In 1995, the Colombo Medical Faculty changed its curriculum from a traditional model to an integrated one. The major challenge to the Faculty was obtaining students' feedback on their learning activities. To overcome this, a new method where staff and student groups from different years of study engage in an interactive discussion relating to their learning environment was developed. This feedback was then processed and forwarded to the relevant authorities for necessary action.
Curriculum ; standards ; Education, Medical ; methods ; Educational Measurement ; methods ; Feedback ; Humans ; Students, Medical ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Attitude of Health Personnel ; Drama ; Education ; Humans ; Physician-Patient Relations ; Physicians ; Role Playing ; Singapore

PURPOSE: Although medical curricula are now better structured for integration of biomedical sciences and clinical training, most teaching and learning activities still follow the older teacher-centric discipline-specific formats. A newer pedagogical approach, known as Collaborative Learning Cases (CLCs), was adopted in the medical school to facilitate integration and collaborative learning. Before incorporating CLCs into the curriculum of year 1 students, two pilot runs using the action research method was carried out to improve the design of CLCs. METHODS: We employed the four-phase Kemmis and McTaggart's action research spiral in two cycles to improve the design of CLCs. A class of 300 first-year medical students (for both cycles), 11 tutors (first cycle), and 16 tutors (second cycle) were involved in this research. Data was collected using the 5-points Likert scale survey, open-ended questionnaire, and observation. RESULTS: From the data collected, we learned that more effort was required to train the tutors to understand the principles of CLCs and their role in the CLCs sessions. Although action research enables the faculty to improve the design of CLCs, finding the right technology tools to support collaboration and enhance learning during the CLCs remains a challenge. CONCLUSION: The two cycles of action research was effective in helping us design a better learning environment during the CLCs by clarifying tutors' roles, improving group and time management, and meaningful use of technology.
Cooperative Behavior ; Curriculum ; Education ; Health Services Research* ; Humans ; Learning* ; Meaningful Use ; Methods ; Schools, Medical ; Students, Medical ; Time Management

PURPOSE: Faculty development (FD) is essential to prepare faculty members to become effective teachers to meet the challenges in medical education. Despite the growth of FD programmes, most evaluations were often conducted using short questionnaires to assess participants’ satisfaction immediately after they attended a programme. Consequently, there were calls for more rigorous evaluations based on observed changes in participants’ behaviours. Hence, this study aims to explore how the FD workshops run by the Centre for Medical Education, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore have impacted behavioural changes in the educators. METHODS: We followed up with the educators at least half a year after they have attended the workshops. With limited literature as reference, we initiated a small-scale case-study research design involving semi-structured interviews with six educators which was triangulated with three focus group discussions with their students. This allowed us to explore behavioural changes among the educators as well as evaluate the feasibility of this research methodology. RESULTS: We identified three emerging categories among the educators: ignorance to awareness, from intuition to confirmation and expansion, and from individualism to community of practice. CONCLUSION: Although FD have placed much emphasis on teaching and learning approaches, we found that the teacher-student interaction or human character components (passionate, willing to sacrifice, are open to feedback) in becoming a good educator are lacking in our FD workshops.
Education ; Education, Medical ; Focus Groups ; Humans ; Intuition ; Learning ; Research Design ; Singapore

Purpose: The use of mobile devices among medical students and residents to access online material in real-time has become more prevalent. Most literature focused on the technical/functional aspects of mobile use. This study, on the other hands, explored students, doctors and patients’ preferences and reasons towards the use of mobile devices in clinical settings underpinned by the Technology Acceptance Model 2 (TAM 2). Methods: This research employs an exploratory research design using survey and semi-structured interviews. An online survey was administered to clinical year medical students, followed by semi-structured interviews with the doctors and patients. Questions for the online survey and semi-structured interviews were derived from previous literature and was then reviewed by authors and an expert panel. A convenience sampling was used to invite voluntary participants. Results: Survey findings showed that most medical students used their devices to find drug information and practice guidelines. The majority of the students accessed UpToDate followed by Google to access medical resources. Key barriers that students often encountered during the use of mobile devices were internet connectivity in the clinical settings, reliability of the information, and technical issues. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed four themes: general usage by students, receptivity of the use of mobile devices by students, features in selecting resources for mobile learning, and limitation in the current use of mobile devices for learning. Conclusion The findings from this study assist in recommending suitable material using mobile devices to enhance learning in the clinical environment and expand the TAM 2.

Selecting the right applicants is an important part of medical student admission. While one universally accepted selection criterion is academic capacity, there are other criteria such as communication skills and local criteria (e.g., socio-cultural values) that are no less important. This article reviews the policies and methods of selection to medical schools in seven countries with varying socio-economic conditions and healthcare systems. Senior academics involved in medical education in Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan completed a pre-agreed pro-forma per each country to describe the country’s admission policies and methods. The details were then compared and contrasted. This review identifies tension between many of the policies and methods used in medical school admissions, such as between the need to assess non-cognitive abilities and widen access, and between the need for more medical professionals and the requirement to set high entry standards. Finding the right balance requires careful consideration of all variables, including the country’s human resource needs; socio-economic status; graduates’ expected competencies; and the school’s vision, mission, and availability of resources.

PURPOSE: Physician empathy is a core attribute in medical professionals, giving better patient outcomes. Medical school is an opportune time for building empathetic foundations. This study explores empathy change and focuses on contributory factors. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 881 students (63%) from Years 1 to 5 in a Singaporean medical school using the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy-Student version (JSPE-S) and a questionnaire investigating the relationship between reported and novel personal-social empathy determinants. RESULTS: Empathy declined significantly between preclinical and clinical years. Female and medical specialty interest respondents had higher scores than their counterparts. Despite strong internal consistency, factor analysis suggested that the JSPE model is not a perfect fit. Year 1 students had highest Perspective Taking scores and Year 2 students had highest Compassionate Care scores. High workload and inappropriate learning environments were the most relevant stressors. Time spent with family, arts, and community service correlated with higher empathy scores, whilst time spent with significant others and individual leisure correlated with lower scores. Thematic analysis revealed that the most common self-reported determinants were exposure to activity (community service) or socialisation, personal and family-related event as well as environment (high work-load). CONCLUSION: While the empathy construct in multicultural Singapore is congruent with a Western model, important differences remain. A more subtle understanding of the heterogeneity of the medical student experience is important. A greater breadth of determinants of empathy, such as engagement in arts-related activities should be considered.
Art ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; *Education, Medical, Undergraduate ; *Empathy ; Factor Analysis, Statistical ; Family ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Medicine ; *Physician-Patient Relations ; Physicians ; Self Report ; Sex Factors ; Singapore ; Social Participation ; *Students, Medical ; Workload

Purpose: In recent years, faculty development (FD) research is more noticeable within an inter-professional context and in allied health education. However, there is a paucity of published literature on FD medical education programs in Asia. With the formation of the Asia Pacific Medical Education Network (APME-Net) in 2015, a scoping review of an environmental scan of FD medical education programs in main institutions in South East Asia and Australia in 2018 was conducted. Methods: A survey was developed to collect data on FD in medical education after several rounds of discussion with APME-Net members. The representatives from nine countries in Asia and Australia were invited to partner in this research project. They sent the questionnaire to the Dean of all different medical schools after ethical clearance. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Only institutions in four countries responded to the questionnaire. The medical/health professions education center/department/unit has been established in most educational institutions in these countries. These centers/departments/units mostly carry out FD programs to improve the teaching and learning skills of trained participants, particularly clinical teachers via workshops and seminars. Staffing issues and participant buy-in are the current key priorities of the center/department/unit in terms of FD. Lastly, research related FD program has not been well-supported in these countries, hence, the lack of publication in this area. Conclusion Collaboration between countries to address key areas of interest and develop more standardized and productive FD medical education is required especially in research.

INTRODUCTIONThe introduction of the residency programme in Singapore allows medical students to apply for residency in their graduating year. Our study aimed to determine the interest levels and motivating factors for pursuing emergency medicine (EM) as a career among medical students in Singapore.

METHODSA self-administered questionnaire was distributed to Year 1-5 medical students in 2012. Participants indicated their interest in pursuing EM as a career and the degree to which a series of variables influenced their choices. Influencing factors were analysed using multinomial logistic regression.

RESULTSA total of 800 completed questionnaires were collected. 21.0% of the participants expressed interest in pursuing EM. Perceived personality fit and having done an elective in EM were strongly positive influencing factors. Junior medical students were more likely to cite the wide diversity of medical conditions and the lack of a long-term doctor-patient relationship to be negative factors, while senior medical students were more likely to cite personality fit and perceived prestige of EM as negative factors.

CONCLUSIONCareful selection of EM applicants is important to the future development of EM in Singapore. Our study showed that personality fit might be the most important influencing factor in choosing EM as a career. Therefore, greater effort should be made to help medical students explore their interest in and suitability for a particular specialty. These include giving medical students earlier exposure to EM, encouraging participation in student interest groups and using appropriate personality tests for career guidance.

Career Choice ; Decision Making ; Emergency Medicine ; education ; manpower ; Female ; Humans ; Internship and Residency ; Male ; Motivation ; Regression Analysis ; Singapore ; Students, Medical ; Surveys and Questionnaires