Abstract
Background:
• Senior Medical Clerkship (Course code: MEDU4610), Pharmacology & Therapeutics 1 (PHAR 2410) and Hospital Pharmacy Clerkship (PHAR 4301) curricular include clinical attachment and in-depth clinical knowledge application in respiratory medicine during internal medicine training. Respiratory Medicine is one of the major subspecialties in internal medicine where nearly one-third of emergency cases are involved.
• The training of respiratory medicine is normally conducted in the teaching hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital, where students learn to apply clinical and critical thinking skills necessary to care for real patients.
• The teaching format of the course includes bedside clinical teaching, attachment to clinical team in daily ward round, emergency cases admission, and observation in the bedside procedures and bronchoscopy, where students learn how to approach and manage patients with respiratory diseases properly with discussion with the teachers.
• Interprofessional education, a concept widely promoted by the World Health organization, suggests students in the healthcare disciplines shall have shared learning experience in order to learn about other related professions. Interprofessional education is believed to effectively help prepare future health professionals for enhanced team-based care of patients, collaborative practices and improved population health outcomes.
• As clinical teachings in hospital are suspended during the time of COVID-19 outbreak, teachers attempted to pre-assigned case discussions during tutorial via the use of Zoom.
Challenges identified:
• During the tutorial via Zoom, teachers identified the following challenges:
- Inadequate student engagement: peer students may not be paying attention when one student is presenting a case.
- Inadequate clinical exposure: students do not have chance to observe how to approach real patients and common bedside procedures.
- Scattered teaching materials prepared by teachers in School of Pharmacy, and Division of Respiratory Medicine under Department of Medicine & Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine: Clinical teaching of respiratory medicine is essential training for both pharmacy and medical students. Teaching materials between two divisions could be overlapping or conflicting depending on the source of information used.
Project Goal and Objectives:
The goal of this program is to promote student engagement and to cultivate skills of critical thinking in clinical respiratory medicine in which students are encouraged to integrate their learning in the context of authentic clinical scenarios via an interactive learning platform. Interprofessional education will also be enhanced with the sharing of learning materials focusing on diagnosing, monitoring and treatment between medical and pharmacy students.
Brief write-up
Project objectives
The goal of this program is to promote student engagement and to cultivate skills of critical thinking in clinical respiratory medicine in which students are encouraged to integrate their learning in the context of authentic clinical scenarios via an interactive learning platform. Interprofessional education will also be enhanced with the sharing of learning materials focusing on diagnosing, monitoring and treatment between medical and pharmacy students.
Activities, process and outcomes
The activities included formulation of the details and materials of 4 common respiratory cases: (1) acute respiratory failure; (2) asthma; (3) pleural effusion; and (4) lung cancer. Clinical photos and videos of related procedures were collected. The clinical cases were drafted and presented in an interactive ways with multiple choice questions to test students’ knowledge. Student helpers were recruited in the design and evaluation of the micromodules.
Deliverables and evaluation
• A total of 4 micromodules were finalized and uploaded to the Blackboard.
• These micromodules accomplished the project objectives which engaged students in the development of the course materials and enhanced interprofessional education with different faculties.
• Forty students participated as student helpers and helped the development of the micromodules and evaluation. Fifty-seven responses from the final year medical and pharmacy students were collected and 4 feedbacks were blank. Overall, there were 47% and 30% of responses strongly agree and agree to see these micromodule approach to be expanded to other courses respectively. Apart from the scores, students were also encouraged to give us feedbacks in their own words.
Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices
The micromodules were uploaded to Blackboard on 13 July 2021. The project will be disseminated in the workshop/activities organized by the Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research (CLEAR) and educational seminars in the future.
Impact on teaching and learning
The general responses are excellent. The students are happy to follow the case and learn how to manage the patients.
