Proactive motor control within and between hands: Effects of age, motor set, and cue type.

Several studies have reported that proactive motor control in a cued four-finger choice reaction task proceeds more efficiently with a 2-hands motor set (two fingers on each hand) than with a 1-hand motor set (four fingers on one hand). According to the Grouping Model, this is because the 2-hands motor set recruits distinct left and right hand representations located in separate cerebral hemispheres, whereas the 1-hand motor set recruits partially overlapping neural areas grouped together in one hemisphere. The latter neural organization increases neuromotor noise, thereby complicating proactive motor selection.

Appraising the use of smartphones and apps when conducting qualitative medical education research: AMEE Guide No. 130.

Smartphone use is rampant in everyday life and is increasing in: patient management, teaching and learning of medicine and health research. There is untapped potential to use smartphones as research tools in MER for a range of research approaches. Qualitative research is increasingly common in medical education research (MER).

Rates and Causes of 90-day Complications and Readmissions Following Outpatient Hip and Knee Arthroplasty: A Retrospective Analysis of 525 Patients in a Single Institution.

Background: Outpatient joint arthroplasty (OJA) has gained increasing popularity and success in a well-defined population. Safety concerns, in terms of complications and readmissions, however still exist.

Patients And Methods: This retrospective study included 525 patients (90 primary THAs, 277 primary TKAs, and 158 primary UKAs), initially planned for OJA.

Maternal recall of a history of early-onset preeclampsia, late-onset preeclampsia, or gestational hypertension: a validation study.

This study assessed women's ability to recall different types of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy because of its disproportionate cardiovascular risk later in life. Participants were 5-10 years post-partum with a history of early-onset-, late-onset preeclampsia, or gestational hypertension. Recall was assessed by questionnaire and compared to medical records.

Students' social networks are diverse, dynamic and deliberate when transitioning to clinical training.

Context: Transitions in medical education are dynamic, emotional and complex yet, unavoidable. Relationships matter, especially in times of transition. Using qualitative, social network research methods, we explored social relationships and social support as medical students transitioned from pre-clinical to clinical training.

Social Accountability Frameworks and Their Implications for Medical Education and Program Evaluation: A Narrative Review.

Purpose: Medical schools face growing pressures to produce stronger evidence of their social accountability, but measuring social accountability remains a global challenge. This narrative review aimed to identify and document common themes and indicators across large-scale social accountability frameworks to facilitate development of initial operational constructs to evaluate social accountability in medical education.

Method: The authors searched 5 electronic databases and platforms and the World Wide Web to identify social accountability frameworks applicable to medical education, with a focus on medical schools.

Optimizing collaborative learning in online courses.

Currently, higher education institutes are urged to adapt their education programmes rapidly to online courses. This toolbox article provides recommendations for optimising collaborative learning in online courses from the perspective of course design, and the roles of teachers and students, all illustrated in our example. With regards to course design, it is recommended to construct learning tasks for which students need to collaborate to reach a shared goal, use collaboration scripts to structure activities and communication, manage expectations about collaboration, provide room for discussion about the team process, facilitate autonomy and use existing communication tools.

A qualitative exploration of clinicians' strategies to communicate risks to patients in the complex reality of clinical practice.

Background: Risk communication, situated in the model of shared decision making (SDM), is an essential element in daily clinical practice. The scientific literature makes a number of generic recommendations. Yet the application of risk communication remains a challenge in patient-clinician encounters.

Collaborative learning: Elements encouraging and hindering deep approach to learning and use of elaboration strategies.

Aim: The purpose of this research was to investigate students' approaches to learning and use of cognitive strategies in a collaborative learning environment with team-based learning.

Method: In a mixed-methods study, 263 medical students from 6 different semesters answered the R-SPQ-2F Questionnaire and MSLQ's items that measure elaboration and rehearsal strategies. ANOVA was used to compare differences between semesters, and Pearson's correlation to investigate how approaches to learning, cognitive strategies, and academic achievement correlate.

Why do graduates choose to work in a less attractive specialty? A cross-sectional study on the role of personal values and expectations.

Background: Primary health care (PHC), of which preventive medicine (PM) is a subspecialty, will have to cope with a deficiency of staff in the future, which makes the retention of graduates urgent. This study was conducted in Vietnam, where PM is an undergraduate degree in parallel to medical training. It aims to identify facilitating and hindering factors that impact recruitment and retention of PM graduates in the specialty.

Academic Schedule and Day-to-Day Variations in Sedentary Behavior and Physical Activity of University Students.

Students starting at university tend to adopt unhealthy behaviors. With students expected to sit during classes, their academic schedule may be responsible for their activity patterns. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between university students' academic schedule and day-to-day variations in sedentary behavior (SB) and physical activity (PA).

How to conceptualise self-regulated learning: Implications for measurement.

When is self‐regulated learning not entirely self‐regulated? The authors argue SRL is socially embedded and we need better measurement of its reciprocal relationship with co‐regulated learning.

Student perspectives on competency-based portfolios: Does a portfolio reflect their competence development?

Introduction: Portfolio-based assessments require that learners' competence development is adequately reflected in portfolio documentation. This study explored how students select and document performance data in their portfolios and how they perceive these data to be representative for their competence development.

Methods: Students uploaded performance data in a competency-based portfolio.

Finding your feet: student participation during initiation of international clinical placements : Student participation during initiation.

Introduction: International placements challenge students to find the right level of participation, as local practices, language and time pressure may affect their engagement in patient-related tasks or team activities. This study sought to unpack the initiation process during international clinical placements with the ultimate aim to achieve active student participation.

Methods: Following a constructivist grounded theory approach, we conducted two individual interviews with 15 undergraduate healthcare students (before departure and whilst on placement).

A review to identify key perspectives in PBL meta-analyses and reviews: trends, gaps and future research directions.

In the past 50 years, the original McMaster PBL model has been implemented, experimented, revised, and modified, and is still evolving. Yet, the development of PBL is not a series of success stories, but rather a journey of experiments, failures and lessons learned. In this paper, we analyzed the meta-analyses and systematic reviews on PBL from 1992 to present as they provide a focused lens on the PBL research in the past 5 decades.

How theory and design-based research can mature PBL practice and research.

Many educational institutions in higher education switched to problem-based learning (PBL) in the last 5 decades. Despite its' successful implementation worldwide, many institutions still encounter problems in their daily teaching practices that limit deep learning in students. This raises the question: How else can we look at PBL practice and research? The main argument of this reflective paper is to better align PBL practice with the theories or principles of contextual, constructive, self-directed and collaborative learning.

'Whatever you cut, I can fix it': clinical supervisors' interview accounts of allowing trainee failure while guarding patient safety.

Background: Learning is in delicate balance with safety, as faculty supervisors try to foster trainee development while safeguarding patients. This balance is particularly challenging if trainees are allowed to experience the educational benefits of failure, acknowledged as a critical resource for developing competence and resilience. While other educational domains allow failure in service of learning, however, we do not know whether or not this strategy applies to clinical training.

Opening the black box of selection.

Medical school selection is currently in the paradoxical situation in which selection tools may predict study outcomes, but which constructs are actually doing the predicting is unknown (the 'black box of selection'). Therefore, our research focused on those constructs, answering the question: do the internal structures of the tests in an outcome-based selection procedure reflect the content that was intended to be measured? Downing's validity framework was applied to organize evidence for construct validity, focusing on evidence related to content and internal structure. The applied selection procedure was a multi-tool, CanMEDS-based procedure comprised of a video-based situational judgement test (focused on (inter)personal competencies), and a written aptitude test (reflecting a broader array of CanMEDS competencies).

How doctors recognise that their patients are worried: A qualitative study of patient cues.

Objectives: Recognising patient cues indicating worry is essential for successful reassurance. To obtain more insight into the variety and nature of patient cues that may arise in practice, this study explores doctors' reflections on patient cues they recognise during consultations.

Methods: We performed a qualitative study during which GPs participated in stimulated recall interviews, using their own video-recorded consultations to enhance reflection.

Trainees' preferences regarding choice of place of work after completing medical training in traditional or problem-based learning/community-based education and service curricula: a study in Ghanaian medical schools.

Introduction: Career choices, recruitment and subsequent retention of healthcare professionals in the rural areas are a major worldwide concern and challenge to the health sector, leading to human resource shortages, resulting in poor quality health care for rural communities. Medical education has integrated community-oriented medical education strategies in undergraduate medical training to help address the challenges of health care in rural communities. These strategies are likely to impact the strategies of delivering the content of undergraduate medical curricula.

A Feasibility Study to Attribute Patients to Primary Interns on Inpatient Ward Teams Using Electronic Health Record Data.

Purpose: To inform graduate medical education (GME) outcomes at the individual resident level, this study sought a method for attributing care for individual patients to individual interns based on "footprints" in the electronic health record (EHR).

Method: Primary interns caring for patients on an internal medicine inpatient service were recorded daily by five attending physicians of record at University of Cincinnati Medical Center in August 2017 and January 2018. These records were considered gold standard identification of primary interns.

From prescription to guidance: a European framework for generic competencies.

In postgraduate medical education, required competencies are described in detail in existing competency frameworks. This study proposes an alternative strategy for competency-based medical education design, which is supported by change management theories. We demonstrate the value of allowing room for re-invention and creative adaptation of innovations.

Assessment of communication skills.

Objective: This paper addresses how communication skills can best be assessed. Since assessment and learning are strongly connected, the way communication skills are best learned is also described.

Results: Communication skills are best learned in a longitudinal fashion with ample practice in an authentic setting.

Workplace-Based Assessment in Cross-Border Health Professional Education.

The globalization of healthcare has been accentuated by the export of health professional curricula overseas. Yet intact translation of pedagogies and practices devised in one cultural setting may not be possible or necessarily appropriate for alternate environments. Purposeful examination of workplace learning is necessary to understand how the source or "home" program may need adapting in the distributed or "host" setting.