Clinical support during COVID-19: An opportunity for service and learning? A cross-sectional survey of UK medical students.

Purpose: Medical students providing support to clinical teams during Covid-19 may have been an opportunity for service and learning. We aimed to understand why the reported educational impact has been mixed to inform future placements.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of medical students at UK medical schools during the first Covid-19 'lockdown' period in the UK (March-July 2020).

COVIDReady2 study protocol: cross-sectional survey of medical student volunteering and education during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has led to global disruption of healthcare. Many students volunteered to provide clinical support. Volunteering to work in a clinical capacity was a unique medical education opportunity; however, it is unknown whether this was a positive learning experience or which volunteering roles were of most benefit to students.

Parallel consulting method: student and tutor evaluation in general practice.

The parallel consulting method (PCM) is widely used by general practitioners (GPs) for teaching medical students. Studies have described individual aspects of bedside teaching in community settings, including the logistics of using the PCM, but there has been no evaluation of it as a teaching method. This study aimed to evaluate the PCM and whether it helped students develop consultation, clinical and clinical reasoning skills.

The development and evaluation of a simple method of gestational age estimation.

Aims: The aims of this study were to develop and evaluate a shorter gestational age estimation method based on the Dubowitz scoring system (DSS) that could be taught easily to untrained health-care workers.

Methods: Using the DSS, seven criteria were identified that explained 90% of the variance in gestational age estimation. Ventral suspension was excluded, skin texture was substituted for skin colour and ear bending was for ear firmness.

Predatory spider mimics acquire colony-specific cuticular hydrocarbons from their ant model prey.

The integrity of social insect colonies is maintained by members recognising and responding to the chemical cues present on the cuticle of any intruder. Nevertheless, myrmecophiles use chemical mimicry to gain access to these nests, and their mimetic signals may be acquired through biosynthesis or through contact with the hosts or their nest material. The cuticular hydrocarbon profile of the myrmecophilous salticid spider Cosmophasis bitaeniata closely resembles that of its host ant Oecophylla smaragdina.

Mimicry of host cuticular hydrocarbons by salticid spider Cosmophasis bitaeniata that preys on larvae of tree ants Oecophylla smaragdina.

The salticid spider Cosmophasis bitaeniata preys on the larvae of the green tree ant Oecophylla smaragdina. Gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) reveal that the cuticle of C. bitaeniata mimics the mono- and dimethylalkanes of the cuticle of its prey.