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Introduction: Although all residents routinely teach medical students, not all residents are involved in teaching or trained in teaching during undergraduate medical school, as accreditation bodies do not mandate the promotion of teaching skills to undergraduate medical students. With relatively inadequate formal training and residents' intrinsic time constraints, tactically incorporating formal medical education elective experiences in medical school curricula is understandable. This study explores if medical education electives at Avalon University School of Medicine (AUSOM) can enhance medical students' interest in teaching and research., Methods: The medical education elective at AUSOM was developed to give interested medical students an elective experience. The course modules include accreditation/regulation, curriculum development, learning theories, assessments, and research methodology. Students can choose any one of the modules. We offered the medical education elective to twenty-five students in the year 2021. All of them gave feedback at the end of the elective. The data was analyzed qualitatively through framework analysis, which includes familiarization, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing, and defining and naming themes., Results: Different themes emerged, enhancing the interest in academic medicine, understanding research methodologies, supporting learners, and awareness of learning theories., Conclusion: Doing medical education electives at AUSOM enhanced students' interest in teaching, and students reported that they could understand research methodologies, especially those related to medical education. Medical students should have opportunities for electives in medical education, and more research is required to evaluate the effectiveness of medical education electives across medical schools., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2024 Arja et al.)

It has been estimated that 70% of care home residents have dementia on admission or develop it after admission, but that many do not have or receive a formal diagnosis of dementia. People with dementia often have significant care needs and it is important that the condition is diagnosed even at an advanced stage. This will enable nurses to predict the person's care needs, develop appropriate care plans and arrange pre-emptive decisions. In 2021-22, a quality improvement project took place in care homes in West Norfolk. This project piloted an abbreviated memory assessment model based on the Diagnosing Advanced Dementia Mandate (DiADeM) tool to increase the rate of diagnoses among residents showing signs and symptoms of cognitive impairment but not formally diagnosed with dementia. Out of 109 residents assessed, 95 were diagnosed with dementia. The pilot is being extended locally and replicated across England., Competing Interests: Zena Aldridge is consultant editor for Nursing Older People and clinical adviser (dementia) for NHS England in the East of England. She is supporting pilot sites to replicate the model described in this article in collaboration with the national NHS England team. None of the other authors have any conflict of interest to declare, (© 2023 RCN Publishing Company Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers.)

Purpose: COVID-19 pandemic and closure of campuses have required a significant and rapid shift in teaching and training methods across health professions education, including remote teaching replacing face-to-face teaching. This study aims to investigate if emergency remote teaching implemented in the first two years of the medical school at Avalon University School of Medicine served the purpose during the COVID-19 pandemic. The effectiveness of emergency remote teaching and on-campus teaching were compared using course evaluations (students' feedback) and students' performance in assessments., Methods: This is a concurrent mixed research method. The quantitative data collected are course evaluations and students' performance in assessments between the two semesters September 2019 (on-campus teaching) and May 2020 (emergency remote teaching). There are three semesters in the first year and two semesters in the second year of the medical program. Each semester has around 10-20 students at any given time. Quantitative data were analyzed for p-values and statistical significance using a t -test. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis., Results: Results have shown no statistically significant difference (p<0.05) between two semesters (between on-campus teaching and emergency remote teaching) for course evaluations. Even if there is any difference, the mean values were better in May 2020 semester with emergency remote teaching. There was no statistically significant difference (p<0.05) even on students' performance in assessments between two semesters (between on-campus teaching and emergency remote teaching) except for two courses. The thematic analysis of interviews revealed the advantages and disadvantages of online teaching., Conclusion: Emergency remote teaching served the purpose in the first two years of medical school during the COVID-19 pandemic. The advantages of online teaching are flexibility and comfort, and students can save time. The disadvantages are technical challenges, students lacking motivation, lack of personal interaction, and limitations on lab and hands-on experiences., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest for this work., (© 2022 Arja et al.)

Introduction: The term continuing professional development encompasses competencies required to practice the high quality medicine, including medical, managerial, ethical, social, and personal skills, whereas continuing medical education refers only to expanding the knowledge and skills required by physicians. The competencies for basic science faculty identified are management and administration, teaching, assessments, curriculum development, and research. This study aimed to evaluate the outcomes of faculty development initiatives at Avalon University School of Medicine and examine the optimal approach to faculty development activities., Methods: This is a survey-based quantitative study. A cross-sectional survey was conducted after implementing the faculty development activities. We took thirteen basic science faculty members as a unit and recruited them for different faculty development activities from 2015. Faculty members were involved in various faculty development courses, workshops, and training sessions. A survey was conducted among faculty members using a questionnaire on the Likert scale to identify if there are any increased knowledge or skills on teaching and assessment methods, educational scholarship, and scholarly activities after implementing faculty development initiatives. The faculty responses were tabulated and quantified in the Excel sheet and analyzed by SPSS software., Results: All thirteen faculty members responded to the questionnaire (100% response rate). There was an increased self-reported knowledge and skills of faculty members. 70% of the faculty agreed that they are able to get involved in designing their course learning objectives. 100% of the faculty were aware of different teaching methods, and 93% of them were implementing different types of teaching methods, including small group discussions, flipped classrooms, standardized patient-based teaching, and problem-based learning. 100% of the faculty were aware of different assessment methods and implementing them. There were self-reported and observed behavioral changes., Conclusions: Faculty development activities at Avalon University School of Medicine have shown to be effective. At larger institutions, the department chair can lead the faculty development activities., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest: None declared., (Copyright: © Journal of Advances in Medical Education & Professionalism.)

Small group discussions are used in medical education to reinforce learning and to promote the application of knowledge. Small group discussions can involve a variety of tasks, such as critical thinking, self-directed learning, problem-solving, and brainstorming. The objective of this study is to find out if small group discussions can improve students' learning of specific pharmacology topics and students' performance on assessments. In the present study, small group discussions were utilized for six unique topics in the pharmacology course, and knowledge-based tests were administered before and after small group discussions to examine their efficacy. Statistically significant improvement in knowledge gains was observed for antimicrobials and neuropharmacology topics, but not for anticancer agents. Students' performance in topics that had group discussions was better on summative assessments compared with the overall performance on the summative assessment in the pharmacology (study group; summer 2018). Students' (study group; summer 2018) overall grade on the summative assessment of the pharmacology course was better than overall pharmacology grade on the summative assessment of students who had no group discussions (control group; winter 2018). Students' perceptions of the small group discussions were satisfactory, suggesting group discussions may be an enjoyable way to improve students' performance in some pharmacology topics., Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© International Association of Medical Science Educators 2020.)

The catecholaminergic neurotoxin 6-hydroxydopamine is used to lesion dopaminergic pathways in the experimental animal models of Parkinson's disease. The present study was aimed to evaluate the combined treatment with bioflavonoid quercetin (QN) and desferrioxamine (DFO) on 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) - induced neurotoxicity in the striatum of rats. Adult, male Sprague - Dawley rats were divided into control, sham lesion, 6-OHDA treated (300 µg, intracisternal), 6-OHDA with QN (50 mg/kg) treated, 6-OHDA with DFO (50 mg/kg) treated and 6-OHDA with QN and DFO treated groups. Striatal dopamine, protein carbonyl content (PCC), glutathione (GSH) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were estimated. There was a significant increase (p < 0.05) in PCC and decrease in dopamine, GSH and SOD level and striatal neuronal number with 6-OHDA treatment. QN and DFO treatment significantly (p < 0.05) reduced these changes showing a significant neuronal protection. Combined treatment has a more significant effect (p < 0.05) in protecting the neurons and increasing the antioxidant enzymes in the striatum. In conclusion, an antioxidant with iron chelator treatment showed a significant neuroprotective effect against 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) by preventing dopaminergic neuronal loss and maintaining the striatal dopamine level.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play an important role in ageing and age-related neurodegenerative changes including Parkinson's disease (PD). PD is characterized by signs of major oxidative stress and mitochondrial damage in the pars compacta of the substantia nigra. Present study was designed to investigate whether the Centella asiatica extract (CAE) would prevent 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced neurotoxicity in aged Sprague-Dawley rats. Adult, male Sprague-dawley rats of 300-350 g were divided into control, C. asiatica alone, MPTP alone (20 mg/kg, for 21 days) and MPTP with C. asiatica (300 mg/kg for 21 days) groups. Effect of aqueous extract of C. asiatica on oxidative biomarker levels in corpus striatum and hippocampus homogenate was examined. MPTP-challenged rats elicited a significant increase in lipid hydroperoxides (LPO) (p < 0.01), protein-carbonyl-content (PCC) (p < 0.01) and xanthine oxidase (XO) (p < 0.01) when compared with control rats. There was a significant decrease in total antioxidants (TA) (p < 0.001), superoxide dismutase (SOD) (p < 0.001), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) (p < 0.01) and catalase (CAT) (p < 0.001) levels with MPTP treatment. Supplementation of CAE reduced LPO and PCC and significantly increased (p < 0.01) TA and antioxidant enzyme levels (p < 0.01) in corpus striatum and hippocampus. These results show that administration of C. asiatica was effective in protecting the brain against neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinsonism.