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The article presents viewpoints on several guide supplement on planning and implementing peer-assisted learning (PAL). One author believes that PAL is an area significant to higher education, workplace, and in primary and secondary schools. He notes that it is also very common in higher education and it is becoming more common in the workplace. on the other hand, another author argues that this guide is valuable to institutions which are planning on the implementation of PAL and the writers are to be commended for their efforts.

Clerkships are generally seen as a very favourable learning environment for final-year students. However, in recent years the clinical experience of final-year students has been reported to decline progressively. It was decided, therefore, to introduce an innovative skills training model in internal medicine. Sixty final-year students received four consecutive days of training during their first week, consisting of three-hour sessions on each day. The skills training course reflected a patient history from admission to discharge and included all required routine procedures, typical forms/files and computer interactions. Acceptability was measured with self-administered surveys post-intervention and again 16 weeks later; self-assessment was measured pre-/post-intervention. The skills training course was well accepted by the students and led to a significant improvement in self-assessment. It was considered to be very helpful for work on the wards in both the immediate and the long-term retrospective evaluation. The final-year skills training course allows students to learn how to handle specific tools and applications for their work on the ward. It possesses face validity and is easy to integrate. Practice points ·Clerkships are seen to be a very favourable learning environment. ·However, final-year students' clinical experience has declined significantly. ·A final-year students' skills training course is easy to integrate, has face validity and is well accepted by final-year students. ·In retrospective evaluation the training is found to help final-year students to become familiar with their work on the ward. ·Further research is needed to prove the effectiveness of a final-year students' skills training course in a group control design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There seems to be a common perception among medical educators that curiosity is untapped or even subjugated in medical education. This review aims to summarize research on curiosity across the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and education and report its potential to advance medical education., Methods: For this narrative review multiple online libraries were searched using variations of the terms curiosity and school/education/learning . Additional studies were reviewed using the reference lists of included studies, and all studies were assessed for quality and relevance., Results: This review of previous research on curiosity shows that curiosity can significantly impact characteristics relevant to medical education, particularly mental health and learning. In addition, the authors outline how curiosity is linked to other epistemic emotions such as anxiety, novelty, surprise, and uncertainty. Finally, an epistemic-emotion-framework (EEF) is proposed to help educators encourage curiosity in medical students., Conclusion: By drawing from other research fields, medical educators can learn valuable lessons about the importance of curiosity and how to influence it. This review provides an overview of current research and a framework for how the potential of curiosity can be harnessed to play an important role in students' medical education.

Background: This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to summarize the available evidence on the prevalence of professional burnout among medical students., Methods: The review was performed according to the PRISMA guidelines. Databases were systematically searched for peer-reviewed articles, reporting burnout among medical students published between 2000 and 2017. The meta-analysis was conducted on the available data on burnout rates in medical students measured with the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-HSS)., Results: Fifty-eight out of 3006 studies were found eligible for inclusion. Twelve of these studies met the criteria for meta-analysis. Weighted mean values for the three sub-dimensions of the MBI-HSS were M = 22.93 (SD = 10.25) for Emotional Exhaustion, M = 8.88 (SD = 5.64) for Depersonalization, and M = 35.11 (SD = 8.03) for Personal Accomplishment. Prevalence rates for professional burnout ranged from 7.0% to 75.2%, depending on country-specific factors, applied instruments, cutoff-criteria for burnout symptomatology., Conclusion: This review underlines the burden of burnout among medical students. Future research should explicitly focus on specific context factors and student group under investigation. Such efforts are necessary to control for context-dependent confounders in research on medical students' mental health impairment to enable more meaningful comparisons and adequate prevention strategies.

Introduction: To our best knowledge, a rigorous prospective analysis of final year medical students' (FY medical students) activity profiles during workplace learning is lacking. The present study investigated the CanMEDS characteristics of all on-ward activities performed by internal medicine FY medical students. We tested the hypotheses that during FY medical student workplace training (I) routine activities are predominantly performed, while supervised, more complex activities are underrepresented with (II) FY medical students performing an insufficient number of autonomous activities and that (III) the CanMEDS roles of the Communicator and the Professional prevail., Methods: During the second and the sixth week of their final year trimester at the University of Heidelberg Medical Hospital, N = 34 FY medical students (73% female; mean age 26.4 ± 2.4) were asked to keep a detailed record of all their on-ward activities and to document the duration, mode of action (active versus passive; independent versus supervised), estimated relevance for later practice, and difficulty-level in specially designed activity logbooks. CanMEDS roles were assigned to the documented activities via post-hoc expert consensus., Results: About 4308 activities lasting a total of 2211.4 h were documented. Drawing blood (20.8%) was the most frequently documented medical activity followed by full admission procedures (9.6%). About 14.9% of the time was spent with non-medical activities. About 82.1% of all medical activities performed went unsupervised. The Communicator (42%), the Professional (38%), and the Collaborator (7%) were assigned as the top three CanMEDS roles., Conclusions: The results call for increased efforts in creating more authentic learning experiences for FY medical students shifting towards more complex, supervised tasks, and improved team integration.

Background: Little is known about medical educators' self-definition., Aims: The aim of this study is to survey an international community of medical educators focusing on the medical educators' self-definition., Methods: Within a comprehensive, web-based survey, an open question on the participants' views of how they would define a "medical educator" was sent to 2200 persons on the mailing list of the Association for Medical Education in Europe. The free text definitions were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis., Results: Of the, 2200 medical educators invited to participate, 685 (31.1%) provided a definition of a "medical educator". The qualitative analysis of the free text definitions revealed that medical educators defined themselves in 13 roles, primarily as "Professional Expert", "Facilitator", "Information Provider", "Enthusiast", "Faculty Developer", "Mentor", "Undergraduate and Postgraduate Trainer", "Curriculum Developer", "Assessor and Assessment Creator", and "Researcher"., Conclusions: Our survey revealed that medical educators predominantly define themselves as "Professional Experts" and identified 12 further self-defined roles of a medical educator, several of which not to have been reported previously. The results can be used to further the understanding of our professional identity.

Background: Ward rounds represent an important task in clinical settings. Despite their importance, students show substantial deficits in ward round competencies (e.g. physical examination, drug prescription, documentation). Previously reported teaching methods such as ward round training with standardized patients or educational wards, however, are time-consuming and expensive., Aims: To assess the effects of a structured on-ward supervision program for final-year students with specially trained supervising doctors focusing on ward round competencies., Method: A total of 36 medical students were randomly assigned to an intervention group (IG) and a control group (CG). During an eight-week-long training course, the intervention group (IG; n = 18) received structured ward round training while the control group (CG; n = 18) received on-ward training regarding how to take patient histories and perform physical examinations. Ward round competencies were assessed using simulated ward round scenarios with objective checklist ratings and standardized patient ratings., Results: The IG achieved significantly more predefined learning goals compared to the CG. Standardized patient ratings did not differ significantly between groups., Conclusions: RESULTS provide evidence that the presented program is a feasible and efficient tool for teaching ward round skills at the bedside. Further research should focus on cost effectiveness compared to alternative models.

Background: Little is known about how medical educators perceive their own expertise, needs and challenges in relation to medical education., Aim: To survey an international community of medical educators with a focus on: (1) their expertise, (2) their need for training and (3) perceived challenges., Methods: A web-based survey comprising closed and open free-text questions was sent to 2200 persons on the mailing list of the Association for Medical Education in Europe., Results: Of the 2200 medical educators invited to participate, 860 (39%) from 76 different countries took part in the survey. In general, their reported areas of expertise mainly comprised principles of teaching, communication skills training, stimulation of students in self-directed learning and student assessment. Respondents most often indicated a need for training with respect to development in medical-education-research methodology, computer-based training, curriculum evaluation and curriculum development. In the qualitative analysis of 1836 free-text responses concerning the main challenges faced, respondents referred to a lack of academic recognition, funding, faculty development, time for medical education issues and institutional support., Conclusions: The results of this survey indicate that medical educators face several challenges, with a particular need for more academic recognition, funding and academic qualifications in medical education.

Following the changes made to the medical licensing regulations of 2002, medical education in Germany has been subject to radical modification, especially at undergraduate level. The implementation of the Bologna Process is still a matter of intense political debate, whilst positive movement has occurred in developing the professionalisation of teaching staff through a Masters Degree in Medical Education. In the area of postgraduate medical education, major restructuring of programmes is occurring, whilst the debate in continuing medical education is related to the amount of practical clinical education that is required.