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Background: International student exchanges are a significant part of medical education, and experiences of North American and European medical students abroad have been extensively examined. By contrast, knowledge of visiting medical students in the United States (US) is limited largely to surveys of administrators and course directors., Objective: To understand US attending physicians' thoughts on visiting international student clinical externships., Design and Participants: Three clinician-educator physician focus groups were conducted across two US medical schools with broad representation of training backgrounds, clinical disciplines, and career stages. Focus groups and constant comparison analysis of transcripts were performed iteratively to identify emerging themes., Main Measures: Qualitative themes and subthemes., Key Results: Two main themes emerged from the data: (1) administrative requirements for success: hosting international students requires careful planning and coordination, which is daunting amidst demanding faculty responsibilities. Externships must address experiences of the people directly involved in the clinical setting, leadership, communication, and institutional, financial, physical, and personnel resources. (2) Impact of student qualities: When working with international students, the importance of administrative details and student characteristics increases due to higher student variability overall, inconsistent language and cultural fluency, and the consequent recognition of the student as an ambassador for their home institution and country., Conclusions: Amidst already busy schedules, clinician educators identify the hosting of international medical students as a commitment resembling that for their own trainees. Linguistic and cultural distances, and the overall variability of international students amplify the importance of effective administration. The findings have influenced related processes at the University of Pittsburgh., Competing Interests: Declarations:. Conflict of Interest:: The authors declare that they do not have a conflict of interest., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Society of General Internal Medicine.)

Purpose: Empathy is an important skill for physicians as it can lead to improved patient outcomes and satisfaction. This study assessed self-reported empathy by medical students across all four years of medical school and potential differences in empathy across students interested in different subspecialties., Method: All medical students enrolled at New York Medical College in August 2020 were invited to participate in this study. Participants completed the student version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy., Results: A total of 179 medical students participated. Mean empathy score in fourth-year students was significantly lower than that in first-year students. Mean empathy score was greatest among students interested in Pediatrics and was greater in participants who identified as women., Conclusions: Self-reported empathy may be lower in upper-year medical students when compared to lower-year students. The potential reasons for lower empathy in the later years of training are discussed. A systematic curriculum for teaching and maintaining empathy should be developed and uniformly implemented across medical schools to combat a potential decline in empathy., Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestThe authors declare no competing interests., (© The Author(s) under exclusive licence to International Association of Medical Science Educators 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

Background: There is increasing evidence that students are completing medical school with insufficient surgical education. Near-peer tutoring and flipped classroom formatting may be used to enhance learning while simultaneously relieving faculty burden of teaching. Here, we qualitatively evaluate a 3-month course that integrates the use of near-peer teaching and flipped classroom formatting, with the goal of increasing first-year medical students' self-perceived confidence in performing basic sutures and knot-ties as well as interest in surgery., Methods: Twenty-one first-year medical students participated in a suturing and knot-tying course led by senior medical students. The course consisted of 2-h sessions held every 2 weeks for a total of five sessions. Students were sent publicly available videos prior to each session by which to learn the upcoming techniques and received live feedback from instructors during sessions. Questionnaires were completed pre-course and post-course., Results: Compared to pre-course ratings, post-course ratings of self-perceived confidence to perform various knot-ties and sutures all increased significantly ( p  < 0.05). All students stated that the course strengthened their desire to pursue a career in surgery. Student feedback of the course was overall positive., Conclusions: Near-peer teaching can be used in conjunction with flipped classroom to increase first-year medical students' self-perceived confidence in surgical suturing and knot-tying as well as interest in surgery. This curriculum may serve as an outline for student-led courses at other institutions., Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestThe authors declare no competing interests., (© The Author(s) under exclusive licence to International Association of Medical Science Educators 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

The purpose of this study is to evaluate radiation oncology (RO)-specific education, confidence and knowledge of junior doctors in Australian teaching hospitals. A 38-item web-based survey was emailed to prevocational junior doctors working in Australian hospitals in New South Wales (NSW), Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Queensland (QLD) between November 2017 and January 2018. The survey evaluated RO educational and clinical exposure of participants during medical school, and prevocational training and their confidence and knowledge of the specialty. A total of 183 respondents across 17 Australian hospital networks completed the survey. During medical school, 53.4% had RO incorporated into their formal curriculum, 19.5% had no formal lectures and 51.7% had never visited a RO department. As a junior doctor, 73.8% of respondents did not receive any formal RO education. When compared with other oncology specialties, fewer junior doctors were confident in consulting the RO team (21.0%) compared with medical oncology (42.0%), palliative care (75.2%) and haematology (40.1%). Majority of respondents (61.6%) showed limited understanding of radiation safety. On multivariate sub-group analysis, both confidence and knowledge in RO improved when RO was incorporated into the formal medical school curriculum. This survey highlights the current low confidence and poor knowledge standard amongst Australian junior doctors on RO due to inadequate teaching during medical school and prevocational training and suggests improvement through standardisation of formal RO curriculum teaching within medical school and prevocational training.

Introduction: Case-based learning (CBL) is a pedagogical method using clinical case studies to reinforce learning topics. A pilot elective course incorporating CBL was offered for first-year medical students. The purpose of this study is to (1) describe the logistics of implementing the course and (2) evaluate its reception among medical students on its efficacy in learning basic science class material., Method: An 8-week elective course was offered to medical students from 2012 to 2017. Specialists facilitated case discussions synthesizing material from didactic lectures with clinical scenarios. End-of-term surveys with multiple choice and free response questions were distributed to students and described using summary statistics., Results: There were 13 cohorts of enrollees, and the average number of students enrolled per cohort was 45.6, out of an average class size of 186 (24.5%, range 36-60). One hundred ninety-eight (64.2%) students reported that the course considerably changed or greatly expanded knowledge. Three hundred two (89.1%) students felt it met a majority of or exceeded expectations. Two hundred eighty-seven (80.2%) responses indicated interest in taking the course again or recommending it to others. One hundred six responses (27.1%) indicated preference for CBL over traditional lectures, and 177 (45.3%) were interested to see CBL integrated into the curriculum., Conclusions: Overall, this CBL elective course was well-received and perceived as effective for better learning class material by students. Additionally, students were receptive to case-based learning and integrating this style of learning into a preclinical curriculum without entirely replacing didactic-based learning. These findings may encourage more medical schools to explore incorporating CBL in the curriculum., Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© International Association of Medical Science Educators 2020.)

Objective: With a growing geriatric population and limited geriatric psychiatrists in Canada, it is crucial to provide sufficient training in geriatric psychiatry during medical school. The authors examined how geriatric psychiatry education is delivered in Canadian medical schools during clerkship. Factors that could be associated with increased geriatric psychiatry teaching in medical schools were examined. The authors were also interested in comparing Canadian to US findings., Methods: A cross-sectional survey was distributed to the psychiatry medical education representatives attending the Canadian Organization of Undergraduate Psychiatry Educators (COUPE) semi-annual meeting in September 2017., Results: All 17 (100%) medical schools completed the survey. Fifteen of the 17 schools (88%) have geriatric psychiatry-specific learning objectives. Five schools (29%) offer a clinical component in geriatric psychiatry. One school has an award for clerks (6%), and no awards exist for faculty. The number of lecture hours in geriatric psychiatry is moderately correlated with the presence of a geriatric component to psychiatry clerkship (Spearman's rho = 0.67, p = 0.003) and the length of the geriatric portion of clerkship (Spearman's rho = 0.64, p value = 0.006). Lecture hours are also moderately correlated with the presence of a geriatric fellowship (Spearman's rho = 0.68, p value = 0.003)., Conclusions: Geriatric psychiatry clerkship education is inconsistent in Canada. There is virtually no recognition of excellence in teaching or undergraduate performance in this area in clerkship. Geriatric psychiatry may receive more frequent attention in Canadian medical schools than in US medical schools.