Author: Brian S McGowan, PhD

OBJECTIVE:
Medical students and surgical trainees differ considerably in both their preferential learning styles and personality traits. This study compares the personality profiles and learning styles of surgical trainees with a cohort of medical students specifically intent on pursuing a surgical career.
DESIGN:
A cross-sectional study was conducted contrasting surgical trainees with medical students specifying surgical career intent. The 50-item International Personality Item Pool Big-Five Factor Marker (FFM) questionnaire was used to score 5 personality domains (extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness to experience, and neuroticism). The 24-item Learning Style Inventory (LSI) Questionnaire was used to determine the preferential learning styles (visual, auditory, or tactile). χ(2) Analysis and independent samples t-test were used to compare LSI and FFM scores, respectively.
SETTING:
Surgical trainees from several UK surgical centers were contrasted to undergraduate medical students.
PARTICIPANTS:
A total of 53 medical students who had specifically declared desire to pursue a surgical career and were currently undertaking an undergraduate intercalated degree in surgical sciences were included and contrasted to 37 UK core surgical trainees (postgraduate years 3-4).
RESULTS:
The LSI questionnaire was completed by 53 students and 37 trainees. FFM questionnaire was completed by 29 medical students and 34 trainees. No significant difference for learning styles preference was detected between the 2 groups (p = 0.139), with the visual modality being the preferred learning style for both students and trainees (69.8% and 54.1%, respectively). Neuroticism was the only personality trait to differ significantly between the 2 groups, with medical students scoring significantly higher than trainees (2.9 vs. 2.6, p = 0.03).
CONCLUSIONS:
Medical students intent on pursuing a surgical career exhibit similar personality traits and learning styles to surgical trainees, with both groups preferring the visual learning modality. These findings facilitate future research into potential ways of improving both the training and selection of students and junior trainees onto residency programs.

via Are Surgeons Born or Made? A Comparison of Personality Traits and Learning Styles Between Surgical Trainees and Medical Students. – PubMed – NCBI.

INTRODUCTION:
Although medical students are increasingly exposed to clinical experiences as part of their training, these often occur parallel with, rather than connected to, their classroom-based learning experiences. Additionally, students seem to struggle with spontaneously making the connection between these spheres of their training themselves. Therefore, this systematic review synthesized the existing evidence about educational interventions that aim to enhance the connection between learning in the classroom and its application in the workplace.
METHODS:
Electronic databases (AMED, CINAHL, EMBASE, ERIC, Medline, RDRB, PsycINFO and WoS) were screened for quantitative and qualitative studies investigating educational interventions that referenced a connection between the classroom and workplace-based experiences within undergraduate, graduate or postgraduate medical education.
RESULTS:
Three types of interventions were identified: classroom to workplace interventions, workplace to classroom interventions, and interventions involving multiple connections between the two settings. Most interventions involved a tool (e. g. video, flow chart) or a specific process (e. g. linking patient cases with classroom-based learning content, reflecting on differences between what was learned and how it works in practice) which aimed to enhance the connection between the two settings.
DISCUSSION:
Small-scale interventions can bring classroom learning and workplace practice into closer alignment. Such interventions appear to be the necessary accompaniments to curricular structures, helping bridge the gap between classroom learning and workplace experience. This paper documents examples that may serve to assist medical educators in connecting the classroom and the workplace.

via Enhancing the connection between the classroom and the clinical workplace: A systematic review. – PubMed – NCBI.

CONTEXT:
There is increasing focus on how health care professionals can be trained effectively in quality improvement and patient safety principles. The morbidity and mortality round (MMR) has often been used as a tool with which to examine and teach care quality, yet little is known of its implementation and educational outcomes.
OBJECTIVES:
The objectives of this scoping review are to examine and summarise the literature on how the MMR is designed and delivered, and to identify how it is evaluated for effectiveness in addressing medical education outcomes.
METHODS:
A literature search of the PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycInfo and Cochrane Library databases was conducted for articles published from 1980 to 1 June 2016. Publications in English describing the design, implementation and evaluation of MMRs were included. A total of 67 studies were identified, including eight survey-based studies, four literature reviews, one ethnographic study, three opinion papers, two qualitative observation studies and 49 case studies of education programmes with or without formal evaluation. Study outcomes were categorised using Donald Moore’s framework for the evaluation of continuing medical education (CME).
RESULTS:
There is much heterogeneity within the literature regarding the implementation, delivery and goals of the MMR. Common design components included explicit programme goals and objectives, the case selection process, case presentation models and some form of case analysis. Evaluation of CME outcomes for MMR were mainly limited to learner participation, satisfaction and self-assessed changes in knowledge.
CONCLUSIONS:
The MMR is widely utilised as an educational tool to promote medical education, patient safety and quality improvement. Although evidence to guide the design and implementation of the MMR to achieve measurable CME outcomes remains limited, there are components associated with positive improvements to learning and performance outcomes.

via The role of morbidity and mortality rounds in medical education: a scoping review. – PubMed – NCBI.