Anxiety, Uncertainty, and Resilience of Medical Students Worldwide during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted medical education worldwide. While healthcare professionals labored to ensure proper care for COVID-19 patients, medical students suffered from high rates of anxiety, uncertainty, burnout, and depressive symptoms. Whilst students in the pre-clinical phase of education faced disruption of didactic lectures and laboratory training, senior medical students faced uncertainty regarding their clinical rotations and internships, which are vital for practical exposure to healthcare. Several studies across the world demonstrated that clinical learning was significantly affected, with students in many countries completely cut off from in-person rotations. The disruption of the clinical curriculum coupled with a sense of failure to contribute at a time of significant need often led to despair. Reforms proposed and/or implemented by governments, medical advisory boards, medical schools, and other administrative bodies were felt to be insufficient by the medical student fraternity at large. Consequently, these students continue to face high rates of anxiety, depression, and a general sense of cynicism. In this student-authored perspective, we highlight the challenges faced by and the psychological impact on medical students directly or indirectly from the pandemic.

Integration of E-learning into the Physiology Education of Medical Students in their Pre-clinical Curriculum

Purpose: In our institution, we initiated integrated learning in the format of Learning Modules (LM), interactive audio/visual modules developed by the faculty in alignment with session learning objectives, as pre-work for in-class sessions.?This pilot study examined students’ perceptions of this new learning method and effectiveness in helping them achieve content mastery. Methods: The instructor provided the LMs in advance, allowing a self-paced introduction of critical concepts that were subsequently discussed in detail during the in-class learning (ICL) session. A cognitive diagnostic assessment was used to analyze the student's performance on the exams. This involved identifying six skills, one or more of which were marked to be necessary for answering each exam question correctly. A question-by-skill Q-matrix was constructed, followed by analysis using a Deterministic Input, Noisy "And" Gate (DINA) model. Results: 70% of the students rated the new approach as "Excellent or Good." 63% of the students attained skills necessary to answer questions that involved integrating information gained separately from LM and ICL sessions. However, only 23% of the students achieved mastery in all the 6 skills. Conclusion: This integrative learning system allowed for time optimization since ICL sessions could focus on more interactive aspects of the content.

Student perspectives of preparedness characteristics for clinical learning within a fully distributed veterinary teaching model

The transition into the clinical environment is challenging and associated with significant stress and anxiety. This study aimed to examine the perspectives of students on the characteristics important for preparedness for clinical learning and the influence of gender, age, and graduate status on those perspectives. This descriptive, questionnaire-based study of 62 characteristics categorised into six themes was conducted within the Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine completed by 139 students commencing their final clinical year. The Friedman test and post-hoc Wilcoxon signed rank sum test explored for differences in ranking across the themes. Ordinal logistic regression and Mann-Whitney U pairwise comparisons were utilised to investigate for effects of gender, age, and graduate status on theme ranking. There was a significant difference (P <0.05) between medians for themes of preparedness characteristics with comparisons revealing willingness and communication and interaction as the most highly rated characteristics. Knowledge and understanding were viewed as the least important characteristic. Regression and pairwise Mann-Whitney U comparisons confirmed no significant effects (P >0.05) of gender, age or graduate status on student rating of preparedness characteristics. Integrating learning opportunities of those preparedness characteristics in the pre-clinical curriculum may improve students’ preparedness for the clinical environment.

The Effect of Healthcare Education on Future Doctors’ Moral Competence in Poland. Joining to the Competitive League with a Beneficial Delay?

<p>In competitive education test scores and scientometric indicators are 'the alpha and omega'. This can be mis-educative for healthcare students’ moral competence. A pilot research study with <i>n=</i>114 Polish healthcare students was conducted to examine how their moral competence development was affected by learning environment with the focus on competition. Data were obtained with the standard Moral Competence Test. <i>Results. </i>The sample allowed the identification of a regress in moral competence during students’ pre-clinical curriculum, and then progress during their clinical curriculum. Also, a reverse gender gap effect concerning participants’ C-scores (C for moral competence) was observed, but no significant segmentation effect was noticed. <i><u>Explanations</u></i>. Scholarly literature usually suggests a decrease or stagnation of medical and healthcare students’ C-scores (particularly during their clinical curriculum) resulting from, e.g., competitive trends in higher education. Polish tertiary education only tries hard to increase its competitiveness and position in national and international rankings. This delay effect seems beneficial for the development of students’ moral competence against trends in moral competence education during medical education documented between 1983 and 2021, and additionally discussed in the following article. </p>

The effect of healthcare education on students’ moral competence in Poland. Entering the dog-eats-dog world with a beneficial delay?

<p>In competitive education test scores and scientometric indicators are 'the alpha and omega'. This can be mis-educative for healthcare students’ moral competence. A pilot research study with <i>n=</i>114 Polish healthcare students was conducted to examine how their moral competence development was affected by learning environment with the focus on competition. Data were obtained with the standard Moral Competence Test. <i>Results. </i>The sample allowed the identification of a regress in moral competence during students’ pre-clinical curriculum, and then progress during their clinical curriculum. Also, a reverse gender gap effect concerning participants’ C-scores (C for moral competence) was observed, but no significant segmentation effect was noticed. <i><u>Explanations</u></i>. Scholarly literature usually suggests a decrease or stagnation of medical and healthcare students’ C-scores (particularly during their clinical curriculum) resulting from, e.g., competitive trends in higher education. Polish tertiary education only tries hard to increase its competitiveness and position in national and international rankings. This delay effect seems beneficial for the development of students’ moral competence against trends in moral competence education during medical education documented between 1983 and 2021, and additionally discussed in the following article. </p>

The effect of healthcare education on students’ moral competence in Poland. Entering the dog-eats-dog world with a beneficial delay?

<p>In competitive education test scores and scientometric indicators are 'the alpha and omega'. This can be mis-educative for healthcare students’ moral competence. A pilot research study with <i>n=</i>114 Polish healthcare students was conducted to examine how their moral competence development was affected by learning environment with the focus on competition. Data were obtained with the standard Moral Competence Test. <i>Results. </i>The sample allowed the identification of a regress in moral competence during students’ pre-clinical curriculum, and then progress during their clinical curriculum. Also, a reverse gender gap effect concerning participants’ C-scores (C for moral competence) was observed, but no significant segmentation effect was noticed. <i><u>Explanations</u></i>. Scholarly literature usually suggests a decrease or stagnation of medical and healthcare students’ C-scores (particularly during their clinical curriculum) resulting from, e.g., competitive trends in higher education. Polish tertiary education only tries hard to increase its competitiveness and position in national and international rankings. This delay effect seems beneficial for the development of students’ moral competence against trends in moral competence education during medical education documented between 1983 and 2021, and additionally discussed in the following article. </p>

Is Speech-Language Pathology’s Clinical Training Responsive to the South African Context?

The absence of equitable speech- language pathology services for South Africa’s black majority has triggered a need to decolonise the clinical curriculum. The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of clinical educators when supervising diverse students in various community settings. A qualitative approach was employed, including interviewing seven clinical educators in speech-language pathology, in a focus group. The responses from the discussions were analysed using thematic content analysis. The participants highlighted themes and certain challenges (i) Differences (ii) discomfort (iii) clinical preparation and (iv) critical engagement. These results highlight a mismatch between the efforts of the department to transform and the experiences of the clinical educators. The results further highlight the need for the department to support clinical educators in developing a mind-set of change, of shifting the power dynamics and valuing intercultural communication.