These are the notes I took on the second day of AMEE. One of the things I noticed is that in most of the presentations the speakers talk about “doctors”, and that little is said about “health professionals”. There seem to be few people here who understand that effective healthcare can only be delivered by teams. They may speak about multi-disciplinary teams but I doubt that they would accept that they are “on the same level” as others on the team. The traditional heirarchy is still very clear, even if it is only implicit. I’ve substituted “doctor” with “health professional” in my notes.
Supporting Scottish dental education through collaborative development and sharing of digital teaching and learning resources
D Dewhurst
Scottish dentail students had little engagement with mainstream e-learning
Low level of e-learning experience or readiness (among students or staff?)
3 year project to:
- Provide support
- Develop digital resources
- Empower learners and teachers:
- Effective engagement with academics / clinicians
- Create resources
- Maintain a community and encourage participation
- Share resources in a wider community
People developing resources were not concerned with taking 3rd party content off the web, included personally identifiable information
An electronic lexicon in obstetrics
Athol Kent
For deep learning to occur, students must make meaning from the information we give them. But, we make assumptions about what students understand about our professional culture, which includes an entirely new language.
The project is to create an online electronic lexicon of common O&G common terms and phrases
When the student feels ready, they are assessed on their knowledge of 100 of the 800 words in the lexicon
Students enjoy being seen as “intelligent but uninformed”
Students are able to add their own content to the lexicon
Would you consider making this valuable resource available to the global community? Yes, the database can be made available to other institutions on request
The literature as a means of distance learning in a PG course of family health
A Dahmer
Why does Brazil need large-scale training? Enormous population spread out over an area more than half the size of South America
One of the biggest problems in DE is maintaining motivation among students
Created a fictional city that accurately reflects the kind of places that medical students are expected to work in, down to the political structure of the city, Neighbourhood descriptions
Used virtual teams with individual characteristics
Used comic books, newspapers, podcasts and blogs
Using Moodle to create the learning environment, fits into the university infrastructure
Mimic social problems as well, which the students have to deal with
Humanises the work for students, approximated reality using distance learning
Did you consider using something like Second Life for creating the city? Yes, decided against it because infrastructure is a problem, as well as internet access for students
Virtual clinical encounters for developing and assessing interpersonal and transcultural competence with traumatised patients
Solvig Ekblad
Medical competence:
- Clinical
- Interprofessional
- Cultural
Cultural compentence is the ability of the clinician to overcome cultural difference to build effective relationships with patients, exploring the patient’s values and beliefs
Virtual clinical encounter = an interactive computer simulation of real-life scenarios for the purpose of healthcare and medical training, education or assessment (Ellaway et al, 2008)
Patient information in the VCE is very comprehensive
The intervention is scalable, generalisable, the assessment tool can be summative or formative, works as a controlled environment where medical students can work safely
Implementing the future of medical education in Canada
G Moineau
Recommendations:
- Address individual and community needs (speaks to social accountability)
- Enhance admissions processes (cognitive and non-cognitive considerations, interviews, autobiography)
- Build on the scientific basis of medicine
- Promote prevention and public health
- Address the hidden curriculum (learning environment must explicitly promote appropriate professional attributes)
- Diversity learning contexts (community based, preceptor programme, rural environments mandatory rotation)
- Value generalism (value primary care specialities / family medicine)
- Advance inter- and intra-professional practice (participate as part of a team)
- Adopt a competency-based approach (used CANMeds framework)
- The physician is a clinician, communicator, collaborator, professional, advocate, scholar, person, manager
- Electornic portfolio on core competencies → reflective practive, longitudinal over duration of course, pass / fail assessment
- Foster medical leadership (integrated into curriculum)
An anatomy course on “Human evolution: the fossil evidence”
Netta Notzer
About 130 students attend annually, a 3rd of them non-medical
Information for the course came from lecturers (e.g. their teaching philosophy), other faculty members’ opinions, observations in the class, the curriculum and syllabus, students’ web-sites
Scientific theory can be contradicted by new evidence and be argued. There is no superior authority in science, it is governed by factual evidence
Course is different from traditional anatomy courses, in that it is:
- Conceptually complex
- Intelllectually demanding
- Scientifically dynamic
Course presented in lecture hall, but instructor uses analogy, open discussion and explanation rather than memorisation
Course demonstrates that students from different faculties can learn together
GIMMICS: an educational game for final year pharmacy students and GPs in family practice
Pascale Petit
GIMMICS = teaching game in a controlled academic setting, focus on communication skills
First introduced in 2001, operational in 2003
Teaching goals:
- prepare for tasks as pharmacists
- improve quality of care
- address heterogeneity
- help student reflect and error-correct
Game is web-based, consists of a virtual pharmacy, is open for others to follow, covers all aspects of the profession
University remodels actual rooms to mimic game interface
Also makes use of reflective journals
Activities within the game are scored
Also used for communication between students and pharmacists
Game is a structured mix of all kinds of activities e.g. consultations, interruptions, home visits, prescription
No evaluation, focus is on learning
Can take a long time to introduce minor concepts to students
See Bertram (Chip) Bruce – University of Illinois
The impact of PDAs on the millenial medical student
Monica Hoy
We need to move the conversation away from the idea that a certain generation of students is more “technologically savvy” by virtue of the fact that they were born during a certain period of time
To determine if the stage of training plays a role in attitudes towards the use of newer technologies for learning
Determine baseline prevalence of PDA use among medical studnets
To determine preference among students towards more traditional adjuncts to learning
Students feel that PDAs are more useful as they progress through the curriculum, and derive more value from them when they’re actually practicing, rather than when they’re in the pre-clinical stages
Students are NOT doing it for themselves: the use of m-learning in a minimally supported environment
K Masters
“Use of handheld devices is crucial for modern healthcare delivery” ← really?
Should be encouraging self-learning activities
Students purchase own hardware and software, no advice from staff, no encouragement, no expectation, etc. i.e. no support at all
Second presenter in this session giving information on what type of mobile device (e.g. iPhone, etc.) that students are using…is this important?
Uses deviced for taking notes, accessing medical websites, emails, reference tools, lecture notes, research, videos
Drop in use as sophistication of use increases
Many of the activities that are important for medical education are not accessed by students on mobile devices
Students talk about anywhere, anytime access, and ease of use. However, they also complain of small screen sizes, cost, technical difficulties and lack of support (14% saw this as a problem → but students only use devices for simple activities e.g. email, so high levels of support not necessary)
International medical education
Plenary (David Wilkinson, Madalena Patricio, Stefan Lindgren, Pablo Pulido, Emmanuel G Cassimatis)
Is the globalisation / internationalisation of medical education just another form of colonialism?
What are the:
Models
Opportunities
Challenges
Higher education is a global industry, a globally traded commodity as demand soars
“Constantly inspired by students”
What is the difference between globalisation and internationalisation?
Global medicine:
- Medicine and disease are global e.g. HIV. Influeza, TB
- Medical professionals are highly mobile
- Medical tourism as an emerging industry
- Medical migration (in some countries, more than half of professionals were trained in other countries)
- Expansion of agencies and institutions
The international / visiting teacher is becoming less common, but the virtual teacher is increasing (is this happening fast enough?)
Models of international medical education:
- Outbound / inbound student mobility e.g. electives
- Staff mobility and sabbatical e.g. conferences, formal exchange
- Academic partnering
- Offshore campus
- “Franchised” curriculum
- International schools
- Institutional partnerships
Shift from student numbers to a global strategy for recruiting, supporting students
International students are one of Australia’s biggest earners
Transnational medical education:
- Global faculty and curriculum (recruit offshore whenever possible)
- Global students → diversity
- Global student exchange
- Key partnerships
- Global projects
- Global presence
Huge opportunity for the virutal international teacher
In a global medical programme how would you manage:
- Accreditation?
- Registration?
- Cost-effectiveness?
In 2001: will medicine and medical education escape the impact of globalisation…no
Medical students should be involved in global endeavours? Most salient reason in moral obligation, students want to “help others”
Students the skills to work in an international context, and an understanding of the values of the global citizen
“To grow is to understand that we are very small…”
Understanding difference is part of being a competent health professional
“Different…but not indifferent”
Quality standards:
- Degrees
- Licensure
- Accreditation
- …and others
Transition from process-based to outcomes-based education
Increasing emphasis on life-long education and regulation for health care professionals
Should look at harmonising quality of education, rather than standardisation
Accreditation must be local, but should be based on an awareness of a global context