Publications by authors named "Dujeepa Samarasekera"

The maldistribution of physicians, especially in rural areas, remains a global public health challenge. The internship programme for medical doctors is one of the efforts undertaken to address this issue. However, evidence aiming to disentangle this persistent challenge in the Indonesian context has been scant.

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Singapore, located strategically at the meeting point of the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea, has established itself as a global financial and economic hub. Despite its small geographical size, Singapore is home to over 5 million people from diverse cultural backgrounds. The city-state's medical education landscape has evolved significantly over the past century.

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Article Synopsis
  • Despite the primary focus on clinical skills in healthcare education, developing psycho-social competencies like empathy is vital for both patient and professional benefits.
  • Current approaches to teaching empathy are often inconsistent, with little research on comprehensive, empathy-centered curricula.
  • This study will evaluate the impact of a new, focused curriculum on empathy among healthcare freshmen in Singapore, utilizing mixed methods to gather both quantitative and qualitative data.
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Curriculum change is relatively frequent in health professional education. Formal, planned curriculum review must be conducted periodically to incorporate new knowledge and skills, changing teaching and learning methods or changing roles and expectations of graduates. Unplanned curriculum evolution arguably happens continually, usually taking the form of "minor" changes that in combination over time may produce a substantially different programme.

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Article Synopsis
  • Generative AI, particularly ChatGPT, shows potential for enhancing medical education, especially in physiology and biochemistry, by using modified essay questions to evaluate its performance.
  • The study primarily focused on GPT-3.5 but also compared it to GPT-4, revealing that GPT-3.5 performed better in lower-order questions while struggling with clinical application in physiology and overall depth in biochemistry.
  • GPT-4 demonstrated improved performance over GPT-3.5 in both subjects, with significant differences noted in biochemistry, suggesting that evolving AI tools could better support learning if properly integrated into educational practices.
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This AMEE guide discusses theoretical principles and practical strategies for health professions educators to promote impactful mentoring relationships. Traditional definitions are challenged, distinctions are made between roles such as mentor, advisor, coach and sponsor. As educational environments change and options for professional development expand, we argue that the traditional dyadic format of mentoring alone will not help mentees to maximise their professional growth.

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic had major impact on the training of Infectious Diseases (ID) residents across the globe. They were part of the frontline staff, while at the same time training to be ID physicians. This study focused on identifying their capability, i.

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Aim: To consolidate the evidence around the experiences of nursing undergraduates and faculty members navigating through remote and online education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The Coronavirus disease 2019 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Virus (COVID-19) has placed massive pressure on healthcare, economic and education systems globally. Restrictive social distancing policies and public health measures necessitated educational institutions to switch from face-to-face to remote and online education to sustain the learning process.

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Introduction: Developing a physician equipped with both technical and affective skills is crucial in ensuring quality patient care. Of these skills, nurturing empathy is a key skill that has been studied in great detail, particularly among medical undergraduates. Despite numerous studies trending the changes in empathy, the results are often contradictory or confusing.

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Objective: Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) are tasks that a person who is qualified or is in the process to be credentialed are allowed to engage. There are several levels of entrustment based on degrees of supervision assigned to each EPA. This paper aims to describe the process and outcome of creating EPAs; validate EPAs relevant to undergraduate dental training.

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Purpose: Empathy levels have been observed to often decrease when medical undergraduates move to the clinical years, particularly in the Western countries. However, empathy either remains similar or increases in many Asian medical schools. This study investigated the longitudinal empathy profile of medical students in Singapore.

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Purpose: The use of mobile devices among medical students and residents to access online material in real-time has become more prevalent. Most literature focused on the technical/functional aspects of mobile use. This study, on the other hands, explored students, doctors and patients' preferences and reasons towards the use of mobile devices in clinical settings underpinned by the Technology Acceptance Model 2 (TAM 2).

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Introduction: Health professions educators risk misunderstandings where terms and concepts are not clearly defined, hampering the field's progress. This risk is especially pronounced with ambiguity in describing roles. This study explores the variety of terms used by researchers and educators to describe "faculty", with the aim to facilitate definitional clarity, and create a shared terminology and approach to describing this term.

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Objective: To understand racial bias in clinical settings from the perspectives of minority patients and healthcare providers to inspire changes in the way healthcare providers interact with their patients.

Methods: Articles on racial bias were searched on Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science. Full text review and quality appraisal was conducted, before data was synthesized and analytically themed using the Thomas and Harden methodology.

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Phenomenon: Research literacy remains important for equipping clinicians with the analytical skills to tackle an ever-evolving medical landscape and maintain an evidence-based approach when treating patients. While the role of research in medical education has been justified and established, the nuances involving modes of instruction and relevant outcomes for students have yet to be analyzed. Institutions acknowledge an increasing need to dedicate time and resources towards educating medical undergraduates on research but have individually implemented different pedagogies over differing lengths of time.

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Introduction: Understanding and supporting professional identity formation (PIF) among medical teachers has become increasingly important in faculty development programs. In this study, we explored medical teachers' PIF in Indonesia.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative descriptive study using focus group discussions (FGDs) at four medical schools in Indonesia.

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Objective: This study was conducted to better understand the pervasive gender barriers obstructing the progression of women in surgery by synthesising the perspectives of both female surgical trainees and surgeons.

Methods: Five electronic databases, including Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Web of Science Core Collection, were searched for relevant articles. Following a full-text review by three authors, qualitative data was synthesized thematically according to the Thomas and Harden methodology and quality assessment was conducted by two authors reaching a consensus.

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Objectives: This qualitative review aims to provide a clearer understanding of concerns general surgery (GS) patients face in the preoperative period.

Methods: Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Web of Science were searched for articles describing the preoperative concerns of GS patients. Qualitative and mixed method studies were included.

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Background: By 2050, 80% of the world's older population will reside in developing countries. There is a need for culturally appropriate training programs to increase awareness of eldercare issues, promote knowledge of how to better allocate resources to geriatric services, and promulgate elder-friendly policies. A monthly distance geriatric education programme between a public hospital in Singapore and health institute in Uganda was implemented.

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