A core syllabus for the teaching of neuroanatomy to medical students

There is increasingly a call for clinical relevance in the teaching of biomedical sciences within all health care courses. However, this presupposes that there is a clear understanding of what can be considered core material within the curricula. To date, the anatomical sciences have been relatively poorly served by the development of core syllabuses, particularly for specialized core syllabuses such as neuroanatomy. One of the aims of the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA) and of the European Federation for Experimental Morphology (EFEM) is to formulate, on an international scale, core syllabuses for all branches of the anatomical sciences using Delphi Panels consisting of anatomists, scientists, and clinicians to initially evaluate syllabus content. In this article, the findings of a Delphi Panel for neuroanatomy are provided. These findings will subsequently be published on the IFAA website to enable anatomical (and other cognate learned) societies and individual anatomists, clinicians, and students to freely comment upon, and elaborate and amend, the syllabuses. The aim is to set internationally recognized standards and thus to provide guidelines concerning neuroanatomical knowledge when engaged in course development. Clin. Anat. 28:706–716, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Changes to Pediatric Clerkships' Nighttime Structure After Introduction of the 2011 ACGME Resident Duty Hour Standards

ObjectiveTo report changes in pediatric clerkship nighttime clinical structures before and after implementation of the 2011 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) resident duty hour standards.MethodsAs part of the 2011 Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP) member annual survey, we surveyed leaders of pediatric undergraduate medical education on their medical school's current nighttime clinical structure, changes in nighttime structure between 2010 and 2011, and their school's student duty hour standards.ResultsFifty-six percent (n = 83) of Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME)-accredited medical schools responded to the survey. Of received responses, 98% of pediatric clerkships have some form of nighttime clinical experience; 49% of clerkships have medical students stay late, 24% of clerkships utilize night shifts, and 16% use a traditional call structure. Forty-five percent of clerkships report changing their nighttime clinical experience after implementation of the 2011 ACGME duty hour standards; 46% of clerkships that changed had previously used traditional call. Seventy-six percent of clerkships report having medical student duty hour standards at their medical school.ConclusionsThe majority of pediatric clerkships in our survey include nighttime clinical experiences in their curriculum, although variability exists in the type of structure. Additionally, the new ACGME duty hour standards appear to affect clerkships directors' choice of structure.     

The effect of a touch-typing program on keyboarding skills of higher education students with and without learning disabilities

This study examined the effect of a touch-typing instructional program on keyboarding skills of higher education students. One group included students with developmental learning disabilities (LD, n = 44), consisting of students with reading and/or handwriting difficulties. The second group included normally achieving students (NA, n = 30). The main goal of the program was to increase keyboarding speed while maintaining accuracy. The program included 14 bi-weekly touch-typing lessons, using the “Easy-Fingers” software (Weigelt Marom & Weintraub, 2010a), that combines a touch-typing instructional program and a keystroke logging program, to document the time and accuracy of each typed key. The effect of the program was examined by comparing keyboarding skills between the beginning (pre-test), the end of the program (post-test) and 3 months after termination of the program (long-term). Results showed that at the end of the program, keyboarding speed of the NA students decreased while the speed of the students with LD somewhat increased. In the long-term evaluation, both groups significantly improved their speed compared to pre-test. In both cases high accuracy (above 95%) was maintained. These results suggest that touch-typing instruction may benefit students in general, and more specific, students with LD studying in higher education, which often use computers in order to circumvent their handwriting difficulties.     

浙江省临床护理教师岗位培训现状及需求的调查与分析

目的调查浙江省二级以上综合医院临床护理教师的培训现状及需求,为完善浙江省临床护理教师培训体系提供参考。方法采用自制的《浙江省临床护理教师培训现状及需求调查问卷》调查浙江省二级以上医院800名临床护理教师。结果参与调查的临床护理教师平均年龄(33.8±5.2)岁,中级职称以上占67.3%,最高学历本科以上占90.9%。临床护理教师参加培训的内容主要包括带教方法及技巧培训(38.3%)、护理质量控制及改进(25.9%)和护理管理与技巧(24.9%);培训形式以专题讲座(43.4%)、短期培训班(31.3%)为主;48.3%临床护理教师在培训前未进行个性化评估,临床护理教师认为以往的培训存在的主要问题是培训内容缺少需求分析、培训针对性不强(41.9%),培训内容随机、无系统性(32.4%)。临床护理教师希望的培训内容主要包括带教方法与技巧培训(51.6%)、护理管理与技巧(40.9%)和专科前沿知识(40.3%);临床护理教师喜欢的培训形式以到院外参观(44.5%)、短期培训班(43.3%)、专题讲座(35.4%)为主;临床护理教师选择经验交流(49.3%)、案例分析(45.6%)、情景模拟(42.0%)等能互动的培训方法。结论应建立针对性强、形式灵活、考核有效的临床护理教师培训体系,从根本上提高临床护理教师的护理教育水平。     

Skills in Assessing the Professional Literature (SAPL): A 7-year Analysis of Student EBD Performance

PurposeThe primary goal of this project was to describe the level of knowledge acquisition using detailed test performance outcomes of the EBD SAPL curriculum over its first 7-years of implementation at the NYU College of Dentistry. A secondary goal was to compare performance outcomes impact of the full 60 h base SAPL curriculum as taught to 4-year DDS students vs an abbreviated 30 h base SAPL curriculum as taught to 3-year Advanced Placement DDS students.MethodsThe findings for the period 2004–2010 are reported for 1647 dental students (63.6% 4-year DDS students, 36.3% 3-year Advanced Placement DDS students). The database consisted of the score earned by each student on each individual question of the SAPL course's 4 h final examination in which each student read an original research article and answered all questions on the Literature Analysis Form.ResultsThe major findings were overall high performance by both groups of students (SAPL exam scores of 85.8 vs 83.7, respectively) as well as very similar outcomes between these two student groups on: 1) recognizing research design elements and on interpreting those design elements for clinical application, 2) detailed performance of knowledge within the specific five traditional sections of research articles, and 3) detailed performance across 18 identified research design topics.ConclusionIn conclusion, both course formats appear to be highly effective for their respective student groups, but should not be interpreted as evidence favoring the shorter format given the different characteristics of the two student groups.     

台湾技职院校客观结构化临床考试护理临床能力鉴定竞赛见闻及启示

正2014年8-11月笔者赴台湾美和科技大学进行为期3个月的进修研习,期间适逢台湾技职院校"客观结构化临床考试护理临床能力鉴定竞赛"在该校举办。笔者观摩了此次竞赛,加深了对台湾护理职业教育的理解,现对竞赛活动做总体介绍,以期为高职护理教育提供参考和借鉴。