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The global health development community is increasingly examining the phenomenon of short-term experiences in global health (STEGH), with an aim to mitigate the negative impacts of such activities on host communities. Appropriate supervision is one strategy, but various barriers (e.g., institutional requirements) limit the availability of qualified supervisors. Remote supervision represents one potential model to provide supervision that may mitigate the negative impacts of STEGH. This paper reports observed outcomes from a description of a pilot remote supervision program employed in a global health program for Canadian undergraduate students. Benefits for learners included greater confidence and independence, greater perceived effectiveness in conducting their project abroad, and reassurance of remote support from their supervisor, supplemented with day-to-day guidance from the local partner. Host communities reported greater trust in the bidirectional nature of partnership with the visiting institution, empowerment through directing students’ work, and improved alignment of projects with community needs. Finally, faculty noted that remote supervision provided greater flexibility and freedom when compared to traditional in-person supervision, allowing them to maintain professional duties at home. Collectively, this pilot suggests that remote supervision demonstrates a potential solution to mitigating the harms of STEGHs undertaken by learners by providing adequate and appropriate remote supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the concepts of vertical and horizontal integration as a way in dealing with integrated curriculum. The present trend of integrated way in medical education is a radical shift from traditional curriculum that has been adopted for several years. The two most ordinarily found curriculum paradigms are founded on either disciplinary or unified organizational structures.

Context: Community-based medical education (CBME) has become widely accepted as an important innovation in undergraduate medical education. In curriculum featuring CBME, students are acquainted with the community early in their studies however; the impact of this training can be judged best to see them practice the required aspects of CBME. Malaysia is a multiracial country with a very strong community dependant life style. Main national health problems have called for a change in health profession education from traditional hospital based health care to community-based delivery system. Three major university's medical schools that either practice community oriented or community based medical education in undergraduate medical curriculum are evaluated. Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has a community based medical education (CBME) curriculum as Community and Family Case Study (CFCS) compared to a community oriented education curriculum (COE) adopted by Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). However, UM at the time of undertaking this study back in 2005 was though practicing COE has also later opted CBME as CFCS. Objective: To determine whether medical graduates from USM with a community-based medical education in its curriculum for more than 25 years are inspired to have stronger commitment towards community health as shown in their on-job practice of medicine compared to other graduates from UM and UKM, who have adopted community-oriented medical education program. Method: A questionnaire-based pilot study with 12 items (variables) was designed to obtain supervisor's opinion on commitment of interns towards the health of community they serve. The questionnaire was administered to a randomized group of 85 specialists supervising the internship training program in five major disciplines including internal medicine, surgery, orthopaedic, gynaecology and obstetrics and paediatric medicine. The data received from 62 respondents from five major disciplines was analyzed utilizing SPSS version 12.0.1. Result: The responses received from 62 supervisors on an inventory in which 9 out of 12 variables were directly related to community commitments of interns. It was shown that the USM graduates who were taught through a CBME curriculum have performed better than the graduates from UM and UKM who followed a COE curriculum. P-value (< 0.001) was highly significant and consistent with higher mean score in those variables. Conclusion: The graduates taught through a CBME curriculum performed better in community commitments towards patients care compared to graduates from COE curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Questioning is one of the essential techniques used by lecturers to make lectures more interactive and effective. This study surveyed the perception of questioning techniques by medical school faculty members and analyzed how the questioning technique is used in actual classes. Methods: Data on the perceptions of the questioning skills used during lectures was collected using a self-questionnaire for faculty members (N = 33) during the second semester of 2008. The questionnaire consisted of 18 items covering the awareness and characteristics of questioning skills. Recorded video tapes were used to observe the faculty members' questioning skills. Results: Most faculty members regarded the questioning technique during classes as being important and expected positive outcomes in terms of the students' participation in class, concentration in class and understanding of the class contents. In the 99 classes analyzed, the median number of questions per class was 1 (0-29). Among them, 40 classes (40.4 %) did not use questioning techniques. The frequency of questioning per lecture was similar regardless of the faculty members' perception. On the other hand, the faculty members perceived that their usual wait time after question was approximately 10 seconds compared to only 2.5 seconds measured from video analysis. More lecture-experienced faculty members tended to ask more questions in class. Conclusions: There were some discrepancies regarding the questioning technique between the faculty members' perceptions and reality, even though they had positive opinions of the technique. The questioning skills during a lecture need to be emphasized to faculty members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shiftwork has been recognized as a major psychosocial distress with clinical implications. In Complejo Sanitario San Luis (San Luis Medical Center), medical residents (MR) work 90 hours a week. They suffer from sleep deprivations, acute and chronic fatigue, and they face multiple risks to their health and to patients' safety. Chronopsychology applied to the study of shiftwork proposes a criterion for a better arrangement of shifts, ensuring the protection of workers' health and the quality of medical services, and offers alternative treatments for cases of lack of adaptation. Workers were trained in sleep hygiene and lifestyle compatible with night work and extended work shifts in order to be aware of how their bodies and cognitive and emotional faculties which depend on wellness and physiological harmony responded. Since this is an issue related to risks to health in a public service which affects both parts involved (patients and professionals), it should be open to wide and public debate, including preventive measures aimed at regulating the limit of working hours per shift and week. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The General Medical Council expects UK medical graduates to gain some statistical knowledge during their undergraduate education; but provides no specific guidance as to amount, content or teaching method. Published work on statistics teaching for medical undergraduates has been dominated by medical statisticians, with little input from the doctors who will actually be using this knowledge and these skills after graduation. Furthermore, doctor's statistical training needs may have changed due to advances in information technology and the increasing importance of evidence-based medicine. Thus there exists a need to investigate the views of practising medical doctors as to the statistical training required for undergraduate medical students, based on their own use of these skills in daily practice. Methods: A questionnaire was designed to investigate doctors' views about undergraduate training in statistics and the need for these skills in daily practice, with a view to informing future teaching. The questionnaire was emailed to all clinicians with a link to the University of East Anglia Medical School. Open ended questions were included to elicit doctors' opinions about both their own undergraduate training in statistics and recommendations for the training of current medical students. Content analysis was performed by two of the authors to systematically categorise and describe all the responses provided by participants. Results: 130 doctors responded, including both hospital consultants and general practitioners. The findings indicated that most had not recognised the value of their undergraduate teaching in statistics and probability at the time, but had subsequently found the skills relevant to their career. Suggestions for improving undergraduate teaching in these areas included referring to actual research and ensuring relevance to, and integration with, clinical practice. Conclusions: Grounding the teaching of statistics in the context of real research studies and including examples of typical clinical work may better prepare medical students for their subsequent career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the elective choices of medical students may not have major impacts in their residencies in Canada. Also cited are the various opinions on the importance of electives in medical residencies, the purpose of electives as cited by Maylynn Ding of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS), and the plan by medical schools to limit the number of students focusing on single specialty.

The article discusses the highlights of the sixty-sixth National Courses on Educational Science for Teachers of Health Professionals (NCESTHP), conducted during seventh to sixteenth February 2013, and organized by the National Teacher Training Center (NTTC), which is functioning under the Department of Medical Education, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER).