Abstract

Teachers and students recognise basic biomedical science as an essential subject to build up the foundation for learning clinical medicine. Year one students struggle to memorise the hard facts in physiology and anatomy and recognise the relevance to clinical medicine, which is distant from their learning experience in the pre-clinical years. To avoid the disconnection between the teaching of clinical medicine and basic biomedical science, we proposed modifying a year one course of Perspective of Medicine in real life to a flipped classroom teaching using pre-and post-class eLearning and in-class high fidelity simulation. New teaching material will be designed to produce three teaching modules in the cardiovascular system, respiratory system, and neurological system, emphasising the connection between clinical parameters/interventions and understanding of physiology and anatomy.

Brief write-up

Project objectives

Pre-clinical medical students need an explicit connection between basic biomedical science and clinical medicine to reinforce their belief that biomedical science is the foundation of all specialties in clinical medicine. With the concept of strong linkage between biomedical science and clinical medicine, students will not lose their interest in clinical medicine while struggling to learn the anatomy and physiology in the pre-clinical year.

Activities, process and outcomes

We plan to transform the teaching of an existing course of Perspective of Medicine in Real Life (MEDU1150) to a flipped classroom teaching course including pre-class eLearning material, in-class simulation teaching using high fidelity simulators and post-class eLearning through the online electronic tutorial. Pre-class eLearning material related to cardiovascular, respiratory and body temperature control were designed and prepared, based on the pre-clinical teaching of Systemic Anatomy (MEDU1110) and Foundation Course for Health Sciences II (MEDF1012B). Matched simulation teaching (2 case scenario using high fidelity simulators and 2 live demonstration using volunteer students and real equipment) was designed. A trial run of the simulation teaching for a group of 6 MED2 students was performed in October 2021 with video recording. The simulation teaching for the whole year of MED1 students was initially scheduled in April 2022 and a revision concluding lecture scheduled in May 2022. However, the simulation teaching and lecture were postponed from April 2022 to 26-27 and 29 August 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deliverables and evaluation

Pre class eLearning material
1. Cardiovascular system
     - Illustration of the cardiovascular physiology
    - Illustration of the cardiovascular anatomy
2. Respiratory system
    - Illustration of the respiratory physiology
    - Illustration of the respiratory anatomy
3. Body temperature control
    - Illustration of the concept of core temperature and shell temperature

In-class face-to-face simulation
1. Live demonstration 1: blood pressure
2. Live demonstration 2: body temperature
3. Simulation 1: cardiac arrest
4. Simulation 2: anaphylaxis

Post-class eLearning
Annotated videos of the simulation teaching and liver demonstration to reiterate the physiological and anatomical concept.

The effectiveness of the new teaching material will be evaluated by the attendance rate and course evaluation of the existing biomedical science teaching, and students’ examination result in those courses. Due to the postponement of the simulation teaching from April to August 2022, the evaluation plan was deferred. A trial run of the simulation teaching for a group of 6 MED2 students was performed in Oct 2021 with video recording. The response from students who participated the new face-to-face simulation teaching/live demonstration is favorable.

Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices

As the major component of the teaching project, face-to-face demonstration and simulation teaching has not been conducted, the details of the project were not disseminated yet. The outcome and developing process of the project will be presented as a poster presentation in local and regional medical education conference in the 4Q of 2022 and 1Q of 2023.

Impact on teaching and learning

If the possible responses from pre-clinical students persist, similar simulation teaching linking up basic science and clinical practice can be developed in other pre-clinical years.