Objective To evaluate the quality of undergraduate medical education so as to provide useful and effective feedback information for medical schools and to extend GMER (Global Minimum Essential Requirements in Medical Education) standard. Methods Through questionnaires, 205 resident doctors self-evaluated their abilities or qualities based on GMER standard. The unconditioned logistic regression model was used for data analysis. Results Graduates from undergraduate medical programs mastered the abilities or qualities required in 4 GMER domains i.e. “professional values, attitudes, behaviors and ethics”, “clinical skills”, “communication skills”, and “scientific foundation of medicine”. But the abilities or qualities required in “information management”, “population health and health systems” as well as “critical thinking and research” domains have not been obtained. The main factors that affected the evaluation results were corresponding training to the essentials, learner’s attitude, teaching models and teaching hours. Conclusion Educational sectors should adjust curriculum design so as to help medical students master the abilities required in the 3 domains stated above. Medical schools should conduct some educational research to formulate the most beneficial teaching methods, and import advanced ones to raise the quality of medical education in China.
Objective To identify the factors which influence the effectiveness of clinical evaluation of undergraduate nursing students. Methods A self-made questionnaire was used in face-to-face interviews with 158 clinical teachers of undergraduate nursing students in four teaching hospitals in Sichuan. Results The main factors that influence the effectiveness of clinical evaluation of undergraduate nursing students included: clinical environment, duration of evaluation, degree of familiarity with the evaluation criteria of clinical teachers, and evaluation methods used by clinical teachers. The less important factors included: “halo-effect” of teachers to students, relationship between teachers and students, attitude towards evaluation and emotional status of clinical teachers. Conclusion It is of great importance to improve the clinical environment, provide enough time for clinical teachers to evaluate, cultivate and improve clinical teachers’ evaluation and competence, and establish a good relationship between teachers and students.This should improve the accuracy, objectivity and fairness of undergraduate nursing students’ clinical evaluation.
Objective To evaluate the level of nursing professional competence of fulltime system graduated nurses in Sichuan province and determine its influencing factors, so as to provide references for nursing high-education reform and nursing human resource management. Methods With a self-designed questionnaire and stratified cluster sample method, both graduated nurses and their direct nursing managers were investigated and asked to evaluate nursing professional competence. Results The mean scores of nursing professional competence of the nurses’ self-evaluation and their managers’ evaluation were 69.90±10.27 and 68.96±11.33, respectively. Factors influencing nursing professional competence included individual interest in nursing, graduated institution, working position, and training provided by employer. Conclusion The professional competence of the nurses graduated with full-time bachelors of clinical nursing in Sichuan province is close to the intermediate level, and it still needs to be improved on the whole, especially in the aspects of nursing research and management. Besides, nursing institutions should further enhance the construction of inner teaching environment and the professional thoughts education of nurse students, while the employer should offer more professional development opportunities, so as to improve the professional self-identity and competence, and to finally lay the talent foundation for the development of nursing disciplines.
Objective To assess the effectiveness of evidence-based medicine for improving core competencies of undergraduate medical students. Methods MEDLINE, ERIC, Academic Source Premier, Campbell Library databases and three Chinese Databases (CBM, CNKI, VIP) were searched from January 1992 to May 2009.We also used Google to searching related literature. The design is a systematic review of randomized, non-randomized, and before-after studies. Two reviewers did study selection, quality assessment, and data abstraction independently. Different opinions were resolved by consensus. We used an adaptation of the quality measure from Gemma Flores-Mateo et al to assess the quality of selected studies. And descriptive analysis was conducted. Results A total of 17 studies met the selection criteria, 2 of them were of high quality, the others were of moderate quality. Studies involved Competencies of Scientific Foundation of Medicine, Clinical Skills, and Management of Information. Conclusion Competencies of Scientific Foundation of Medicine, Clinical Skills, and Management of Information are improved by evidence-based medicine teaching. No study on professional values, attitudes, behavior and ethics, population health and health systems, management of information, critical thinking and research is available. It is impossible to assess the four domains above.
Objective To identify the clinical evaluation methods used for undergraduate nursing students. Methods A self-made questionnaire about the clinical evaluation methods for undergraduate nursing students was used to collect information from 158 tutors of undergraduate nursing students in 4 teaching hospitals in Sichuan province. Results In terms of consulting evaluation opinion from other nurses, there was no significant difference between the ratios of tutors who really adopted and those who perceived as necessary to do so (Pgt;0.05). As for consulting the self-evaluation of nursing students and patients’ evaluation opinion, the ratio of tutors who really adopted was lower than those who perceived as necessary to do so (Plt;0.01). The majority of tutors used real, ward patients for evaluation, while a minority of tutors used demonstration room and model patients. The most effective methods viewed by the tutors were observation, holistic nursing care examination and test, and the most often used evaluation methods were clinical skill test, observation and theoretical exam. Most tutors adopted a continuous evaluation method for the clinical evaluation of undergraduate nursing students. Conclusion The methods for the clinical evaluation of undergraduate nursing students varies. This may influence the accuracy, objectivity and fairness of the evaluations. Formulating evaluation sheet of patients and self-evaluation sheet of nursing students, establishing standardized clinical skill examination station, training standardized patients and evaluation skills of clinical tutors, standardizing examination content and relevant evaluation standard and methods, and adopting comprehensive evaluation with various methods may help to improve the accuracy, objectivity and fairness of the clinical evaluation of undergraduate nursing students.
Objective To analyze caring ability and its associated factors among baccalaureate nursing students, so as to put forward suggestions for improving students’ caring ability. Methods A cross-sectional study was used to investigate baccalaureate nursing students’ caring ability and its associated factors in 4 nursing departments of medical universities in Sichuan province. Results The grade of overall status quo of students’ caring ability was 189.72±19.57, and the mean item scores of different subscales showed that patience was highest and courage was lowest.Two variablescould explain the differences in baccalaureate nursing students’ caring ability: relationship with mother and clinical practice. Conclusion Our study suggests that students’ caring ability could be improved by practicing caring and increasing their exposure to clinical practice. Our findings also suggest that school, society and family are all involved in the cultivation of caring ability.
Objective To find the best teaching method of summer EBM course to help students understand and apply EBM principles in research. Methods Training medical students to participate in an international team of clinical research for best evidence. We used a step-by-step method to teach how to write Cochrane systematic review and apply its method to other researches. Results Since our training program was launched three years ago, 38 medical students have taken part in the training. Five Cochrane systematic reviews and 19 protocols were published in The Cochrane L ibrary. Three medical students were the principal investigators and played an important role in another 2 studies. Seven articles were published in Chinese medical key journals, and 1 was indexed by SCI. Eleven students were funded to participate in the international academic conferences.Conclusions Medical students will benefit from taking part in the EBM research. This activity will help them not only understand method of clinical research and EBM , improve the quality of research and their cooperative skills but also master related clinical knowledge.