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As educators around the world are exploring new approaches to keep students involved in remote learning during the pandemic, we investigated the utility of memes in promoting engagement in the online environment. Medical students enrolled in a human physiology course at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sohar, Oman were provided with an option to create memes related to the learning outcomes in renal physiology. One hundred forty-six of 280 students chose to create memes (52%), and the remaining students chose to submit either a labeled diagram or a concept map. Students uploaded their work in the discussion forum of the learning management system. All students enrolled in the course were given an opportunity for interaction with the uploaded content by commenting and upvoting thereafter. Students were requested to give anonymous feedback on their experience specifically on the activity related to memes. Feedback received from 142 of 280 students through anonymous comments was subjected to thematic analysis. Based on the analysis of the data, we found that memes elicited interest in the topic, facilitated peer interaction, simplified complex ideas, enhanced retention of associated concepts, and fostered a positive learning environment.

Background: Interactive teaching methods such as patient narratives and role plays are effective tools in medical education. Incorporating the patient's perspective of the disease and standardized treatment in the teaching process helps the students become more empathetic and have better doctor-patient communication. Methods: An interactive module was conducted using role plays and patient narratives to teach communication skills and doctor-patient relationships to randomly chosen Seventy-seven final-year(4th year) medical students to address the various psychosocial problems faced by the patients with breast cancer. Participants' perspectives regarding the intervention were collected using pre and post-tests, session feedback, and interviews. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively, as appropriate. Observed Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)stations with case scenarios to break bad news to simulated patients were used for the assessment. Results: Most participants felt that such interactive sessions were needed where they played the role of a doctor before facing an actual patient. While reading the narratives, they felt that the narrators' emotions were genuine and that they felt involved. Most of them could relate to the social and emotional aspects of the patient and understood the Interprofessional (IP) teamwork in the treatment of a breast cancer patient. 93.4% of the participants felt they gained competence in managing difficult communication situations with patients. Conclusion: Interactive teaching methods like narratives and role play may help enhance students' communication and empathy, which is vital for future doctors. They seamlessly integrate into existing curricula, offering practical experiences that deepen understanding and empathy without disrupting learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractPhenomenon: The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated an abrupt shift to online medical education, disrupting learning across knowledge, skills, and social connections. Post-pandemic, medical schools must evaluate how these disruptions shaped student experiences to optimize the return to in-person learning. Approach: This cross-sectional qualitative study explored medical students’ perceptions of their learning environment during the post-pandemic reintegration period in Oman. Fifty-four preclinical and clinical students participated in six focus group interviews. Content analysis identified key topics characterizing students’ perceptions of change and change processes in the post-pandemic learning environment. The panarchy framework, developed to characterize complex adaptive systems in nature, was used to frame the results. Findings: The return to in-person environments presented a mix of renewed connectivity, involving collaborative benefits alongside transitional adjustment strains. Five major topics characterizing student perceptions of change and change processes in their post-pandemic learning environment were identified: learning skills, developing clinical competence, faculty interactions, physical atmosphere, and social connections. Managing academic schedules and cognitive load as the learning environment opened challenged students’ learning skills. Learners valued a renewed opportunity for interactive application of knowledge through collaboration, patient contact, and empathy skill-building to feel prepared for future practice. Returning to in-person instruction renewed a sense of community and peer support networks disrupted by pandemic isolation. Some students continued to struggle with study-life imbalance and felt ill-equipped to handle post-pandemic demands. Improved access to student support and wellness services was emphasized to ease transitional stresses. Students defined an ideal learning climate as supportive, active, personalized, relevant, challenging, accessible, and collaborative. Insights: While pandemic disruptions posed challenges, they provide opportunities to strengthen the educational system’s resilience moving forward. Our findings highlight an opportunity for medical educators and learners to capitalize on the innovations that emerged during this period, integrating technology with interactive learning activities and reconnecting students with the core values of the medical profession. Applying the panarchy framework to frame this adaptive process could enable the tracking of multi-level interactions within the medical education environment and the evaluation of interventions targeted at identified areas of concern. Further exploration to achieve complete mapping of specific environmental domains onto the panarchical cycles merits future investigation to build integrated resilience frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educators worldwide are seeking innovative teaching strategies for engaging remote learners. This study explores the impact of an online role-play on students' perceptions regarding Interprofessional education (IPE) and the usage of online role-play as a pedagogic approach. An online role-play for introducing fundamentals of IPE was organised as an activity during the monthly discussion forum of Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) fellowship at one of the regional centres in India. After the role-play, the six role-players provided a written semi-structured reflective feedback while 22 observers responded to an open-ended questionnaire. The obtained data were qualitatively analysed using an inductive approach. The role-player's reflections highlighted pre-requisites, strengths and challenges of an online role-play, whereas the observers reported an appreciation of the value of online role-play in learning interprofessional competencies. This study highlights online role-play as an innovative approach to remotely introduce the tenets of IPE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: Disaster planning is of significant importance for the healthcare professional and the healthcare setting. Hospital-based disaster protocols form the cornerstone of disaster response. There is a paucity of data on disaster preparedness training using the virtual tabletop exercise (VTTX) module for interprofessional education from in-hospital and prehospital settings. With the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we have seen a paradigm shift of education strategies to the virtual realm. Here we attempt to study the impact of an online tabletop exercise workshop on the knowledge and confidence of disaster preparedness among Interprofessional trainees. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Interprofessional trainees from medical, dental, nursing, respiratory therapy, and paramedic domains who consented were included in this study. Institutional ethics committee approval was received and the study was registered with the clinical trials registry India (CTRI), before initiation. The VTTX module has been adapted from the World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 training resources. Three international experts from the disaster medicine domain validated the module, questionnaire, and feedback. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare the parameters (Knowledge and confidence level) pre and post-workshop. RESULTS: A total of 76 candidates with a mean age was 21.67 ± 2.5 (range:19-36) were part of the workshop. Comparison of the median scores and interquartile range of confidence level and knowledge respectively before [38 (29.25-45.75), 9 (7-11)] and after [51.50 (45-60), 11 (10-12)] the workshop showed vital significance (p-value < 0.001). All participants gave positive feedback on the workshop meeting the objectives. The majority agreed that the workshop improved their self-preparedness (90%) and felt that the online platform was appropriate (97.5%). CONCLUSIONS: This study sheds light on the positive impact of the online VTTX based workshop on disaster preparedness training among interprofessional trainees. Disaster preparedness training using available online platforms may be effectively executed with the VICTEr workshop even during the COVID-19 pandemic. The VICTEr workshop serves as a primer for developing online modules for effective pandemic preparedness training in interprofessional education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Web-based (Web) interprofessional collaborative distance learning is an important tool for enhancing the knowledge of learners. Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) fellowship adopts mentor-learner (ML) based teaching-learning methodology wherein learners from various interprofessional fields collaborate for knowledge construction and problem-solving. Materials and Methods: This was an educational intervention study conducted as a part of the FAIMER fellowship. This study duration was 1 month. We offered a Web ML interprofessional collaborative distance-learning to cover the concepts of Questionnaire Designing for educational purposes to the fellows enrolled for the fellowship. The fellows were tutored via online/e-learning methods and activities. The fellows underwent assessment of their knowledge of the topic both before and after the course. Statistical analysis was performed and the mean of overall scores was obtained. The means were compared by two-tailed paired t-test. Results: Thirty four FAIMER fellows completed the entire module during the study period. The mean score for knowledge of the topic was significantly higher on the final assessment than on the initial assessment (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The use of, (ML-Web) interprofessional collaborative distance learning through a digital platform can promote teaching and learning in the educational field, increasing knowledge significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Breast cancer (BC) is a global disease and is second leading cause of cancer death among women. Timely diagnosis with quick initiation of treatment reduces breast cancer mortality. Therefore, skill development on Self Breast Examination among the community women is essential. Objectives: To disseminate information about screening method among reproductive age group women in community and to provide the skills on breast self-examination. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in Urban Health Centre in New Delhi in which 104 women participants of age between 15 to 45 years were included in study. Data was collected with the help of a predesigned, pre-validated and pretested questionnaire. Participants were educated on breast self-examination and technique by using dummy breast model. Pre-Test and Post Test evaluation was done to assess skills on SBE. Result: Two third of participants had never performed SBE. There was improvement in skill acquired by participants which revealed a mean Pre-test score of 1.91±2.25 which improved to 6.10±0.33 in Post test score and it was found to be statistically significant with p<0.001. Conclusion: This study results confirms that there is general lack of knowledge about Self Breast Examination (SBE) among women in the community and also had poor skills on self-breast examination .Hence Self Breast Examination Module and demonstration of SBE was effective in enabling women in the community with knowledge and skills of Self-evaluation of Breast regardless of their level of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The replacement of the Medical Council of India (MCI) with the National Medical Commission (NMC) was an important change in regulatory oversight to bring about transparency in regulatory procedures for improving quality of medical education and meeting the needs of healthcare in India. Similarly, due to globalization of medicine including migration of health workforce and desire to raise standards of medical education and healthcare, efforts have progressed well towards transnational regulation and establishment of an overarching body, which recognizes regulatory agencies for their adherence to good practices. We describe the global collaborative efforts to improve the quality of medical education by the promotion of accreditation through the recognition programme of the World Federation of Medical Education (WFME), the publication of the expert consensus standards across the continuum of medical education and the Guidelines for Accreditation of Basic Medical Education. We also highlight that many medical schools across the world have adopted the WFME standards and many regulatory and accrediting agencies have achieved recognition status. Based on appraisal of the NMC Act and notification on minimum standard requirements (MSRs) for medical colleges, we point out the gaps between the intent stated in the preamble of the NMC Act and the notification on MSRs. We recommend a way forward to develop a regulatory model and approaches that match NMC's stated intent and meet the requirement for medical schools in India to gain international recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South Asian region is predicted to be among the most severely affected by the health impacts of climate change and warrants regional health policy leadership to tackle the same. Model World Health Organization (WHO) simulations offer the academic opportunity to build this leadership. This study describes the conceptualization and conduct of the 'Manipal Model World Health Organization' 2018 debate simulation, where a multi-professional group of students at an Indian university deliberated approaches to address the regional health impacts of climate change in South Asia. We contextualized the Model WHO debate model for a multi-professional classroom. Multi-sectoral stakeholders were engaged to draw participants from health and non-health disciplines. Participants were trained in health research literacy, policy politics, bloc politics, writing and public speaking for Model WHO. Mock sessions provided training in navigating parliamentary procedures. The debate event consisted of 22 participants and a four-member panel from diverse academic disciplines who independently assessed the deliberations. All delegations demonstrated competent written and verbal contributions. Content analysis of resolutions reaffirmed international agreements and addressed the Climate Change Health Risk Framework, and objectives of the WHO Secretariat Action Plan. Besides presenting a stratified typology of academic health policy debate simulations in global, regional, and subnational contexts, we also propose a 'theory of change', illustrating how academic policy discourse platforms can nurture critical thinking, research/policy literacy and leadership skills. Such initiatives help build the health policy leadership required for addressing global health challenges such as climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Current trends in health professions education are aligned to meet the needs of the millennial learner. The aim of this study was to identify learners' perceptions of an ongoing journal club (JC) activity in the optometry curriculum and evaluate the utility and efficiency of this method in promoting student learning. Methods: A qualitative approach with a phenomenological research design was adopted. The perceptions of undergraduate and postgraduate optometry students about JCs were captured using focus group discussions. A narrative thematic analysis was done using the verbatim transcripts and moderator's notes. Results are reported using "consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research" guidelines. Results: A total of 33 optometry students participated in the study. Data analysis revealed three major themes related to (i) The ongoing practice of JC, (ii) student perceptions of JC and its relevance in facilitating student learning, and (iii) suggestions for modification of JC for achieving optimal educational outcomes. Discussion: Student feedback indicates that an instructional redesigning of JC is necessary, considering the characteristics and expectations of the current generation of learners and the rapid strides made in the field of educational technology. The recommendations provided are likely to resurrect an age-old approach that still has educational relevance if blended with collaborative learning formats and appropriate technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several letters to the editor are presented including one on the impact of high school certificate scores on the selection process of medical students, one on the students' perspective on an ideal problem-based learning (PBL) case, and one on medical students' perspective of homeless following clinical exposure to homeless patients.