Learning Curves for Training in Ultrasonography-Based Examination of Umbilical Catheter Placement: A Piglet Study.

Background: The training required for accurate assessment of umbilical catheter placement by ultrasonography (US) is unknown.

Objective: To describe the learning curve and provide an estimate of the accuracy of physicians' US examinations (US skills) and self-confidence when examining umbilical catheter tip placement.

Methods: Twenty-one physicians with minimal experience in US completed a 1.

Distributed practice. The more the merrier? A randomised bronchoscopy simulation study.

Introduction: The distribution of practice affects the acquisition of skills. Distributed practice has shown to be more effective for skills acquisition than massed training. However, it remains unknown as to which is the most effective distributed practice schedule for learning bronchoscopy skills through simulation training.

The validity of student tutors' judgments in early detection of struggling in medical school. A prospective cohort study.

Early identification and support of strugglers in medical education is generally recommended in the research literature, though very little evidence of the diagnostic qualities of early teacher judgments in medical education currently exists. The aim of this study was to examine the validity of early diagnosis of struggling in medical school based on informal teacher judgements of in-class behavior. The study design was a prospective cohort study and the outcomes/truth criteria were anatomy failure and medical school drop out.

Dyad practice is efficient practice: a randomised bronchoscopy simulation study.

Context: Medical simulation training requires effective and efficient training strategies. Dyad practice may be a training strategy worth pursuing because it has been proven effective and efficient in motor skills learning. In dyad practice two participants collaborate in learning a task they will eventually perform individually.

Time matters--realism in resuscitation training.

Background: The advanced life support guidelines recommend 2min of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and minimal hands-off time to ensure sufficient cardiac and cerebral perfusion. We have observed doctors who shorten the CPR intervals during resuscitation attempts. During simulation-based resuscitation training, the recommended 2-min CPR cycles are often deliberately decreased in order to increase the number of scenarios.

Effects of modelling examples in complex procedural skills training: a randomised study.

Context: Learning complex procedural skills, such as bronchoscopy, through simulation training, imposes a high cognitive load on novices. Example-based learning has been shown to be an effective way to reduce cognitive load and enhance learning outcomes. Prior research has shown that modelling examples, in which a human model demonstrates the skill to a learner, were effective for learning basic surgical skills.

[The CanMEDS' professional role is complex and needs redefinition in Denmark].

The CanMEDS roles were adapted in Denmark more than ten years ago. The complexity of the professional role is discussed from various aspects and put into perspective of the Danish culture and the Danish ethical rules for medical doctors. Redefinition of the role professional according to these aspects is recommended.

Objective structured assessment of technical competence in transthoracic echocardiography: a validity study in a standardised setting.

Background: Competence in transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is unrelated to traditional measures of TTE competence, such as duration of training and number of examinations performed. This study aims to explore aspects of validity of an instrument for structured assessment of echocardiographic technical skills.

Methods: The study included 45 physicians with three different clinical levels of echocardiography competence who all scanned the same healthy male following national guidelines.

Young doctors' problem solving strategies on call may be improved.

Introduction: The first year following graduation from medical school is challenging as learning from books changes to workplace-based learning. Analysis and reflection on experience may ease this transition. We used Significant Event Analysis (SEA) as a tool to explore what pre-registration house officers (PRHOs) consider successful and problematic events, and to identify what problem-solving strategies they employ.

Anxiety in veterinary surgical students: a quantitative study.

The surgical educational environment is potentially stressful and this can negatively affect students' learning. The aim of this study was to investigate whether veterinary students' level of anxiety is higher in a surgical course than in a non-surgical course and if pre-surgical training in a Surgical Skills Lab (SSL) has an anxiety reducing effect. Investigations were carried out as a comparative study and a parallel group study.

Emotions in veterinary surgical students: a qualitative study.

A surgical educational environment is potentially stressful and can negatively affect students' learning. The aim of the present study was to investigate the emotions experienced by veterinary students in relation to their first encounter with live-animal surgery and to identify possible sources of positive and negative emotions, respectively. During a Basic Surgical Skills course, 155 veterinary fourth-year students completed a survey.

Outcome (competency) based education: an exploration of its origins, theoretical basis, and empirical evidence.

Outcome based or competency based education (OBE) is so firmly established in undergraduate medical education that it might not seem necessary to ask why it was included in recommendations for the future, like the Flexner centenary report. Uncritical acceptance may not, however, deliver its greatest benefits. Our aim was to explore the underpinnings of OBE: its historical origins, theoretical basis, and empirical evidence of its effects in order to answer the question: How can predetermined learning outcomes influence undergraduate medical education? This literature review had three components: A review of historical landmarks in the evolution of OBE; a review of conceptual frameworks and theories; and a systematic review of empirical publications from 1999 to 2010 that reported data concerning the effects of learning outcomes on undergraduate medical education.

Selected determinants may account for dropout risks among medical students.

Introduction: The dropout level from the Danish medical schools is high, but we have only little insight into this problem. The purpose of this study was to qualify the ongoing discussions concerning dropout.

Material And Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, relevant variables were extracted from the established database of Aarhus University for the 639 students initiating medicine studies between 1 January 1999 and 31 December 2000.

Limited intervention improves technical skill in focus assessed transthoracic echocardiography among novice examiners.

Background: Previous studies addressing teaching and learning in point-of-care ultrasound have primarily focussed on image interpretation and not on the technical quality of the images. We hypothesized that a limited intervention of 10 supervised examinations would improve the technical skills in Focus Assessed Transthoracic Echocardiography (FATE) and that physicians with no experience in FATE would quickly adopt technical skills allowing for image quality suitable for interpretation.

Methods: Twenty-one physicians with no previous training in FATE or echocardiography (Novices) participated in the study and a reference group of three examiners with more than 10 years of experience in echocardiography (Experts) was included.

[Admission tests for medical education].

This state of the art article explores what is known from the international and Danish literature on admission criteria as predictors of success in medical education. Previous academic performance is the best known predictor of medical students' grades. Poorer entry qualifications, broadly defined, are associated with dropout in medical education.

Medical graduates feel well-prepared for clinical work.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to assess the coherence between the undergraduate medical program at Aarhus University and the foundation year.

Material And Methods: This cross-sectional questionnaire survey included 503 doctors graduated from Aarhus University from the winter of 2007/2008 to the summer of 2009.

Results: The response rate was 73%.

Medical school dropout--testing at admission versus selection by highest grades as predictors.

Context: Very few studies have reported on the effect of admission tests on medical school dropout. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive validity of non-grade-based admission testing versus grade-based admission relative to subsequent dropout.

Methods: This prospective cohort study followed six cohorts of medical students admitted to the medical school at the University of Southern Denmark during 2002-2007 (n=1544).

The relationship between immediate relevant basic science knowledge and clinical knowledge: physiology knowledge and transthoracic echocardiography image interpretation.

Two major views on the relationship between basic science knowledge and clinical knowledge stand out; the Two-world view seeing basic science and clinical science as two separate knowledge bases and the encapsulated knowledge view stating that basic science knowledge plays an overt role being encapsulated in the clinical knowledge. However, resent research has implied that a more complex relationship between the two knowledge bases exists. In this study, we explore the relationship between immediate relevant basic science (physiology) and clinical knowledge within a specific domain of medicine (echocardiography).

"Knowing more about the other professions clarified my own profession".

The purpose of this study was to compare which learning outcomes relating to an Interprofessional Training Unit (ITU) experience were found to be most important by students and by alumni. A cohort of 428 students in the ITU was asked to write three short statements describing the most important learning outcomes from the ITU. Alumni from the same cohort were after graduation asked the same question.

Visual expertise in paediatric neurology.

Background: Visual expertise relies on perceptive as well as cognitive processes. At present, knowledge of these processes when diagnosing clinical cases mainly stems from studies with still pictures. In contrast, patient video cases constitute a dynamic diagnostic challenge that may simulate seeing and diagnosing a patient in person.

Factors associated with dropout in medical education: a literature review.

Context: Medical school dropout may have negative consequences for society, patients, the profession, schools and dropouts. To our knowledge, the literature dealing with dropout from medical school has never been systematically and critically appraised.

Objectives: This review aimed to systematically and critically review studies dealing with factors found to be associated with dropping out of medical school.

Standards of resuscitation during inter-hospital transportation: the effects of structured team briefing or guideline review - a randomised, controlled simulation study of two micro-interventions.

Background: Junior physicians are sometimes sent in ambulances with critically ill patients who require urgent transfer to another hospital. Unfamiliar surroundings and personnel, time pressure, and lack of experience may imply a risk of insufficient treatment during transportation as this can cause the physician to loose the expected overview of the situation. While health care professionals are expected to follow complex algorithms when resuscitating, stress can compromise both solo-performance and teamwork.

[Active student participation at the medical school at the University of Aarhus shall be increased].

In this paper we describe the first four phases of a curriculum reform covering the three clinical years of medical school at Aarhus University. The reform intends to ease students' transition from medical school to the foundation year, increase focus on communication, create more coherence between subjects, increase students' active participation, and align learning outcomes and assessments. More than 80 stakeholders participated in the first phases and five task forces gave their recommendations on how to achieve the intentions.