Journal of Medical Education
Volume:19 Issue: 4, Nov 2020

 The impact of COVID-19 on mental health outcomes of medical residency is an important concern. Currently, evidence regarding this issue is not sufficient.

 The current study aimed to demonstrate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on residency training programs as well as its psychological consequences for both individuals and their families in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq.

 This online cross-sectional study was performed at the Kurdistan Region, Iraq, from 12 - 25 August 2020. In total, 275 residents participated. Data were collected online, and the items were sent through specific Facebook and Viber groups of residents. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (i.e., frequency and percentage). Besides, the Chi-square and Fisher's exact test were used to compare the participants based on their sociodemographic characteristics.

 Of 275 participants, 50.9% were female and mostly older than 30 years (52.4%). Surgical (36.4%) was the most commonly cited specialty, followed by medical (22.2%). Around 40% of residents were forced to changes the hospital due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, 50% of them had close contact with COVID-19 patients, and only 12.7% had enough training for the proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE). Moreover, 90% of the residents felt anxious and concerned about the situation. Nearly 10% of residents were infected with COVID-19, and 24% of them had an infected family member. Approximately 92% reported a reduction in training activities due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Of those with surgical specialties, 83% reported a significant reduction in the number of surgeries since the onset of the pandemic (P < 0.024).

 The COVID-19 pandemic has caused high levels of psychological distress of medical residency. The combination of psychological disorders with high infection rates among students of residency in our region may cause a critical impact on the residency training program. Besides, the quality of programs may also be influenced. An urgent plan is required to reduce the psychological stress and protecting doctors against the infection.

 Universities are among the most influential educational environments for teaching creative thinking. The current study aimed to investigate the creativity of postgraduate students at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

 This applied research studied 265 students in 10 majors in 2018. The participants were selected via two-stage random cluster sampling. Abedi's creativity test was used to collect the data. Content validity was confirmed by the Lawshe method, and the reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient and ICC. Data were analyzed by SPSS using descriptive statistics, t-test, Mann-Whitney, ANOVA, and Kruskal-Wallis tests.

 Based on the findings, most students (88.6%) obtained a moderate score, in general, and separate by dimensions. Only did 9.7% reach a high score. The highest score was for the fluency dimension (25.3%), followed by originality (24.3%). According to demographic variables separated by age, marital status, educational degree, and gender, there was no significant difference in students' creativity scores.

 According to the findings, paying more attention to creativity and having a detailed perspective through intertwining abilities with creativity in universities, as specialized institutions for training, is useful for growing creativity.

 Research has shown that students in the health sciences experience higher levels of anxiety and depression.

 In this study, we endeavor to investigate these results among first-year pharmacy and veterinary students at Auburn University and among first-year medical students at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine’s (VCOM) Auburn Campus.

 We surveyed students after their first year in their respective professional programs using a modified Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS) survey. The survey was modified to establish changes in depression and anxiety levels before and after the first year of coursework.

 Two hundred ninety-five students participated in the survey, 95 veterinary students, 127 pharmacy students, and 73 VCOM students. All programs showed a statistically significant increase in student-reported levels of depression and anxiety. Students from the Harrison School of Pharmacy showed the greatest increase in anxiety and depression, followed by students from VCOM and the College of Veterinary Medicine. Females in all programs entered their programs with higher levels of anxiety than males and also completed their first year with higher anxiety scores than males in the same programs.

 Students in all three professional programs reported increased levels of anxiety and depression with the largest increase reported in pharmacy students. Efforts to identify the triggers, understand the consequences, and develop interventional methods to improve student wellbeing are recommended.
 

 In most developing countries, undergraduate medical students rely upon books published by foreign publications of developed countries. These books often fail to include World Health Organization (WHO) recommended guidelines, which are vital for the national health mission of developing countries. As a result, medical students who are “future doctors” continue to lack the necessary skills when they graduate from medical schools and start working in their countries.

 The aim of this study was to quantify the impact of the inclusion of the WHO-recommended integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI) guideline in the curriculum of undergraduate students.

 This case-control study was done on a group of 72 undergraduate medical students in the case (trained) group who underwent 12 days of IMCI training and 92 undergraduate students in control (untrained) group who did not receive IMCI training. An evaluation test, which included clinical case scenarios, was conducted to assess the performance of participants from both trained and untrained groups.

 Participants of the trained group scored significantly higher compared with the participants of the untrained group in the identification and management of major childhood illnesses (P < 0.05). No significant difference was found between trained and untrained groups in the assessment of the immunization status of children. In the trained group, a strong positive correlation (r = 0.87) existed between the attendance percentage of participants during the training session and marks scored in the evaluation (P < 0.001).

 Our study suggests that the community-oriented WHO recommended IMCI training significantly improves disease identification and case management skills of undergraduate medical students. In developing countries, there is an urgent need for updating medical pedagogy and curriculum, which include WHO guidelines in order to meet current health challenges.

 The nursing process is a framework for nursing care. It is a systematic and dynamic method that can be used in all health care environments.

 We aimed to explore the factors that may influence the implementation of the nursing process by nursing students.

 A qualitative study was conducted through semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Fifteen nursing students were selected by purposive sampling. Inclusion criteria include sixth to eighth-semester nursing students who have experience of using the nursing process in clinical wards., The Graneheim and Lundman content analysis method was used to analyze the qualitative data.

 After analyzing the data, we created three main categories (awareness of the nursing process, individual-managerial factors, and the reflection of the nursing process).

 Factors that influence the implementation of the nursing process by nursing students are varied. Therefore, nurse educators should remove barriers and provide facilities to promote the nursing process’s implementation.
 

 A large number of students enrolled in many universities and the low ratio of supervisors to the student have challenged the process of developing education and research. Today, information and communication technology (ICT) tools have changed the learning environments. We assessed the improvement in challenges in the thesis process for Master’s degree virtual students using learning management systems (LMS).

 This study is a translational research design focusing on adaptation of educational technology and was conducted in three stages: Preparation, implementation, and assessment in the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in 2017. In the preparation stage, we matched LMS with technical support requirements. In the experimental stage, the effectiveness of a web-based system (LMS) for thesis support was assessed in 67, 65, and 51 master students in 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively, and they were followed two years. In the post- experimental stage, the program was assessed using quality criteria. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation), analysis of variance (ANOVA), and post-hoc tests.

 Data of 67 students as the first entry group were collected after two years of implementation of the program and 22 quality criteria were extracted by literature review and validated by focus group discussion. The results of students’ perspective showed that the scores of the quality criteria after using LMS in comparison other alternative methods were at the desirable level (mean score > 7), the social network and email scores were mostly at the moderate level, and the meeting was almost less desirable (mean score < 4). The results of the supervisors’ perspective also showed that the scores of the quality criteria were at the desirable level. The ANOVA result for most criteria was statistically significant at 95% CI. The results indicated the higher scores in all quality criteria after using LMS in comparison with alternative methods from the viewpoints of the supervisors and students (95% CI: 8.76 ± 0.83) and (95% CI: 8.71 ± 0.64), respectively.

 The results of this study indicated that implementing LMS for thesis support was almost twice more successful in achieving the considered criteria than other alternative methods in terms of both students’ and supervisors’ perspectives. Implementation of LMS in the thesis process, which significantly affects the quality and quantity of research through improvement in feedback quality, saves time, and increases the rate of thesis completion.