Journal of Advances in Medical Education & Professionalism
Volume:12 Issue: 1, Jan 2024

The integration of research and teaching in medical education offers numerous benefits, fostering critical thinking and analytical skills in students. Institutions worldwide have recognized the significance of this nexus and have implemented initiatives to link teaching with disciplinebased research, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration. This article aims to explore the challenges and recommendations for integrating research and teaching in medical schools and provide recommendations to overcome these challenges.

We conducted a comprehensive review of the literature to identify the common challenges faced by medical institutions in integrating research and teaching. PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, and Google Scholar databases were searched to assess the literature that met the study objectives with explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria. We also examined successfulstrategies employed by some institutions to promote researchteaching integration.

The challenges identified include limited resources, the need to balance research and curriculum requirements, and the importance of cultivating a research-oriented institutionalculture. Successful strategies involve curriculum updates, faculty motivation, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Implementing strategies involve vertically and horizontally integrating researchmethodology throughout the undergraduate curriculum and crossintegrating traditional medical courses with other disciplines. Collaboration between universities, enterprises, and schools canenhance comprehensive cooperation.

To create a research-oriented learning environment, medical institutions should address these challenges and implement effective strategies. This approach will not only nurture researchoriented healthcare professionals but also advance medical knowledge for the benefit of patient care. By addressing these challenges and implementing appropriate strategies, medicalinstitutions can create a research-oriented learning environment, nurturing research-oriented healthcare professionals and advancing medical knowledge to improve patient care.

Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students in healthcare-related courses are exposed to various challenging experiences compared to their White counterparts, not only in the UK (United Kingdom) but across the globe. Underachieving, stereotyping, racial bias, and cultural differences, among other experiences, hinder their medical education, practice, and attainment. This review aimed to explore and understand the experiences of BAME students enrolled in healthcare related courses in the United Kingdom.

Computerised bibliographic search was carried out using MeSH and free text descriptors via PubMed, Cochrane, Google Scholar, and Science Direct for eligible English-published studies exploring BAME experiences in the U.K from 2010-2023.

A cumulative total of 813 studies were obtained from the literature search, of which five met the inclusion criteria. Quality assessment for risk of bias was assessed using the NewcastleOttawa scale, yielding one study of satisfactory quality, while four were deemed to be of good quality.

BAME students pursuing health-related courses across the UK. face a range of experiences, including racial discrimination, unconscious bias, and a lack of representation andsupport. Additionally, BAME students are more likely to report incidents of racial harassment and withdraw from their respective courses as well as experiencing mental health issues due to theirexperiences.

Clinical supervision is crucial to establish a learning climate in which the supervisor guides the supervised. Clinical supervisors might have numerous barriers and motivations. Ourstudy aimed to explore the clinical supervision practices among general practitioners and to describe their motivations, barriers, and needs. A qualitative study was conducted using purposive sampling which is a non- probabilistic sampling method. The population was the general practitioners who were working at the primary health care centers either in the public or the private sectors (N=16). Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted by two authors, using an interview guide. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded. A thematic content analysis was done manually based on an inductive approach.
Sixteen general practitioners participated. Three main themes emerged from the study: 1) General practitioners’ practices in clinical supervision, 2) the enablers to adequate clinicalsupervision in general practice, and 3) the general practitioners’ fundamental barriers and needs in clinical supervision. Despite their lack of clinical supervision training, they could describe the different clinical supervision steps without giving their exact names. We found that their teaching skills must be reinforced. General practitioners were mainly motivated by personal and professional interests as well as moral obligations. Numerous barriers and needs were identified at the organizational, relational, and financial levels. The principles barriers and needs were the lack of clinical supervision training, lack of equipment, and remuneration. The current study highlighted the motivations and challenges of general practitioners concerning clinical supervision. These results are helpful for all responsible institutions involvedin clinical supervision and upcoming programs in Morocco.

The ongoing 4.0 industrial evolution, characterized by the rise of digital technology, has had a massive impact on human lifestyles worldwide. Faculty members in medical school areexpected to respond to this industrial revolution by implementing teaching strategies, one of which is Blended learning as a suitable solution to overcome the limitations of space and time in the teaching process. For effective utilization of blended learning, it is important to conduct extensive studies on its implementation. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of implementing blended learning in the faculty of medicine in Hasanuddin Universityfrom the students’ perspective. This study used a sequential explanatory mixed method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative part involved 782 undergraduate medical students from the first, second, and third years. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey distributed among the students. The qualitative part of the research was conducted through focus group discussions involving 13 students based on the questionnaire scores,representing both high and low scores. The results of the quantitative and qualitative research were collected and integrated.
Based on the results, the majority of students agreed that blended learning provided many advantages to their learning (Mean±SD: 3.79±0.78). Also, they reported e-learning platform significantly contributed to their learning process (Mean±SD: 3.88±0.67). The workload of blended learning method was still considered quite heavy by students, and good time management was highly needed (Mean±SD: 3.45±0.84). As for qualitative part, some positive results were obtained; they reported that it increased motivation for learning, enhanced the efficiency of learning and gaining adaptability, while the negative opinions were the network error in e-learning, erratice-learning display, and video quality problem. Most of the students expressed positive opinions about the advantages of blended learning; according to them, learning was more efficient and effective, it enhanced learning motivation, and it provided comprehensive accessible learning materials.

Empathy is an essential communication skill in the doctor-patient relationship. In fact, measuring its level in medical students is becoming increasingly important. There is aLack of tools to measure it in Morocco. The aim of this study was to validate the Arabic version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) among Moroccan medical students. The questionnaire was translated from its original English version to Arabic in accordance with international guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation of self-report measures.After translation and transcultural adaptation, the final Arabic version was administered to a sample of Moroccan medical students. Descriptive statistics at the item level and at the scalelevel were calculated. The internal consistency, reproducibility, criterion, and construct validity were assessed. A multitrait scale analysis was used to examine construct validity. To measurecriterion validity, the Arabic JSE scale was correlated to a visual analog scale (VAS), measuring the level of empathy. The mean of score was compared by gender, year of medical training, andspecialty preference using the Student (t) and ANOVA tests. All statistical analyses were performed by SPSS, Version 26.
A total of 201 students participated in the study. The average empathy score was 105.1±13.4. It was higher in female than male students (P=0.003). The Cronbach alpha was 0.76. The instrument has moderate test-retest reliability (ICC=0.6). The results showed a positive and significant correlation between Arabic JSE and VAS (r=0.28, P<0.0001). The multitrait scalinganalysis by testing convergent and discriminant validity confirmed the original scale structure. The adapted Moroccan version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy proved to be a valid instrument. It demonstrated an acceptable reliability and validity. Indeed, it can be used innational studies to measure empathy in medical students.

Medical education is beyond gaining a certain level of knowledge and mastering a specific set of skill. Medical students should try to improve the self and system, which necessitatespersonal growth and professional identity development. In this study, we aimed to investigate the factors which contribute to the formation of professional identity of medical students in basicsciences stage and finding out the significance of each factor. In this cross-sectional practical survey, semi-structured interviews were done with 10 medical students. The interview results yielded several items, which were used to make a 14-itemquestionnaire, the validity and reliability of which were verified. The contribution of the items to the factors was verified through factor analysis, the prerequisites of which were KMO and Bartletttest, which were done and approved. The significance of the factors obtained was evaluated and ranked through one sample t-test and Friedman test, respectively. The result showed that professional identity development in the stage of basic sciences was influenced by several factors, including educational, socioeconomic, personal, and familial ones. Also, the personal factor ranked first, followed by socioeconomic, educational, and familial factors, respectively.
In this study, it was concluded that the participants were more influenced by their own personal attitudes as compared to their familial, socioeconomic, or educational factors. Moreover, the factors which contributed to the professional identity of medical students were not at the same level of significance. To train physicians with high professional identity, medical education authorities are recommended to consider the above-mentioned factors.

Although e-learning has been incorporated in higher education system, students may undergo negative emotions like anxiety using this new mode of learning which ultimatelyinterfere with their learning performance. Hence, the current study aimed to examine the role of computer anxiety in students’ online learning. This is a cross-sectional correlational study, in which a convenient sample of 330 students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences participated. To collect the data, we used twopre-validated questionnaires. Face, content, and construct validity were used to check the validity of the questionnaires. Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability were also used to check thereliability. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16 and AMOS 6. Confirmatory factor analysis results yielded the underlying factorial structure of the scales. In addition, correlation coefficient results indicated that there was a significantly negativerelationship between students’ computer anxiety and their online learning (r=-0.59, P<0.001). The results of the present study revealed that a considerable number of students experienced some level of computer anxiety, highlighting that highly anxious students facenegative consequences such as inadequate online learning.

Distance education as a training method is used today to train nurses around the world. This study aimed to determine the impact of using the community of inquiry modelon the quality of distance learning of airway management among anesthesia nurse students. This is a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test posttest design conducted at Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. Participants were selected by census, and they weresecond, third, and fourth-year nurse anesthesia students (n=66). The participants were assigned to intervention and control groups (n=33 each) based on the table of random numbers. Given the three dimensions of the community of inquiry model, interventions were carried out in terms of social, teaching, and cognitive dimensions to increase social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence. Data collection tools included a questionnaire. The data were analyzed using Independent T-test, paired T-test, ANCOVA, and Chi-square in SPSS software, version 16. The results showed that the promotion of each of the three elements of the community of inquiry model had a significant effect on the quality of distance learning of airway management. Moreover, the mean scores of these elements were significantly different (P˂0.001) in the intervention and control groups [teaching presence (3.742±0.453 vs. 2.573±0.241), social presence (2.245±0.488 vs. 1.434±0.297), and cognitive presence (3.421±0.569 vs. 2.369±0.223].
The community of inquiry is a practical and effective framework for the better design and implementation of distance education courses. Therefore, nursing educators and coursedesigners are strongly recommended to use this framework in nursing education.