While adoption of competency-based medical education for clinical training is well documented, it is less common in preclinical medical education. The gross anatomy laboratory is an opportune venue to implement competency assessment during preclinical training. This mixed-methods study determined how first-year medical student assessments of…

The authors, as student affairs professionals in a medical school setting, are keenly aware of how easy it is to overlook the health, mental health, and wellness needs of learners in professional schools who are no longer among the undergraduate constituencies that are so often our primary focus. But first year medical students to interns through…

Spatial skills, or spatial ability, is the ability to visualize and mentally manipulate three-dimensional objects, and is essential to the study of anatomy. This study aims to investigate whether spatial skills required to infer cross-sectional images could be improved through anatomy learning, as well as gender differences in spatial skills.…

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is increasingly recognized as a valuable educational adjunct in medical school curricula, particularly for reinforcing physiology through dynamic, real-time visualization. Despite its growing relevance, integration of POCUS into preclinical instruction, especially in the context of pulmonary physiology, remains…

Impostor syndrome is particularly prevalent among high-achieving individuals, making medical students a prime target for this condition. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of impostor syndrome among medical students in Turkiye and to examine the associated demographic characteristics. Additionally, by investigating the relationship…

Purpose: Emotional intelligence (EI) can improve patient-doctor relationships, foster empathy, develop teamwork in the workplace, and boost communication skills. This study aims to determine whether a cohort of residents has different profiles to their demographic and EI. Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in…

Introduction: Research in various areas indicates that expert judgment can be highly inconsistent. However, expert judgment is indispensable in many contexts. In medical education, experts often function as examiners in rater-based assessments. Here, disagreement between examiners can have far-reaching consequences. The literature suggests that…

Learning objectives are intended to be used as tools for both instructors and students. Student use of learning objectives is related to developing metacognitive skills and self-regulation of learning. Many medical institutions provide learning objectives to their pre-clerkship students, but it is unknown if or how the students use them. A…

The equilibrium potential of an ion species is a crucial concept for medical students, as it is a prerequisite to fully understanding the pathophysiology of K+ imbalances (hyperkalemia and hypokalemia) in clinical practice. However, it remains a challenging concept because current medical physiology textbooks are too simplistic and overlook…

In healthcare, effective communication in complex situations such as end of life conversations is critical for delivering high quality care. Whether residents learn from communication training with actors depends on whether they are able to select appropriate information or 'predictive cues' from that learning situation that accurately reflect…

Developing and maintaining connections with others, or what we refer to as the formation of social ties, may strengthen medical students' sense of belonging in medical school. Social ties play a particularly important role for women medical students as the medical field remains largely dominated by masculine norms. However, forming social ties…

Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) are popular to screen for social skills during undergraduate medical admission as they have been shown to predict relevant study outcomes. Two different types of SJTs can be distinguished: Traditional SJTs, which measure general effective behavior, and construct-driven SJTs which are designed to measure specific…

Since 2020, brought to the forefront by movements such as Black Lives Matter and Idle No More, it has been widely acknowledged that systemic racism contributes to racially differentiated health outcomes. Health professional educators have been called to address such disparities within healthcare, policy, and practice. To tackle structural racism…

Gross anatomy is a challenging pre-clinical course in medical school. A lab combined with lecture adds extra pressure, especially if students do not have prior anatomy exposure. One possible strategy to alleviate academic stress within anatomy is to designate table leaders. Some universities implement a rotating leader over the course of the…

This paper reports on a phenomenological reading of integration in education programs, through three layers of specificity: (1) broadly, on integration as an educational idea; (2) more particularly, on integration as expressed in the program model of the longitudinal integrated clerkship (LIC); and (3) with the highest degree of specificity, on…