To assess the feasibility and impact of using low-cost Android tablets to deliver video tutorials and remote online peer-tutoring for clinical skills between two countries.
The complexity of modern medicine creates more challenges for teaching and assessment of communication skills in undergraduate medical programme. This research was conducted to study the level of communication skills among undergraduate medical students and to determine the difference between simulated patients and clinical instructors' assessment of communication skills.
Self-instruction video (SIV) has been widely explored as a teaching mode for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillation (AED), but not with other basic emergency skills.
Retaining lectures in problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum places new demands on lecturers. In addition to subject knowledge, the lecturers must know the overall aims of the lectures, their context in the course, their relation to the subsequent examinations and the underlying educational philosophy.
Integration of curriculum is meant to make the teaching/learning activities meaningful; however, the interpretation of 'integration' varies in different institutions and among individuals. Many medical schools find it hard to change their existing curriculum or develop a new integrated curriculum mainly because of lack of will, infrastructure and understanding the process of change.
Students' perception of the role and characteristics of a good problem-based learning (PBL) facilitator were assessed in the same study in which students were exposed to the 'Flying a Kite Approach' to PBL. A pre-tested anonymous questionnaire addressed the good qualities of a facilitator as well as the negative aspects. Although faculty and students' perceptions of 'good 'and 'bad' attributes generally agreed, it is clear that students still prefer facilitators who talk more, i.e. explain unclear facts or correct them when their facts are wrong. Content experts are also preferred over non-content experts.
Change in Japanese medical education has been accelerating over the last 10 years. Historically, clinical departments in each medical school played a crucial role, but reports in the mass media tried to refute the feudal 'ikyoku-koza' system with a number of malpractice cases, inappropriate patient-doctor communication, etc. At that time policies by the Ministries of Education and Health (rationalized in 2001) independently became more influential in medical education. In particular the network of governmental medical schools has been restructured, merged and privatized since 2001. In the 1990s several private medical schools developed distinctive curricula including problem-based learning (PBL), the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) and introduction to clinical medicine (ICM). The curriculum for clinical medicine is still a critical issue and will be a major challenge for the management of each medical school. The effectiveness of the National Model Curriculum consisting of more than 1200 objectives might be questionable but the National Common Achievement Test (CAT) will make a strong impact on the preclinical curriculum. In the future each medical school should adopt an outcome-based education system to close the loop of curriculum development. An evaluation system based on the entire medical school or curriculum will be the key to successful education.
The curriculum of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) is designed particularly to cater for the health needs of the State of Sarawak, Malaysia. The framework of the curriculum is built on four strands: biological knowledge, clinical skills, behavioural and population aspects. The training is community based and a graduate of FMHS is expected to possess the ability to deal with many ethnic groups with different cultures and beliefs; expertise in tropical infectious diseases; skills to deal with emergencies such as snakebite and near drowning; qualities of an administrator, problem-solver and community leader; and proficiency in information and communication technology. The content of the curriculum strives for commitment to lifelong learning and professional values. The FMHS has adopted a 'mixed economy' of education strategies and a 'mixed menu approach' to test a wide range of curriculum outcomes. The FMHS fosters intellectual and academic pursuits, encourages friendliness and a sense of social responsibility and businesslike efficiency.
The liquid crystal display (LCD) panel is designed to project on-screen information of a microcomputer onto a larger screen with the aid of a standard overhead projector, so that large audiences may view on-screen information without having to crowd around the TV monitor. As little has been written about its use as a visual aid in medical teaching, the present report documents its use in a series of pathology lectures delivered, over a 2-year period, to two classes of about 150 medical students each. Some advantages of the LCD panel over the 35mm slide include the flexibility of last-minute text changes and less lead time needed for text preparation. It eliminates the problems of messy last-minute changes in, and improves legibility of, handwritten overhead projector transparencies. The disadvantages of using an LCD panel include the relatively bulky equipment which may pose transport problems, image clarity that is inferior to the 35mm slide, and equipment costs.
Three years ago the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia medical school changed its curriculum from the traditional discipline based curriculum to the integrated organ-system approach. Once change was effected a process of 'refreezing' had to be initiated whereby new responses had to be reintegrated into the ongoing personality or emotional relationships of important people so that the change process will endure and become stable. During this refreezing process the faculty encountered several problems which could thwart further development of the new curricula if left unresolved. The nature of the problems seemed to indicate that curricular change involves more than just efforts at bettering the what and ways of student learning and assessment. A lot of energy was also spent on keeping things going, keeping people motivated, making sure the work was done (at least as well as it has in the past), looking for better ways to do things, weighing new solutions and to be alert to new problems. In ensuring the continuance of change it was important to ensure, from the outset the institutionalization of policies, programmes, procedures and practices for continuing reward, routinization, structural integration into the system, continuing evaluation and providing for continuing maintenance.
The University Science Malaysia, Penang, the third medical school in Malaysia, is following an integrated curriculum. In this curriculum, the students are taught the subject of otolaryngology from the second year of their course unlike the traditional schools where they are taught in the fourth or fifth year. This paper describes how otolaryngology is introduced in this integrated, problem-based curriculum.