Accessible and contextually relevant healthcare research programs and networks for rural physicians are exceedingly rare, which hinders the development of social capital in an already isolating profession. This study aims to examine the impact of the Rural Health Research Capacity Building (RRCB) Program on enhancing cognitive, structural, and relational social capital through comprehensive research skills training, supported by professional teams and resources.

Virtual reality (VR) technology presents a promising alternative to medical education by creating an immersive and interactive learning environment. This research aimed to examine the effectiveness of virtual reality on medical students' academic achievement in anatomy.

The dynamic landscape of medical education demands innovative teaching methods. This study introduces virtual reality (VR) technology to anatomy courses at Qatar University, aiming to assess students' receptiveness to virtual anatomy dissection and its potential transformative impact.

Contemporary dental education requires swift assimilation of technological advancements to prepare the future generation of dentists. Integrating digital tools, such as prepCheck software in crown preparations offers a promising avenue for enhancing the learning experiences of dental students. This study aimed to evaluate the perceptions and experiences of undergraduate dental students regarding the use of PrepCheck software for learning crown preparations.

Since the elimination of numerical scoring of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1, the perceived importance of USMLE Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) scores in residency placement has increased. It is known that socioeconomic status (SES) and other demographic factors can be barriers to success in standardized assessment, but few recent studies report the relationship between student demographics, including SES, with Step 2 CK scores in the context of exam practice material access and usage. In this study, we investigated predictors of Step 2 CK success across two years at one institution.

The blended teaching mode, which combines online and offline learning, has gained significant traction in higher education. This study aims to explore the impact of blended learning on students' academic performance, engagement, and self-efficacy in a medical nutrition course.

The emergence of virtual reality (VR) for medical education enables a range of new teaching opportunities. Skills and competences can be trained that cannot be demonstrated in any other way due to physical or ethical limitations. Immersion and presence may play an important role for learning in this context. This study investigates whether this VR-based, immersive software is an effective tool for assessing medical learning objectives by comparing behavioral outcomes in VR and actor-based simulations, and examines how these behaviors relate to immersion levels and their impact on learning success.

Career or specialty choice is one of the crucial steps of a medical student's life. It's a difficult yet important decision that is hard to reverse after getting into the residency program. The recent catastrophic experience of shortage and maldistribution of the health workforce among different specialties during the recent pandemic has made it critical for the authorities to look into the motivators and determinants for the specialty choice from the undergraduate medical student's perspective. Therefore, the study aimed to find out the major factors affecting career choice and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the specialty choice of medical students in Saudi Arabia.

Clinical teaching is an essential part of medical education and clinical teacher must acquire the necessary competencies to perform such a role. In this regard, there is emphasis on emotional intelligence as an essential competency. The aim of this study was to develop a model for clinical teaching with emotional intelligence based on the experiences of clinical teachers.

Mastering paediatric laparoscopic surgery competency (PLSC) is technically challenging. The present study aimed to determine whether the inter-academic PLSC degree (IAD_PLSC) practical training program enables trainees to improve their skills.

Point of Care ultrasound (POCUS) is rapidly gaining popularity in resource constrained settings. Optimising training is important to ensure safe and effective implementation. To expand POCUS expertise in Ghana, we co-developed and piloted a context specific, multi-disciplinary, blended learning programme, targeted at physicians of any grade or speciality providing acute care in the public health sector. In this retrospective mixed method study, we capture the "real world" experience of participants, using POCUS in their daily practice, as well as the barriers and enablers they perceived to implementation.

Medical educators face wicked (complex) problems. Few faculty development (FD) programs exist specifically designed for rural physicians. Memorial University created the 6for6 program, a longitudinal FD program in foundational research skills for rural physicians. This work explores the use of the Adaptive Action Method in tackling wicked problems in rural faculty development.

Reflection is a critical component of learning which plays a significant role in improving knowledge and skills. It is a metacognitive process that aims to create a deeper understanding of the situation. This study sought to explore the perspectives of medical students concerning the role of reflection in their professional development.

The assessment of undergraduate medical students consists of a written component and an advanced clinical competency test that evaluates the students' skills. The Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) were only implemented in most medical schools in the last ten years, similar in many developing countries. It was first used with other clinical assessment methods. This study was designed to investigate how medical students in the fourth and sixth grades and examiners perceived the unique format, features, and quality of the Grand Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (GOSCE), a novel method for assessing students. The aim was to understand how this innovative method, distinct from traditional assessment methods, prepares students for real-world scenarios where they encounter different specialty cases. Additionally, the study aimed to understand the significant role and challenges faced by the Faculty of General Medicine at Koya University in implementing this type of OSCE and to identify potential improvements to enhance the quality of the assessment process.

Advancement in medical education has led to the adoption of online learning platforms in the development and execution of learning modules. Online learning platforms are appraised and accessed regarding their capability of ensuring a seamless experience and enhancing satisfaction in users, especially students. In this study, the satisfaction and learning experience of medical students were studied with emphasis on their sociodemographic features.

Revitalizing primary health care requires that the health workforce, especially doctors, must appreciate the significance of the socio-cultural environment in health. To achieve this objective, training of medical students must emphasize greater understanding of the community and its role in health through community engagement using community-engaged learning. However, research on this learning method applied in a purely community engagement context is lacking. A medical school in Ghana adapted its fourth-year junior clerkship curriculum in Community Health to include a community-engagement programme. This study reports students' perceptions of the said programme as a way of evaluating it and helping to improve upon its implementation.

As of July 1st, 2021, the US Hispanic/Latinx community is estimated at 62.6 million, making up 18.9% of the population. Despite federal regulations requiring access to medical interpreters, clinicians often resort to alternative translation methods, increasing the risk of errors. Medical Spanish education lacks standardization in US medical schools, and information on curricula provided by International Medical Schools (IMGs) is limited. We aimed to demonstrate the effectiveness of virtual, peer-led Medical Spanish education for an international medical school cohort. The course consisted of 10 weekly one-hour lectures via Zoom. From 2022 to 2023, three cohorts successfully completed the course. Through realistic clinical scenarios, students practiced and reinforced their clinical knowledge in Spanish. The final exam involved a 20-minute patient encounter on Zoom, with the instructor acting as the patient and the student as the physician. Performance evaluation followed a standardized checklist. Each question was worth 3 points, with a total of 63 potential points. The passing score ratio was set at 2, equivalent to 66.7%, calculated by dividing the score by 21 (the number of questions). Student's self-reported comfort in obtaining a history and physical exam in Spanish, obtained before and after completion of the course post-comfort scores (median, 3), increased significantly compared to pre-course comfort scores (median, 0.5) - increased by an average of 2.5. This Online Spanish Medical Course (OSMC) requires no prior Spanish background or exposure, providing a notable advantage. Most students praised the convenient and effective online format. Despite its short duration, the course yielded significant benefits.

Tic disorders (TDs) have a prevalence of approximately 1%, and while various therapies have demonstrated effectiveness, people with tics and their families report a lack of understanding by healthcare professionals (HCPs). This systematic review included 13 papers featuring HCPs, people with tics, and their families about their experiences of either delivering or accessing care for tics, which were then divided into three themes. The first theme, Need for Education and Effective Implementation, suggested that while HCPs demonstrated good knowledge of tics, patient experiences indicated that this did not always translate to the care they received, potentially due to low confidence and a lack of formal training. The second theme, Misinterpretation, Misdiagnosis and Stigma, suggested that HCPs held incorrect beliefs about tics and would misinterpret tic symptoms, while caregiver responsibility for their child's tics would both positively and negatively impact care-seeking behaviour, partly depending on their cultural belief system. Finally, the Communication between Healthcare Professionals and Families revealed that poor communication of a tic disorder diagnosis can exacerbate anxiety within the family. The themes of this review were demonstrated universally, demonstrating that HCPs around the world should be encouraged to understand tics and tic disorders confidently to improve the healthcare outcomes and experiences of those living with tics.

The general medicine in-training examination (GM-ITE) assesses physicians' clinical knowledge. This study expanded on findings from a previous pilot study to assess the relationship between general medicine in-training examination (GM-ITE) scores and the diagnostic skills of resident physicians in Japan by employing an innovative clinical simulation video (CSV-IE).

Mobile phones are essential tools worldwide, including for the academic training of medical students. However, their role in Latin America (LATAM) remains underexplored. This study aimed to evaluate cell phone use and its applicability in the academic training of medical students in LATAM.