İsKender Sayek

Health Professionals Education symposium, organized by the Koç Academy of Medical Education Research (KAMER), convened in October 2024 to discuss the evolving role of technology and social accountability in health professions education. The symposium adopted the concept of “healthcare professionals’ education” as a unifying framework for synchronizing the training of medical and nursing students within a continuum of holistic healthcare education in low-and-middle income countries. The rationale for the symposium was to call on the dire need to improve healthcare professionals’ education to reduce the increasing gap between the global north and global south. The discussion topics involved critical and current issues such as social accountability, health advocacy, and professionalism. Study groups explored aligning education with societal needs, addressing healthcare disparities, and integrating professional values into medical and nursing curricula. Presentations also focused on the integration of technology into healthcare education. Participants examined big data, artificial intelligence, simulation technologies, and digital learning platforms, identifying challenges and opportunities for their implementation. The symposium highlighted the transformative impact of interprofessional education, health advocacy, and technology in shaping socially accountable, patient-centered healthcare systems. Key recommendations included integrating community-oriented curricula, leveraging data-driven strategies for program enhancement, and expanding access to advanced educational technologies. This manuscript summarizes the symposium’s conclusions and emphasizes the need to transform healthcare professionals’ education in low-and-middle income countries to align with contemporary societal demands and to reduce the disparity gap.

Background: Clinical training during the COVID-19 pandemic is high risk for medical students. Medical schools in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) have limited capacity to develop resources in the face of rapidly developing health emergencies. Here, a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) was developed as a COVID-19 resource for medical students working in these settings, and its effectiveness was evaluated. Methods: The RE-AIM (reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance) framework was utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of MOOC in teaching medical students about COVID-19. The data sources included the student registration forms, metrics quantifying their interactions within the modules, students’ course feedback, and free-text responses. The data were collected from the Moodle learning management system and Google analytics from May 9 to September 15, 2020. The research team analyzed the quantitative data descriptively and the qualitative data thematically. Results: Among the 16,237 unique visitors who accessed the course, only 6031 medical students from 71 medical schools registered, and about 4993 (83% of registrants) completed the course, indicating high levels of satisfaction (M = 8.17, SD = 1.49) on a 10-point scale. The mean scores of each assessment modules were > 90%. The free-text responses from 987 unique students revealed a total of 17 themes (e.g., knowing the general information on COVID-19, process management of the pandemic in public health, online platform use, and instructional design) across the elements of the RE-AIM framework. Mainly, the students characterized the MOOC as well-organized and effective. Conclusions: Medical students learned about COVID-19 using a self-paced and unmonitored MOOC. MOOCs could play a vital role in the dissemination of accurate information to medical students in LMIC in future public health emergencies. The students were interested in using similar MOOCs in the future.

BackgroundThe responsibility of the medical faculties is to educate graduates who are aware and sensitive to the health problems of the society and who can provide preventive and therapeutic health services. All graduates who are expected to improve the health level of society should be provided with fundamental medical values and medical skills. The aim of this study is to evaluate the views of interns of Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine on the level of achievement of fundamental medical skills stated in the National Medical Education Core Program (NMCP).MethodsIn the 2017-2018 academic year, 39.3% (n = 455) of senior medical students participated in the study. Their views on attitudes and habits related to medicine and their self-assessments about observing, performing and being able to do after graduation basic medical practices stated in the NMCP were evaluated with a survey consisting of 192 questions.ResultsAccording to the results of the survey, almost all of the students want to be a specialist and go to the commercial courses. Anxiety level about performing medical practices after graduation is quite high. When the total of the skills in the NMCP, is reviewed, it is seen that there is a loss of observing, performing and being able to do after graduation between 20-25%.ConclusionsThe study showed that some of the senior medical students who were a few months away from graduation were not sufficient for primary health care services according to the fundamental medical skills defined in the NMCP. It is necessary to investigate which skills are inadequate and the reasons for the inadequacy. It is also important to make the students' positive judgments about themselves and to give them motivation and self-confidence about their professional life.