A Guide to Competencies, Educational Goals, and Learning Objectives for Teaching Medical Histology in an Undergraduate Medical Education Setting.

Horizontal and vertical integration within medical school curricula, truncated contact hours available to teach basic biomedical sciences, and diverse assessment methods have left histology educators searching for an answer to a fundamental question-what ensures competency for medical students in histology upon completion of medical school? The Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) and the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA) advocate faculty to provide medical students with a list of learning objectives prior to any educational activities, regardless of pedagogy. It is encouraged that the learning objectives are constructed using higher-order and measurable action verbs to ensure student-centered learning and assessment. A survey of the literature indicates that there is paucity of knowledge about competencies, goals, and learning objectives appropriate for histology education in preclinical years.

NSAIDs and Cell Proliferation in Colorectal Cancer.

Colon cancer is common worldwide and accounts for significant morbidity and mortality in patients. Fortunately, epidemiological studies have demonstrated that continuous therapy with NSAIDs offers real promise of chemoprevention and adjunct therapy for colon cancer patients. Tumour growth is the result of complex regulation that determines the balance between cell proliferation and cell death.

Immunohistochemical localisation of renal cyclooxygenase-1 expression in non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug-treated mice.

The utility of cyclooxygenase-inhibiting non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs is limited by unwanted side effects that include disturbances in renal function. In order to further understand the mechanisms that underlie these renal side effects, the expression of the prostaglandin-synthesizing enzyme cyclooxygenase (COX) was examined by immunohistochemical methods in murine kidneys after treatment with indomethacin, a non-selective inhibitor or nimesulide, an inhibitor that preferentially and selectively blocks the COX-2 isoform of the enzyme. In untreated control kidneys, COX-1 protein was expressed in the glomeruli and parietal cells of the glomerular capsule, epithelial cells of the proximal and distal convoluted tubules including the juxtaglomerular region, and the collecting ducts.

Age modulates attitudes to whole body donation among medical students.

Managing a whole body donor program is necessary for facilitating a traditional dissection-based anatomy curriculum in medicine and health sciences. Factors which influence body donations to medical science can therefore affect dissection-based anatomy teaching. In order to determine whether age influences the attitudes of medical students to donations, this study surveyed, by Likert-type questionnaires, first-year graduate-entry medical students attending a dissection-based anatomy course.

Attitudes to anatomy dissection in an Irish medical school.

Many studies around the world have looked at the stresses placed on medical students by cadaveric dissection. Although these studies have linked the use of cadavers in medical teaching to stress, some investigations have suggested an association with severe psychological stress and even post-traumatic stress disorder. This study assessed the attitudes of medical and biomedical sciences students in an Irish medical school towards cadaveric dissection by recording, through a questionnaire, their perceptions and experience before initial exposure to dissection and subsequently examining their attitudes after the first dissection and after 9 weeks.

Student attitudes to whole body donation are influenced by dissection.

Given the important role that anatomical dissection plays in the shaping of medical student attitudes to life and death, these attitudes have not been evaluated in the context of whole body donation for medical science. First year students of anatomy in an Irish university medical school were surveyed by questionnaire before and after the initial dissection and again after 9 weeks of anatomical dissection. Analysis of student responses to the idea of whole body donation by an unrelated stranger, a family member, or by the respondent showed that a priori attitudes to donation by a stranger did not change with exposure to dissection.