Journal of Medical Education
Volume:20 Issue: 4, Nov 2021

 The COVID-19 pandemic led to virtual education for students, causing many problems in many countries, including Iran.

 This study explains the challenges of virtual medical education and strategies to promote it from the perspective of students, faculty members, and educational staff of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences to meet the needs and expectations of learners and educators.

 This qualitative study was conducted using a conventional content analysis approach in 2021. The sample size criterion was to achieve data saturation, based on which 14 faculty members, students, and educational staff were selected by purposive sampling and interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. The accuracy of the data was ensured through participants’ views, peer review, and an external observer. MAXQDA version 10 was used to facilitate the analysis process.

 Based on the analysis, 4 main categories for virtual education challenges, including managerial factors, problems related to the nature of virtual education, infrastructural factors, and individual factors, were extracted. Further, 4 main categories, including improving management, improving education, providing infrastructure, and informing and empowering educators, students, and educational staff, were extracted to promote virtual education during the COVID-19 pandemic at Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences.

 The challenges to which virtual education is faced and unique strategies to promote it during the COVID-19 pandemic were discussed. Understanding these challenges helps to their elimination and provides practical solutions for them. These challenges and solutions can lead to effective virtual education and thus increase the quality of learning.

 In a laparoscopic surgery team, a surgical technologist as a skillful assistant surgeon is responsible for camera navigation and peg transfer.

 We assessed the effect of the fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery curriculum on improving the skills of surgical technology students in camera navigation, pattern cutting, and peg transfer.

 A study was conducted on 30 surgical technology students at the Iran University of Medical Sciences based on Kern's six-step model. After assessing the needs and defining the educational goals, the course content was determined. Afterward, students were trained in a simulation-based learning environment. Then, in the evaluation stage, using the standard task completion time (TCT) tool, their competence in performing the three skills was evaluated. The results of the first comprehensive attempt to perform each skill were recorded as the pretest, and the results of the sixth and 10th repetitions were recorded as the posttest. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance with duplicate data.

 The TCT score improved in this study. The time of camera navigation decreased from 92.14 to 56.42 s, pattern cutting from 186.07 to 118.21 s, and peg transfer from 93.03 to 54.10 s.

 This study showed that the fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery curriculum improved the surgical technologists’ competence in performing triple skills essential for performing laparoscopic surgeries. Thus, this learning method could play an essential role in laparoscopic surgery.

 Hobbies may be used on the residency application to communicate similarity or uniqueness to other members of their desired specialty.

 This study aimed to determine the most common hobbies among emergency medicine (EM) applicants and whether they differ from the reported hobbies of other applicants.

 This was a two-center retrospective application review study at large U.S. midwestern academic institutions with a 3- and a 4-year EM residency program. Data from the “hobbies and interests” field of the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) application from 2015 - 2019 were reviewed. Hobbies data were individually coded by two independent physician coders into 19 defined hobby types. EM applicants were compared to plastic surgery and psychiatry applicants.

 A total of 2675 individual hobbies were initially identified, with strong agreement between raters (κ = 0.92). The most commonly listed EM hobbies were sports (25.0%), outdoor (19.3%), and fitness (9.6%). Sports and outdoor hobbies were also listed most frequently by applicants to psychiatry and plastic surgery. While there were several significant differences between EM and other specialties, these differences were minimal overall.

 Active hobbies appeared most prominently for all applicants. Less stereotypical EM hobbies, including literary arts and cooking, were also frequently noted, suggesting that applicants may have motivations beyond communicating similarity when listing hobbies.

 The COVID-19 crisis has created many problems, including a negative impact on student education.

 The study aimed to understand the resident medical students' performance experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is essential for future planning.

 The present qualitative study was performed on 15 resident medical students in Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Iran, from September to November 2020. Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis.

 Analysis of the meaning units of interviews showed four categories describing the resident students' experiences of performance during COVID-19 as follows: Fear and anxiety, the need for support, the sense of responsibility, and the lack of educational facilities.

 The present study showed that the COVID-19 pandemic had posed incredible new challenges for resident students. Assessing the mental health of residents, providing adequate protective equipment, and support from authorities and community members can create empathy, reduce the feeling of fear, and increase their accompaniment with pandemic managing programs. Due to the problems created in the training of residents during the pandemic, it seems necessary to propose rehabilitation courses to improve the training program for residents in various fields.
 

 A competency-based curriculum is the key highlight of medical transformation in India, which provides an outcome-based framework requiring the integration of knowledge, skills, and values, unlike an old curriculum that did not provide a cohesive and comprehensive outlook.

 We aimed to discuss and evaluate in detail the process and setup of a new competency-based medical curriculum in the Department of Pathology and enlist the assets and challenges while doing the same.

 The new curriculum was set up as per the guidelines provided by the National Medical Council, along with assistance from state university guidelines, articles from the internet and discussions with other universities all over the country.

 As compared to the previous curriculum, the new curriculum introduces many positive changes and requires a revolutionary change in the outlook of institutions, faculty, and students. Prior preparedness, flexibility to adopt new changes, consistency and long-term commitment through the transition process from facilitators will go a long way in producing an excellent Indian medical graduate.

 Assessment and evaluation should be a continuous activity associated with curriculum development. Continuous formative examinations are the stepping stone for good learning and better performance in summative examination. However, the correlation or predictability of formative examinations has not been quantified in the Community Medicine subject in the bachelor of surgery (MBBS) course in India.

 The objective of this study was to explore the correlation of performance in continuous assessments and final summative evaluation in third-year professional MBBS students in Community Medicine and the predictability of formative scores for the final examination marks.

 An institution-based retrospective longitudinal study was conducted in the Medical College of Kolkata, India. A total of 237 undergraduate medical students were followed up for two years to track their results in three successive examinations. The scores obtained in formative and summative evaluations in third-year professional MBBS students in Community Medicine were analyzed to find out the correlation between them, and multiple linear regression was also performed in SPSS.

 The strong and significant correlation (0.64) between the sixth semester and internal examination results suggests the importance of the sixth semester examination for the preparation of finals. The third semester examination, although conducted two years prior to the finals, still had significant correlation with the finals, but the correlation was weak (0.17).

 Formative examination in Community Medicine, which spans for overall three and half years, plays an essential role in the preparation of students for the finals, more so for achieving good scores. Performance in these two examinations can only explain more than one fourth of the variability of the performance in the finals.

 Considering the high risk and vital nature of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) process, as well as the subsequent intensive, essential, and life-saving cares, it is necessary to promote the skills of nurses providing this kind of care.

 This study aimed to determine the effect of simulation on developing the quality of care in nurses working in the ECT department.

 This experimental study compared two groups before and after the intervention. Fifty nurses who met the inclusion criteria were randomly allocated into two groups of intervention and control. Low-tech (static) task trainer was used for simulation-based medical education (SBME) in the intervention group. Data were collected using a checklist to investigate the quality of nursing care before and after the intervention.

 The mean scores obtained from initial preparation subscales, preparation of tools and equipment, measures during ECT, post-ECT measures, and checking patient’s status in pre-test and post-test in the intervention group were significantly different. This suggests that simulation intervention in small groups is effective in improving the quality of nursing care in ECT (P < 0.05).

 Our results showed that promoting ECT nursing care knowledge among the nurses in small groups by simulation method is an effective intervention.