Anatomy teaching, once thought of as being the cornerstone of medical education, has undergone much change in the recent years. There is now growing concern for falling standards in medical graduates' anatomical knowledge, coupled with a reduction in teaching time and appropriately qualified teaching staff. With limited contact hours available to…

In a sequential OSCE which has been suggested to reduce testing costs, candidates take a short screening test and who fail the test, are asked to take the full OSCE. In order to introduce an effective and accurate sequential design, we developed a model for designing and evaluating screening OSCEs. Based on two datasets from a 10-station…

As clinical reasoning is a fundamental competence of physicians for good clinical practices, medical academics have endeavored to teach reasoning skills to undergraduate students. However, our current understanding of student-level clinical reasoning is limited, mainly because of the lack of evaluation tools for this internal cognitive process.…

There is a general understanding and acceptance that within healthcare individuals are entitled to compassionate care. Both empirical and theoretical evidence demonstrates that compassionate care is important to the successful delivery of healthcare, however, the literature falls short in identifying and explaining the exact psychological…

The present study utilized metaphor analysis to examine the core values of Colombian medical students. The entire 9th semester medical class of 60 students was invited to respond to a structured questionnaire. It asked participants to state their preferred life-metaphor, whether they had always preferred this metaphor since childhood or…

Ultrasonography is increasingly used for teaching anatomy and physical examination skills but its effect on cognitive load is unknown. This study aimed to determine ultrasound's perceived utility for learning, and to investigate the effect of cognitive load on its perceived utility. Consenting first-year medical students (n?=?137) completed…

Despite the wealth of literature surrounding the importance of effective communication in the clinical practice, there is a dearth of consensus in the literature on what communicative competence in health (CCH) is, and the practices of meaningful health communication. Seventeen residents (17) were invited to share their thoughts on the concept of…

The transition of the Australian paramedic discipline from vocation education and training to the higher education sector has seen a sharp rise in interest in near-peer teaching (NPT). The objective of this study was to examine satisfaction levels of NPT over one academic semester among undergraduate paramedic students. A repeated measured design…

This study investigates the joint impact of personality characteristics and self-efficacy on the perceived academic achievement of medical students on top of their prior high school performance. The sample consisted of medical students in their pre-clinical years. The students' grade point average scores at high school were included as control…

From a perspective of social practice, learning is a socially constituted practice that is imbued with socio-culturally significant meanings and shaped by the values and norms shared within a community of learners. This focus group study examines the role of e-learning technologies in mediating the social practice of learning among coursework…

Even though peer tutors are often used in gross anatomy courses, research in the field is rather a subject of the last two decades. This is especially true about the didactical challenges these types of peer tutors experience during their tutorials and about how they are prepared for the task. The aim of the presented study was to learn about the…

Interest and motivation significantly influence achievement; however, interest in immunology remains to be determined. Using a structured questionnaire, the current study assessed for the first time interest in immunology among biomedical graduate students in Ghana after a one-week introduction to immunology course. Our results revealed that…

Context: Athletic training educators are faced with the tasks of assessing learning styles, preparing and delivering content, and assessing student learning. Within content delivery, some educators may subscribe to certain learning theories and teaching strategies. One teaching strategy that holds potential for athletic training education is…

Ultrasound imaging is a widely used diagnostic technique, whose integration in medical education is constantly growing. The aim of this study was to evaluate chest ultrasound usefulness in teaching respiratory system physiology, students' perception of chest ultrasound integration into a traditional lecture in human physiology, and short-term…

Cadaveric simulations are an effective way to add clinical context to an anatomy course. In this study, unembalmed (fresh) cadavers were uniquely prepared to simulate pleural effusion to teach chest percussion and review thoracic anatomy. Thirty first-year medical students were assigned to either an intervention (Group A) or control group (Group…