Recently, there has been an emphasis on keeping the study of anatomy using donor material confined to the domain of medical and allied healthcare professionals. Given the abundance of both accurate and inaccurate information online, coupled with a heightened focus on health following the COVID-19 pandemic, one may question whether it is time to review who can access learning anatomy using donors. In 2019, Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) obtained a Human Tissue Authority Public Display license with the aim of broadening the reach of who could be taught using donor material.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMJ Open
November 2023
Objectives: Health and care resources are under increasing pressure, partly due to the ageing population. Physical activity supports healthy ageing, but motivating exercise is challenging. We aimed to explore staff perceptions towards a virtual reality (VR) omnidirectional treadmill (MOTUS), aimed at increasing physical activity for older adult care home residents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Exp Med Biol
February 2022
The rise of Information and Communication Technologies and Computer Assisted Instruction have led to the adoption of digital visual learning aids to improve anatomy instruction. Creation of cadaveric video resources surged during 2020-2021 as they provided one option to continue teaching anatomy using cadaveric specimens in a time when all in-person practical teaching was prohibited to maintain safety during the Covid-19 pandemic. Cadaveric videos are relatively inexpensive to create and with the correct set up can be filmed independently by one anatomist.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUndertaking presymptomatic or predictive genetic testing should involve a considered choice. Decisions regarding genetic testing for young adults have to be considered within the context of their key life stage, which may involve developing a career, forming partnerships and/or becoming parents. The aim of this study was to develop a theoretical model regarding the factors involved when young adults (18-30 years) undergo presymptomatic genetic testing for inherited cancer syndromes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Intergenerational friendship has proved useful for older people in increasing socialisation. We explored the feasibility of school students Skyping older people in care homes with the long-term aim of reducing loneliness.
Methods: Six school students from one secondary school and twenty older people, including seven with mild to moderate dementia, from three care homes, engaged in Skype video-calls over six weeks.
Background: Video-calls have proven to be useful for older care home residents in improving socialization and reducing loneliness. Nonetheless, to facilitate the acceptability and usability of a new technological intervention, especially among people with dementia, there is a need for user-led design improvements. The current study conducted focus groups with an embedded activity with older people to allow for a person-centered design of a video-call intervention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe use of images in various forms (drawing, photography, digital applications) has always been intrinsically associated with anatomy; however, the way in which anatomy educators and students create, access, view and interact with images has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. The method that anatomy educators use to engage with students and the wider public and how students engage with each other and faculty has also changed since the turn of the century, largely due to the emergence of social media. These two facets, the move towards digital images and the use of social media, are now intricately interlinked because social media enable anatomy educators to share digital learning resources easily and instantly to a global audience.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVideo calls using software such as Skype, Zoom and FaceTime can improve socialisation among older people and family, however it is unknown if video calls are able to improve socialisation among older people and their peers. Twenty-two residents across three British care homes engaged with each other using 'Skype quiz' sessions with the support of staff once a month over an eight-month trial. Video calls were accessed via a 'Skype on Wheels' intervention that comprised a wheeled device that could hold an iPad, or through Skype TV.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSocial Media has changed the way that individuals interact with each other - it has brought considerable benefits, yet also some challenges. Social media in anatomy has enabled anatomists all over the world to engage, interact and form new collaborations that otherwise would not have been possible. In a relatively small discipline where individuals may be working as the only anatomist in an institution, having such a virtual community can be important.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The rising societal use of social media has encouraged health professionals to use social media in their professional activities; however, this can be a daunting task, particularly for those who are uncertain about the boundaries for the professional use of social media. This article summarises the guidelines provided by medical governing bodies on social media use and provides practical advice on how social media can be used, which is transferrable across the health professions.
Methods: Nine guidance documents published by medical governing bodies in major international English-speaking countries were reviewed and analysed to identify their key common messages.
"What do students studying medicine need to know" is an important question for curriculum planners, anatomy educators and students. The Core Regional Anatomy Syllabus (CRAS), published by the Anatomical Society in 2016, contains 156 learning outcomes (LOs) and has informed "what needs to be known." This project explored how CRAS had impacted undergraduate anatomy and anatomists in the United Kingdom.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPresymptomatic testing for hereditary cancer syndromes should involve a considered choice. This may be particularly challenging when testing is undertaken in early adulthood. With the aim of exploring the psychosocial implications of presymptomatic testing for hereditary cancer in young adults and their parents, a cross-sectional survey was designed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground and aims Electronic audience response systems offer the potential to enhance learning and improve performance. However, objective research investigating the use of audience response systems in undergraduate education has so far produced mixed, inconclusive results. We investigated the impact of audience response systems on short- and long-term test performance, as well as student perceptions of the educational experience, when integrated into undergraduate anatomy teaching.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Older people in care may be lonely with insufficient contact if families are unable to visit. Face-to-face contact through video-calls may help reduce loneliness, but little is known about the processes of engaging people in care environments in using video-calls. We aimed to identify the barriers to and facilitators of implementing video-calls for older people in care environments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Anatomical Society has developed a series of learning outcomes that 'experts' within the field would recommend as core knowledge outputs for a Master's Degree Programme in Pharmacy (MPharm) within the UK. Using the Anatomical Society core gross anatomy syllabus for medical anatomy as a foundation, a modified Delphi technique was used to develop outcomes specific to pharmacy graduates. A Delphi panel consisting of medical practitioners, pharmacists and anatomists (n = 39) was created and involved 'experts' representing 20 UK Higher Education Institutions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Health Serv Res
February 2018
Background: Access times for, the costs and overload of hospital services are an increasingly salient issue for healthcare managers in many countries. Rising demand for hospital care has been attributed partly to unplanned admissions for older people, and among these partly to the increasing prevalence of dementia. The paper makes a preliminary evaluation of the logic model of a Dementia Learning Community (DLC) intended to reduce unplanned hospital admissions from care homes of people with dementia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnabling informed choice is an essential component of care when offering young adults presymptomatic testing for a genetic condition. A systematic review on this topic revealed that many young adults grew up with little information regarding their genetic risk and that parents had applied pressure to them during the testing decision-making process. However, none of the studies retrieved were conducted in South European countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Bronchiectasis is accompanied by chronic bronchial infection that may drive disease progression. However, the evidence base for antibiotic therapy is limited. DNA based methods offer better identification and quantification of microbial constituents of sputum than standard clinical culture and may help inform patient management strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuroanatomy is a difficult subject in medical education, with students often feeling worried and anxious before they have even started, potentially decreasing their engagement with the subject. At the University of Southampton, we incorporated the use of Twitter as a way of supporting students' learning on a neuroanatomy module to evaluate how it impacted upon their engagement and learning experience. The #nlm2soton hashtag was created and displayed (via a widget) on the university's virtual learning environment (VLE) for a cohort of 197 Year 2 medical students studying neuroanatomy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPresymptomatic and predictive genetic testing should involve a considered choice, which is particularly true when testing is undertaken in early adulthood. Young adults are at a key life stage as they may be developing a career, forming partnerships and potentially becoming parents: presymptomatic testing may affect many facets of their future lives. The aim of this integrative systematic review was to assess factors that influence young adults' or adolescents' choices to have a presymptomatic genetic test and the emotional impact of those choices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWithin homelessness services recent policy developments have highlighted the need for integration and improved collaborative working and also, the need for "Psychologically Informed Environments" (PIES) in which workers are better equipped to manage the "complex trauma" associated with homelessness. Drawing on the findings of an evaluation of a multi-site development programme, this paper demonstrates how both these policy aspirations might be implemented through a single delivery vehicle (a community of practice). The paper describes how organizational, educational and psychosocial theory was used to inform programme design and reflects on the utility of these approaches in the light of the evaluation findings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs part of an ethnographic study, the impact of foreign postings on spouses who accompany military personnel was explored. Individual interviews and focus groups with 34 British military spouses based in one location in southern Europe were conducted. Key findings suggested that reaction to a foreign posting was a reflection of personal attitudes, prior experiences, support, ability to adjust to change and strength of relationship with the serving spouse and community.
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