What we eventually accomplish may depend more on passion and perseverance than on our innate talent.

Abstract

In 2019, the Faculty of Dentistry celebrated its 90th anniversary. Since its beginning, the Faculty has grown from strength to strength and its efforts at nurturing generations of oral healthcare professionals have evolved. Such growth and evolution ensure that the Faculty’s mission of education remains contemporaneous, effective and relevant to future-proof its graduates to play an instrumental role in helping the population achieve good oral health. This article documents the Faculty’s early years; highlights its journey and educational endeavours which have transformed teaching and learning in dentistry. It also sheds light on key drivers of change which will shape the way the Faculty seeks to transform dental education for the future.

Abstract

Transnational collaborations in faculty development aim to tackle challenges in resource and financial constraints, as well as to increase the quality of programs by collaborating expertise and best evidence from different centres and countries. Many challenges exist to establishing such collaborations, as well as to long-term sustainability once the collaboration ceases. Using the experiences of researchers from medical schools in Indonesia and Australia, this paper provides insights into establishing and sustaining a transnational collaboration to create a faculty development initiative (FDI) to improve clinical teacher practice. Viewed through the lens of the experiences of those involved, the authors describe their learnings from pathways of reciprocal learning, and a synergistic approach to designing and implementing a culturally resonant FDI. The importance of activities such as needs assessment and curriculum blueprinting as ways of establishing collaborative processes and the bilateral exchange of educational expertise, rather than as a mechanism of curriculum control, is highlighted. The relevance of activities that actively foster cultural intelligence is explored as is the importance of local curriculum champions and their role as active contributors to the collaborative process.

Keywords: Faculty Development, Transnational, Collaboration, Clinical Teacher

Abstract

Background: Studies have reported positive impacts from community engagement in end-of-life (EoL) care. However, few studies have used a narrative for health promotion. Thus, we examined how and what lay participants learned through an EoL care education program using narrative.

Keywords:         Lay-People Learning, Public Health, Palliative Care, Qualitative Research, Narrative Medicine

Abstract

Given the high investments in training and mentoring graduates who have chosen the research career path, and considering a high attrition of these graduates moving on to non-research type of careers, it is important to understand the factors that motivate young scientists to stay on the job as they could make important contributions to a better world with their scientific endeavours. It is in this context that we conducted an exploratory study to understand the factors that may drive the scientists’ performance as well as their expectations to remain in the research career paths. We found evidence for an indirect link (through research commitment) between need-for-cognition and career performance as well as evidence of an effect of research commitment on the anticipated research career length. There was also evidence that continuance commitment (but not other extrinsic factors) affects anticipated research career length, and that organisational support is linked to perceived research performance. Implications of our findings for student selection and graduate mentoring are discussed.

Keywords: Research Career Path, Scientist’s Motivation, Graduate Mentoring, Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations

Abstract

Any form of assessment activity will act as a stimulus and provoke an educational response. There is a risk however that the response will not result in a beneficial educational response, thus there is a need to monitor and understand the relationship between assessment and learning. This is true at any level of education including postgraduate medical education. To understand how residents perceived assessment, we interviewed 20 residents from the departments of internal medicine and paediatrics. Our goal was to determine how assessment influenced their motivation to accumulate knowledge and skills and attain the competence levels expected of a specialist. We utilised grounded theory to analyse the data. Our results showed that the trainees acknowledged that assessment, in general, has a positive influence on their learning, it motivated them to study and fostered an active learning attitude. A high degree of self-directed learning was also present among the residents. An interplay of new or interesting patient cases, concern for the welfare of the patients, engagement with the consultants, and a supportive environment contributed to creating the motivation for the residents to study.

Keywords: Assessment, Perceptions, Postgraduate Medical Education, Qualitative Study, Clinical Training

Abstract

Introduction: Mentoring is a vital component of a well-rounded medical teaching environment, as evidenced by its implementation in many residency programmes. This study aims to evaluate the perceived value of mentoring by faculty and near-peer mentoring to the orthopaedic surgery resident.

Methods: An online survey comprising multiple choice questions and scaled-response questions with a few open-ended questions was created and distributed to all residents, from residency years 2 to 5, within an orthopaedic residency programme in Singapore to gather their views on a tiered mentorship programme.

Results: 100% of surveyed residents responded. 68.4% of junior residents had a senior resident mentor while 84.8% of all residents had a faculty mentor. Junior residents generally viewed senior resident mentors as being crucial and beneficial for training, with scores comparable to those for faculty mentors. Residents who had mentors, in particular those who had chosen their own mentors, tended to be more satisfied than their counterparts. The most desired characteristics of mentors among the residents included approachability, willingness to share, being able to give feedback and experience. 66.7% of residents felt that near-peer mentorship should be required in the residency programme but only 30.3% of them felt that it should be formalised. 78.8% of residents surveyed felt that mentorship by faculty was required.

Conclusion: Residents viewed mentoring by faculty and near-peer mentoring as being beneficial and crucial to their orthopaedic residency training. We propose that an ideal mentoring programme should be tiered, allow choice of mentors and include near-peer mentoring as a requirement but not necessarily monitored.

Keywords:        Orthopaedic Surgery, Resident Education, Mentoring, Medical Teaching, Tiered Mentorship

Abstract

Students in the early years of medical school should learn the skills of clinical site risk assessment. However, the effect of this training on clinically inexperienced students is not clear, and it is difficult for them to predict risks from a wide range of perspectives. Therefore, in this study, based on Kiken-Yochi Training (KYT) for risk prediction using what-if analysis, we examined how to expand risk prediction among clinically inexperienced medical students. We divided 120 students in the first year of medical school into small groups of seven to eight students. First, each group predicted risks in the standard KYT (S-KY) method, stating what risks exist in the illustrations. Next, they conducted a What-If KYT (W-KY) analysis, brainstorming situations that differed from the illustrations, and again conducted risk prediction. Three kinds of illustrations depicting medical scenes were used. Last, each student proposed solutions to prevent risks. In this study, we clarify differences in risk assessment tendencies for students between W-KY and S-KY. We found that students could predict a wide variety of risks about illustrations using W-KY, particularly risks about patient and medical personnel. However, for risks regarding management, clinical rules, and stakeholders, prediction in both S-KY and W-KY was difficult due students’ lack of knowledge, but solutions proposed by students covered these elements. Improving the format of discussion in W-KY might allow students to predict risk from a wider range of perspectives.

Keywords:        Patient Safety Education, Undergraduate Education, Risk Assessment Skill, Kiken-Yochi Training, KYT, Risk Prediction, Clinically Inexperienced Medical Students

Abstract

Bond University Medical Program recognises the importance of workplace based assessment as an integrated, authentic form of assessment. In partnership with a software company, the Bond Medical Program has designed and implemented an online Student Clinical ePortfolio, utilising a mobile-enabled, secure, digital platform available on multiple devices from any location allowing a range of clinically relevant assessments “at the patient bedside”. The innovative dashboard allows meaningful aggregation of student assessment to provide an accurate picture of student competency. Students are also able to upload evidence of compliance documentation and record attendance and training hours using their mobile phone.

Assessment within hospitals encourages learning within hospitals, and the Student Clinical ePortfolio provides evidence of multiple student-patient interactions and procedural skill competency. Students also have enhanced interprofessional learning opportunities where nurses and allied health staff, in conjunction with supervising clinicians, can assess and provide feedback on competencies essential to becoming a ‘work-ready’ doctor.

Keywords:        Authentic Assessment, Interprofessional Learning, Technology-Enhanced Learning, Feedback, Workplace-Based Assessment

INTRODUCTION

Reflections represent exploration and explanation of events and may reveal anxieties, errors and weaknesses; they do however have positive influences highlighting strengths and successes for better future outcomes. The author reflects on his practice as a clinician-educator close to four decades and shares a perspective of his retrospectively pleasant but arduous journey into medical education.

INTRODUCTION

Family Medicine (FM) is an applied and integrative discipline. In 2011, the Ministry of Health introduced FM Residency Program in Singapore to train aspiring Family Physicians (FP). There are three sponsoring institutions, namely, Sing-Health Polyclinics, National Healthcare Group Polyclinics, and National University Health System (NUHS).