New publications as of October 19th

2020-10-19

Major Contributions:

 Brief Reports:

Review Papers and Meta-Analyses

 Commentary and Opinions

Canadiana

 Works-in-Progress:

Letters to the Editor

 Images

More below

Major Contributions:

“Will I publish this abstract? Determining the characteristics of medical education oral abstracts linked to publication” by Guay et al identified characteristics of CCME conference submissions that would predict the likelihood of full-study publications. Though overall there were low numbers of submission publications, they found that peer ratings were predictive of success.

Cooper and co-authors in their study Impact of an urban regional medical campus: Perceptions of community stakeholders, evaluated the effects of regional medical campuses on a midsized urban city and compared their results with a similar study. They found a consistent positive impact on this type of urban region, and believe their results would be beneficial to those interested in developing a similar RMC.

Brief Reports:

“Evaluation of the effectiveness of the Global Medical Student Partnership program in undergraduate medical education” by Samuels, Rojas-Luengas, and team evaluated the GMSP to see if it met its objectives. They concluded that the GMSP program is an important addition to extra-curricular medical education as it provides hands-on global health training and opportunities to improve skills such as communication and health advocacy.

Why you should Mini-Med School: Mini-Med School as an intervention to increase health literacy by Shatenko, Harder, and Gair determined if a Mini-Med School delivered by medical students would be an effective strategy to improve health literacy for the elderly. Due to the significant improvements and positive outcomes, they encouraged Canadian medical schools to use it for engagement and advocacy with communities

Review Papers and Meta-Analyses

Peer mentoring in medical residency education: A systematic review by Helen Pethrick et al. explored how peer mentorship promotes wellbeing in medical residency education. Through their review, they found that medical residents in peer-mentoring relationships had an increased overall satisfaction with their residency training programs.

In A narrative review of ambulatory care education in Canadian internal medicine Gillian Spiegle and team identified the current knowledge on postgraduate ambulatory care education (ACE). Their results, including a distinction between ACE and inpatient learning environments, highlighted the need for additional research regarding ACE in Canada to improve ambulatory internal medicine training. 

Commentary and Opinions:

Locker (operating) room talk: Gender equity and the medical student’s perspective by Darby Little commented on an experience of being the only female medical student in an operating room. She described the “locker room talk” among her male colleagues as an example of how entrenched gender inequity is in medicine and medical culture. She called for gender equity and allyship training for all students.

How have digital resources been utilised in times of COVID-19? Opinions of medical students based in the United Kingdom by Lau and co-authors described some of the steps taken by their UK medical school to uphold education during the pandemic. They described the increased use of learning via digital technology, and how digital technology may be beneficial to medical education in the future.

Challenges facing medical education in psychiatry during the COVID-19 pandemic by Bahadur et al commented on how COVID-19 affects the interpersonal nature of psychiatry education. They urged educators to determine how to provide effective psychiatric medical education in light of pandemic.

Inspiration amidst crisis: E-learning in a medical school of Nepal during COVID-19 pandemic by Pandey and Aryal commented on how Nepal with limited experience learning online has used the pandemic as an opportunity to develop online classes. They noted that while e-learning is still in its early stages in Nepal, COVID-19 has motivated medical schools to adopt forms of education that can be conducted using online resources more efficiently.

In The ongoing need for feminism in medicine, Sara El Jaouhari maintained that feminism is essential to addressing ongoing gender biases in the medicine. She noted that while there has been progress—including the increasing number of women practicing medicine—there is still work to be done.

Canadiana

Medical education advances and innovations: A silver lining during the COVID-19 pandemic by Mehta and co-authors looked at four domains of Canadian medical education that have seen substantial changes or advances during the pandemic. They discussed how these changes should be preserved beyond the pandemic.

Journey into the unknown: Considering the international medical graduate perspective on the road to Canadian residency during the COVID-19 pandemic by Gutman and team highlighted the important role of international medical graduates (IMGs) in Canada. They contended that it is vital to consider the impact of the pandemic on the future of IMGs’ eligibility to practice in Canada.

Works-in-Progress:

“Residents’ burnout in COVID 19 pandemic environment” by Wood and team will evaluate residents’ experiences of burnout across a variety of residency programs at one institution during the current COVID pandemic. While their previous research showed burnout rates as moderate, they expect those on the front lines to have higher rates. They plan to make a recommendation to residency program directors based on their findings.

Virtual care rotation for internal medicine residents during the COVID-19 pandemic by Nham, Tabatabavakili, and team implemented an Ambulatory Virtual Care Rotation (AVCR) for residents in the COVID-19 Phone Assessment Centre (CPAC) and General Internal Medicine (GIM) clinics. They plan to increase exposure to subspecialty medicine. They want to incorporate it into residency regardless of the pandemic in order to integrate new models of care into everyday medicine.

Medical student stress and burnout: Before and after COVID-19 by Stacey, D’Eon, and Madojemu seeks to compare levels of stress and burnout in medical students in the summer of 2020, 2021, and 2022 with the data they already collected in 2019. They intend to use their research results to help medical education leaders take action.

Evaluating the use of media on perceptions and behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic by Kamencic and team will study public media used during the pandemic, and how it impacts anxiety and engagement in recommended health practices. They intend for their study to help the public health sector effectively deliver important information while minimizing anxiety and misconceptions.

In Early adaptation of urology residency programs during COVID-19 clinical and gathering restrictions by Gabara and Leveridge, they aim to assess the effect COVID-19 is having on academic urology programs across Canada. They will gather data from Canadian urology departments and programs in order to assess the long-term effects and potential modifications for future urological residency training.

Letters to the Editor

Relief for the exhausted post-positivist: New epistemological choices transcend positivism, relativism, and even post-positivism by Agnus McMurtry responded to the editorial by D’Eon on post-postitivism. He retorted that he does not think you anchor yourself to the (elusive) goal of pursuing universal truths.

Images

In Connections, Sara Guzman created a digital painting to portray her approach to learning. Her image of a hand touching a neuron showed her desire to actually see and touch an active neuron in order to further understand the brain and its connections.

Growing mind by Sara Guzman depicted a neuron made up of several pieces. She was inspired by thinking about how we are a stronger society by coming together as individual parts, and collaborating as a whole.

Julia Miao and Kathleen Miao presented their artwork in Symphony of healthcare: Teamwork in medicine. Their image, Organs in Orchestra, portrayed various organs and the diverse experiences in medicine.