recommendations include selecting students who, as a minimum, can provide evidence of "basic" professionalism, engaging them in exploring the history of the medical profession, exposing them to contexts of uncertainty and moral dilemmas and challenging them to reflect on their responses.
AIMS While there is a reasonable body of literature on medical students’ professional identity fo... more AIMS While there is a reasonable body of literature on medical students’ professional identity formation, the focus has been largely from their perspective. On their journey to “becoming” doctors, medical students interact with teachers and trainers from varying professions, all of whom will perceive their professional development from different standpoints. The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain an insight of professional identity formation from different teachers and trainers with whom students interact at different times of their medical studies. Methods This phenomenological study was conducted at an Australian university offering an undergraduate medical programme. Professional identity formation was explored from the perspective of students across the five-year curriculum as well from the perspective of their teachers and trainers, who included registered nurses, clinical tutors, academic faculty, problem-based learning facilitators and simulated patients (SPs). Sem...
Simulation in healthcare : journal of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, 2015
Much has been written about medical students' professional identity formation, the process of... more Much has been written about medical students' professional identity formation, the process of "becoming" a doctor. During their training, medical students interact with a range of teachers and trainers. Among these are simulated patients (SPs) who role-play patients, assisting students with their communication, procedural, and physical examination skills. With SPs regularly interacting with students, this qualitative study explored their views of students' emerging professional identities at one Australian medical school. SPs' contributions to developing professional identities were also explored. Fourteen SPs were interviewed individually or in pairs. After template analysis of the transcripts using a priori themes, a follow-up focus group (n = 7) was arranged. Although being older (implying maturity and more life experience) and exposure to real patients and previous health care experience were identified as contributing to developing an identity as a doctor,...
In view of the changing health care needs of communities, curriculum reform of traditional curric... more In view of the changing health care needs of communities, curriculum reform of traditional curricula is inevitable. In order to allay the apprehension that may accompany such change, curriculum development and implementation should be an inclusive process, with both staff and students being well informed of the planned reform. In 2001, the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine implemented Year 1 of a problem-based learning curriculum. During the design phase, students and staff were invited to take part in the development and were kept abreast of developments through meetings and newsletters. A survey of Years 1-5 students of the last intake into the traditional curriculum was undertaken a few months prior to the implementation of the new programme. Students were generally well informed about the impending change, having heard about it from fellow students and staff. The more senior the students, the less the perceived impact of the reform. Although most of what students had heard wa...
The small group tutorial is a cornerstone of problem-based learning. By implication, the role of ... more The small group tutorial is a cornerstone of problem-based learning. By implication, the role of the facilitator is of pivotal importance. The present investigation canvassed perceptions of facilitators with differing levels of experience regarding their roles and duties in the tutorial. In January 2002, one year after problem-based learning implementation at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, facilitators with the following experience were canvassed: trained and about to facilitate, facilitated once only and facilitated more than one six-week theme. Student comments regarding facilitator skills were obtained from a 2001 course survey. While facilitators generally agreed that the three-day training workshop provided sufficient insight into the facilitation process, they become more comfortable with increasing experience. Many facilitators experienced difficulty not providing content expertise. Again, this improved with increasing experience. Most facilitators saw students as ...
Globally, as medical education undergoes significant reform towards more "learner-centred&qu... more Globally, as medical education undergoes significant reform towards more "learner-centred" approaches, specific implications arise for medical educators and learners. Although this learner-centredness is grounded in educational theory, a point of discussion would be whether the application and practice of these new curricula alleviate or exacerbate student difficulties and levels of stress. This commentary will argue that while this reform in medical education is laudable, with positive implications for learning, medical educators may not have understood or perhaps not embraced "learner-centredness" in its entirety. During their training, medical students are expected to be "patient-centred". They are asked to apply a biopsychosocial model, which takes cognisance of all aspects of a patient's well-being. While many medical schools profess that their curricula reflect these principles, in reality, many may not always practice what they preach. Medica...
Both the World Health Organisation and the World Federation for Medical Education have endorsed i... more Both the World Health Organisation and the World Federation for Medical Education have endorsed integration of computer technology into medical education. In line with this and for more practical reasons, second-year medical students were introduced to commercial and in-house computer-aided instruction (CAI) packages in the traditional histology course. Although CAI was well received, light microscopy was still regarded as a valuable skill in the undergraduate curriculum. Its application was viewed to be important in future medical studies, as well as in general practice. It was also perceived to be a more self-directed form of learning than CAI. Students' use of CAI packages was related to CAI meeting course objectives and the level of interactivity.
WebCT, front-end software for Internet-delivered material, became an integral part of a problem-b... more WebCT, front-end software for Internet-delivered material, became an integral part of a problem-based learning, student-centred curriculum introduced in January 2001 at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine (South Africa). A template for six curriculum and two supplementary modules was developed. Organiser and Tool pages were added and files uploaded as each module progressed. This study provides feedback from students with regard to the value of WebCT in their curriculum, as well as discussing the value of WebCT for the delivery of digitized material (e.g., images, videos, PowerPoint presentations). In an anonymous survey following the completion of the first module, students, apparently irrespective of their level of computer literacy, responded positively to the communication facility between staff and students and amongst students, the resources and the URLs. Based on these preliminary responses, WebCT courses for all six modules were developed during 2001. With Faculty support, WebCT will probably be integrated into the rest of the MBChB programme. It will be particularly useful when students are off campus, undertaking electives and community service in the later years.
While problem-based learning (PBL) has been widely implemented in medical education, it has been ... more While problem-based learning (PBL) has been widely implemented in medical education, it has been acknowledged to be resource-intensive, particularly in terms of academics' time. In some institutions, such as Bond University (Australia), casual facilitators have been employed (paid hourly) to oversee the PBL tutorials. Apart from considerable experience as PBL facilitators, they also have expertise as allied health professionals or biomedical scientists. Several facilitators have educational qualifications. Recognising that their roles have expanded beyond the PBL tutorial room, we canvassed PBL facilitators in terms of their contributions to Bond University's medical programme. We can report that our facilitators have contributed to the renewal of Bond's medical programme, from design (e.g. curriculum structure, case-writing) to PBL case reviews. They are also involved in formative and summative assessment. Facilitators identified that, because of their prolonged involve...
Three questions are considered in the context of the possible effects of seed-associated mycoflor... more Three questions are considered in the context of the possible effects of seed-associated mycoflora, typified by Fusarium moniliforme, during hydrated storage of recalcitrant propagules of the tropical species, Avicennia marina. These pertain to storage lifespan, whether seed susceptibility to fungal attack changes and the possibility of discriminating ultrastructurally between inherent deteriorative changes and those that are fungallyinduced. The data indicate unequivocally that if fungal activity is curtailed, then the hydrated storage lifespan of A. marina seeds can be considerably extended. When inoculated immediately with F. moniliforme, newly harvested seeds were extremely susceptible to the adverse effects of the fungus, while seeds that had been wet-stored for 4 d showed a considerably heightened resilience to the effects of the fungus when inoculated at that stage. The enhanced resilience, although declining, persisted in seeds stored hydrated for up to 10 d prior to inocula...
Introduction: Critical thinking skills are important outcomes of many curricula as they are gradu... more Introduction: Critical thinking skills are important outcomes of many curricula as they are graduate attributes which are highly valued by employers. This is particularly important within health science programmes. Teaching critical thinking does not provide students with an obvious product to take when they leave the learning activity. Instead, its development requires each student to reflect, reason, interpret and comprehend. Critical thinking skills, like many other skills, take time to develop and one of the aims of teaching it across the sciences is to create an awareness of the transferability of critical thinking skills to their future careers. In our role as educators in various health science courses, including medicine, we have had the opportunity to review the expected learning and professional outcomes of each course and tailor our teaching accordingly. Purpose: This presentation will provide some insight into the various critical thinking considerations required across ...
Today's medical students (tomorrow's doctors) wil... more Today's medical students (tomorrow's doctors) will be entering a world of conflict, war and regular outbreaks of infectious diseases. Despite numerous international declarations and treaties protecting human rights, the last few decades has been fraught with reports of "lapses" in medical professionalism involving torture and force-feeding of detainees (e.g. captured during the War on Terror) and health care professionals refusing to treat infected patients (e.g. HIV and Ebola). This paper provides some historical background to the changing status of a physician's duty to treat and how medical practitioners came to be involved in the inhumane treatment of detainees during the War on Terror, culminating in reports of "lapses" in professionalism. The Theory of Planned Behavior, which takes into account the individual, the environment and the social context, is used to explain the factors that might influence an individual's behavior in challenging situations. The paper concludes with some recommendations for medical and health professions education. The recommendations include selecting students who, as a minimum, can provide evidence of "basic" professionalism, engaging them in exploring the history of the medical profession, exposing them to contexts of uncertainty and moral dilemmas and challenging them to reflect on their responses.
AIMS While there is a reasonable body of literature on medical students’ professional identity fo... more AIMS While there is a reasonable body of literature on medical students’ professional identity formation, the focus has been largely from their perspective. On their journey to “becoming” doctors, medical students interact with teachers and trainers from varying professions, all of whom will perceive their professional development from different standpoints. The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain an insight of professional identity formation from different teachers and trainers with whom students interact at different times of their medical studies. Methods This phenomenological study was conducted at an Australian university offering an undergraduate medical programme. Professional identity formation was explored from the perspective of students across the five-year curriculum as well from the perspective of their teachers and trainers, who included registered nurses, clinical tutors, academic faculty, problem-based learning facilitators and simulated patients (SPs). Sem...
Simulation in healthcare : journal of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, 2015
Much has been written about medical students' professional identity formation, the process of... more Much has been written about medical students' professional identity formation, the process of "becoming" a doctor. During their training, medical students interact with a range of teachers and trainers. Among these are simulated patients (SPs) who role-play patients, assisting students with their communication, procedural, and physical examination skills. With SPs regularly interacting with students, this qualitative study explored their views of students' emerging professional identities at one Australian medical school. SPs' contributions to developing professional identities were also explored. Fourteen SPs were interviewed individually or in pairs. After template analysis of the transcripts using a priori themes, a follow-up focus group (n = 7) was arranged. Although being older (implying maturity and more life experience) and exposure to real patients and previous health care experience were identified as contributing to developing an identity as a doctor,...
In view of the changing health care needs of communities, curriculum reform of traditional curric... more In view of the changing health care needs of communities, curriculum reform of traditional curricula is inevitable. In order to allay the apprehension that may accompany such change, curriculum development and implementation should be an inclusive process, with both staff and students being well informed of the planned reform. In 2001, the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine implemented Year 1 of a problem-based learning curriculum. During the design phase, students and staff were invited to take part in the development and were kept abreast of developments through meetings and newsletters. A survey of Years 1-5 students of the last intake into the traditional curriculum was undertaken a few months prior to the implementation of the new programme. Students were generally well informed about the impending change, having heard about it from fellow students and staff. The more senior the students, the less the perceived impact of the reform. Although most of what students had heard wa...
The small group tutorial is a cornerstone of problem-based learning. By implication, the role of ... more The small group tutorial is a cornerstone of problem-based learning. By implication, the role of the facilitator is of pivotal importance. The present investigation canvassed perceptions of facilitators with differing levels of experience regarding their roles and duties in the tutorial. In January 2002, one year after problem-based learning implementation at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, facilitators with the following experience were canvassed: trained and about to facilitate, facilitated once only and facilitated more than one six-week theme. Student comments regarding facilitator skills were obtained from a 2001 course survey. While facilitators generally agreed that the three-day training workshop provided sufficient insight into the facilitation process, they become more comfortable with increasing experience. Many facilitators experienced difficulty not providing content expertise. Again, this improved with increasing experience. Most facilitators saw students as ...
Globally, as medical education undergoes significant reform towards more "learner-centred&qu... more Globally, as medical education undergoes significant reform towards more "learner-centred" approaches, specific implications arise for medical educators and learners. Although this learner-centredness is grounded in educational theory, a point of discussion would be whether the application and practice of these new curricula alleviate or exacerbate student difficulties and levels of stress. This commentary will argue that while this reform in medical education is laudable, with positive implications for learning, medical educators may not have understood or perhaps not embraced "learner-centredness" in its entirety. During their training, medical students are expected to be "patient-centred". They are asked to apply a biopsychosocial model, which takes cognisance of all aspects of a patient's well-being. While many medical schools profess that their curricula reflect these principles, in reality, many may not always practice what they preach. Medica...
Both the World Health Organisation and the World Federation for Medical Education have endorsed i... more Both the World Health Organisation and the World Federation for Medical Education have endorsed integration of computer technology into medical education. In line with this and for more practical reasons, second-year medical students were introduced to commercial and in-house computer-aided instruction (CAI) packages in the traditional histology course. Although CAI was well received, light microscopy was still regarded as a valuable skill in the undergraduate curriculum. Its application was viewed to be important in future medical studies, as well as in general practice. It was also perceived to be a more self-directed form of learning than CAI. Students' use of CAI packages was related to CAI meeting course objectives and the level of interactivity.
WebCT, front-end software for Internet-delivered material, became an integral part of a problem-b... more WebCT, front-end software for Internet-delivered material, became an integral part of a problem-based learning, student-centred curriculum introduced in January 2001 at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine (South Africa). A template for six curriculum and two supplementary modules was developed. Organiser and Tool pages were added and files uploaded as each module progressed. This study provides feedback from students with regard to the value of WebCT in their curriculum, as well as discussing the value of WebCT for the delivery of digitized material (e.g., images, videos, PowerPoint presentations). In an anonymous survey following the completion of the first module, students, apparently irrespective of their level of computer literacy, responded positively to the communication facility between staff and students and amongst students, the resources and the URLs. Based on these preliminary responses, WebCT courses for all six modules were developed during 2001. With Faculty support, WebCT will probably be integrated into the rest of the MBChB programme. It will be particularly useful when students are off campus, undertaking electives and community service in the later years.
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