BACKGROUND The teaching of trauma in medical schools faces many educational and logistic challenges. Issues on what to teach, how to teach, when to teach, who will teach and whether medical students with insufficient exposure to clinical medicine can benefit from a trauma course are unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS A well-designed one day intensive trauma course concentrating on the primary sur...

BACKGROUND Problem based learning (PBL) is used increasingly in undergraduate medical education, but there are few postgraduate medical studies. AIM To compare SHO learning outcomes for a PBL course with a traditional didactic course. METHODS As part of their protected teaching programme, 14 senior house officers (SHOs) were taught about paediatric dermatology using a traditional didactic c...

CONTEXT The use of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in clinical care is growing rapidly and advocates have recently proposed the integration of ultrasound into undergraduate medical education (UME). The evidentiary basis for this integration has not been evaluated critically or systematically. OBJECTIVES We conducted a critical and systematic review framed by the rationales enumerated in acad...

Current trends in education and training emphasise that learners, whether they are school children, students or adults, need to acquire generic skills and personal characteristics which will enable them to become independent self-directed learners. This will enable them to continue the process oflearning throughout their lives. Recent recommendations for the reform of undergraduate medical educ...

BACKGROUND Podcasts are popular with medical students, but the impact of podcast use on learning outcomes in undergraduate medical education has not been studied in detail. OBJECTIVE Our aim was to assess the impact of podcasts accompanied by quiz questions and lecture attendance on short- and medium-term knowledge retention. METHODS Students enrolled for a cardio-respiratory teaching modul...

BACKGROUND Student ratings are a popular source of course evaluations in undergraduate medical education. Data on the reliability and validity of such ratings have mostly been derived from studies unrelated to medical education. Since medical education differs considerably from other higher education settings, an analysis of factors influencing overall student ratings with a specific focus on m...

The needs of an aging population and advancements in the treatment of both chronic and life-threatening diseases have resulted in increased demand for quality palliative care. The doctors of the future will need to be well prepared to provide expert symptom management and address the holistic needs (physical, psychosocial, and spiritual) of patients dealing with serious illness and the end of l...

Ensuring access to high quality health care in remote and rural settings is particularly challenging. Remote and rural communities require health service models that are designed in and for these settings, and care provided by health practitioners with the requisite knowledge and skills responsive to people's health needs. Studies in many countries have shown that the three factors most strongl...

BACKGROUND Family Medicine/General Practice (FM/GP) has not developed in a similar way worldwide. In countries that are not primary care oriented, the discipline of FM/GP may be less developed because this is not a career option for medical graduates. In such a situation, FM/GP will not be regarded as a required clinical experience during medical school. OBJECTIVES To define the 'minimal requ...

BACKGROUND Differential diagnosis is a crucial skill for primary care physicians. General practice plays an increasing important role in undergraduate medical education. Via general practice, students may be presented with an overview of the whole spectrum of differential diagnosis in regard to common symptoms encountered in primary care. This project evaluated the impact of a blended learning ...