Medical students' and facilitators' experiences of an Early Professional Contact course: Active and motivated students, strained facilitators

Background: Today, medical students are introduced to patient contact, communication skills, and clinical examination in the preclinical years of the curriculum with the purpose of gaining clinical experience. These courses are often evaluated from the student perspective. Reports with an additional emphasis on the facilitator perspective are scarce. According to constructive alignment, an influential concept from research in higher education, the learning climate between students and teachers is also of great importance. In this paper, we approach the learning climate by studying both students' and facilitators' course experiences.\ud \ud In 2001, a new "Early Professional Contact" longitudinal strand through term 1–4, was introduced at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. General practitioners and hospital specialists were facilitators.\ud \ud The aim of this study was to assess and analyse students' and clinical facilitators' experiences of the Early Professional Contact course and to illuminate facilitators' working conditions.\ud \ud Methods: Inspired by a Swedish adaptation of the Course Experience Questionnaire, an Early Professional Contact Questionnaire was constructed. In 2003, on the completion of the first longitudinal strand, a student and facilitator version was distributed to 86 students and 21 facilitators. In the analysis, both Chi-square and the Mann-Whitney tests were used.\ud \ud Results: Sixty students (70%) and 15 facilitators (71%) completed the questionnaire. Both students and facilitators were satisfied with the course. Students reported gaining [inspiration] for their future work as doctors along with increased confidence in meeting patients. They also reported increased motivation for biomedical studies. Differences in attitudes between facilitators and students were found. Facilitators experienced a greater workload, less reasonable demands and less support, than students.\ud \ud Conclusion: In this project, a new Early Professional Contact course was analysed from both student and facilitator perspectives. The students experienced the course as providing them with a valuable introduction to the physician's professional role in clinical practice. In contrast, course facilitators often experienced a heavy workload and lack of support, despite thorough preparatory education. A possible conflict between the clinical facilitator's task as educator and member of the workplace is suggested. More research is needed on how doctors combine their professional tasks with work as facilitators

Ögonbottenfotografering : Faktorer som bidrar till låg följsamhet till ögonbottenfotografering hos patienter med diabetes-En systematisk litteraturstudie

Bakgrund Diabetes är en av de sjukdomar som ökar mest i hela världen, detta medför att även följdsjukdomar förknippade med diabetes ökar. Diabetesretinopati [DRP] är en av dessa följdsjukdomar. Regelbunden ögonbottenfotografering gör att förändringar upptäcks i tid. Följsamheten till ögonbottenfotografering bland patienter med diabetes är dock inte optimal.   Syfte Syftet med studien var att identifiera faktorer som bidrar till att patienter med diabetes har låg följsamhet till ögonbottenfotografering.   Metod Studien utfördes som en systematisk litteraturstudie, med kvalitativa och kvantitativa artiklar för att sammanställa tidigare forskning.    Resultat Studien resulterade i tre huvudkategorier Faktorer relaterade till interaktionen med sjukvården, faktorer relaterade till patientens livssituation och personlighet och faktorer relaterade till det omgivande samhället samt åtta underkategorier. De huvudsakliga faktorer som framkom var brist på information, ekonomiska aspekter samt känslor relaterade till undersökningarna.   Slutsats Genom att identifiera försvårande faktorer kan denna studies resultat användas som utgångspunkt för att utveckla hälsofrämjande åtgärder för en ökad följsamhet. Även annan vårdpersonal, till exempel diabetessjuksköterskan kan få nytta av kunskapen som framkommer. Vidare forskning behövs som behandlar nordiska förhållanden.Background Diabetes is an increasing health problem all around the world. This means that health problems associated with diabetes are also increasing. Diabetic retinopathy [DRP] is one of these problems. To detect DRP at an early stage, regular fundus examinations are recommended. However, compliance among diabetic patients is not optimal. Purpose The purpose of the study was to identify factors that contribute to patients' with diabetes low compliance to fundus examinations. Method The study was a systematic literature review, including both qualitative and quantitative research in order for a comprehensive compilation of previous studies. Results The result showed three main categories. Factors related to the interaction with the healthcare system, factors related to the patient's life situation and personality and factors related to the surrounding society. There were also eight subcategories. The main factors that emerged were lack on information, economic aspects and emotions related to the examinations. Conclusions By identifying aggravating factors, the result in this study may be useful as a starting point to develop health-promoting actions to increase compliance. Other healthcare professionals, such as the diabetic nurse, may also benefit from the knowledge that emerges. Further research about the conditions in Scandinavia is required

Serious, frightening and interesting conditions: differences in values and attitudes between first-year and final-year medical students.

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: During medical education and training, the values and attitudes of medical students are shaped both by knowledge and by role models. In this study, the aim was to compare the views of first- and final-year students concerning patients with different medical conditions. PARTICIPANTS AND METHOD: In the spring of 1998 all first- and final-year medical students at Göteborg and Lund Universities, Sweden, were invited to answer a questionnaire. A total of 20 medical conditions were to be rated on visual analogue scales, according to three aspects: their perceived seriousness, the student's own fear of them and interest in working with these conditions in the future. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 75%. Concerning seriousness, there was a high degree of concordance between the first- and final-year students. Concerning their own fear, the concordance was less pronounced. When the conditions were rated from the aspect of interest, for the final-year students, gastric or duodenal ulcer replaced infection with Ebola virus for the first-year students, among the five highest-ranked conditions. The correlations between seriousness and fear were lower among the final-year students, but this reached statistical significance only in a few cases. DISCUSSION: A reasonable interpretation of the results is that the values and attitudes of the students were influenced by increased knowledge, as well as by role models encountered during the clinical parts of the training. Conditions less likely to be contracted become less feared, and conditions with effective treatment become more interesting; and the converse was true for each of these changes