Background Due to the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), school openings were postponed worldwide as a way to stop its spread. Most classes are moving online, and this includes medical school classes. The authors present their experience of running such online classes with offline clinical clerkship under pandemic conditions, and also present data on student satisfaction, academic performance, and preference. Methods The medical school changed every first-year to fourth-year course to an online format except the clinical clerkship, clinical skills training, and basic laboratory classes such as anatomy lab sessions. Online courses were pre-recorded video lectures or live-streamed using video communication software. At the end of each course, students and professors were asked to report their satisfaction with the online course and comment on it. The authors also compared students’ academic performance before and after the introduction of online courses. Results A total of 69.7% (318/456) of students and 35.2% (44/125) of professors answered the questionnaire. Students were generally satisfied with the online course and 62.2% of them preferred the online course to the offline course. The majority (84.3%) of the students wanted to maintain the online course after the end of COVID-19. In contrast, just 13.6% of professors preferred online lectures and half (52.3%) wanted to go back to the offline course. With the introduction of online classes, students' academic achievement did not change significantly in four subjects, but decreased in two subjects. Conclusions The inevitable transformation of medical education caused by COVID-19 is still ongoing. As the safety of students and the training of competent physicians are the responsibilities of medical schools, further research into how future physicians will be educated is needed.

Purpose:Medical professionals from Korea and Laos have been working together to develop a continuing professional development training program covering the major clinical fields of primary care. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the program from 2013 to 2014 using the Kirkpatrick model.Methods:A questionnaire was used to evaluate the reaction of the trainees, and the trainers assessed the level of trainees’ performance at the beginning and the end of each clinical section. The transfer (behavioral change) of the trainees was evaluated through the review of medical records written by the trainees before and after the training program.Results:The trainees were satisfied with the training program, for which the average score was 4.48 out of 5.0. The average score of the trainees’ performance at the beginning was 2.39 out of 5.0, and rose to 3.88 at the end of each section. The average score of the medical records written before the training was 2.92 out of 5.0, and it rose to 3.34 after the training. The number of patient visits to the district hospitals increased.Conclusion:The continuing professional development training program, which was planned and implemented with the full engagement and responsibility of Lao health professionals, proved to be effective.

BackgroundEmail is widely used as a means of communication between faculty members and students in medical education because of its practical and educational advantages. However, because of the distinctive nature of medical education, students’ inappropriate email etiquette may adversely affect their learning as well as faculty members’ perception of them. Little data on medical students’ competency in professional email writing is available; therefore, this study explored the strengths and weaknesses of medical students’ email etiquette and factors that contribute to professional email writing.MethodsA total of 210 emails from four faculty members at Seoul National University College of Medicine were collected. An evaluation criteria and a scoring rubric were developed based on the various email-writing guidelines. The rubric comprised 10 items, including nine items for evaluation related to the email components and one item for the assessment of global impression of politeness. Three evaluators independently assessed all emails according to the criteria.ResultsStudents were identified as being 61.0 % male and 52.8 % were in the undergraduate-entry program. The sum of each component score was 62.21 out of 100 and the mean value for global impression was 2.6 out of 4. The results demonstrated that students’ email etiquettes remained low-to-mediocre for most criteria, except for readability and honorifics. Three criteria, salutation (r=0.668), closing (r=0.653), and sign-off (r=0.646), showed a strong positive correlation with the global impression of politeness. Whether a student entered a graduate-entry program or an undergraduate-entry program significantly contributed to professional email writing after other variables were controlled.ConclusionsAlthough students in the graduate-entry program demonstrated a relatively superior level of email etiquette, the majority of medical students did not write emails professionally. Educating all medical students in email etiquette may well contribute to the improvement of student–faculty relationships as well as their email writing.

BackgroundThe issue of collaboration in medical education is becoming prominent. Some faculty development programs have suggested an approach for promoting collaboration on a global level. However, non-English-speaking developing countries in Asia, especially in Southeast Asia, do not take advantage of them due to their unique context, such as language and culture. To address these issues, Seoul National University College of Medicine initiated a 6-week international faculty development program called the “Seoul Intensive Course for Medical Educators” for 16 fellows from five Asian countries (Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, and Vietnam). The aim of this study is to report the evaluation results of the outcome of the program and discuss better ways of collaborating with developing countries.MethodsThree levels of collaboration—intraorganizational, intranational, and international—were central initiatives of the program. Prior to setting up the program details, we first established four design principles, following which the contents, materials, and facilitators were determined to maintain consistency with the design principles. The evaluation of the program was done with Kirkpatrick’s four-level model. Most of the evaluation data for level 1 were collected by two questionnaires, the post-module survey and the post-program survey. Portfolios and progress reports were mainly used to collect outcome data for levels 2 and 3, respectively.ResultsThe reaction was generally positive throughout the program and there was a significant correlation between satisfaction and relevance to one’s job or needs. Despite the fellows’ propensity for overestimating themselves, both the evaluators and fellows reported that there was significant improvement in learning. Opinions on the impact or urgency of the topics were slightly different from country to country; however, the answers regarding feasibility were fairly similar. Moreover, we could observe from the post-program progress reports that the transfer of learning was actively in progress, mainly for topics that were highly feasible.ConclusionsThese results show that the program was successful in terms of its effectiveness. Consistent and timely support is essential for the sustainable development of the medical education systems in these countries. Further understanding of the underlying factors on transfer (level 3) could improve the effectiveness of faculty development programs for developing countries.

Purpose:Countries that are less experienced with simulation-based healthcare education (SBHE) often import Western programs to initiate their efforts to deliver effective simulation training. Acknowledging cultural differences, we sought to determine whether faculty development program on SBHE in the United States could be transported successfully to train faculty members in Korea. Methods: An international, collaborative, multi-professional program from a pre-existing Western model was adapted. The process focused on prioritization of curricular elements based on local needs, translation of course materials, and delivery of the program in small group facilitation exercises. Three types of evaluation data were collected: participants' simulation experience; participants' ratings of the course; and participant's self-assessment of the impact of the course on their knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) toward simulation teaching Results: Thirty faculty teachers participated in the course. Eighty percent of the participants answered that they spent less than 25% of their time as simulation instructors. Time spent on planning, scenario development, delivering training, research, and administrative work ranged from 10% to 30%. Twenty-eight of 30 participants agreed or strongly agreed that the course was excellent and relevant to their needs. The participants' assessment of the impact of the course on their KSA toward simulation teaching improved significantly. Conclusion: Although there were many challenges to overcome, a systematic approach in the adaptation of a Western simulation faculty development course model was successfully implemented in Korea, and the program improves self-confidence and learning in participants.

The current COVID-19 pandemic have affected our daily lifestyle, pressed us with fear of infection, and thereby changed life satisfaction and mental health. The current study investigated influencing cascade of changes during the COVID-19 among the lifestyle, personal attitudes, and life (dis)satisfaction for medical students, using network-based approaches. This cross-sectional survey used self-reports of 454 medical students during June and July of 2020. Depressive mood, anxiety, and intention to drop out of school were observed in 11.9, 18.5, and 38.3% of medical students, respectively. Directed acyclic graph that estimated directional propagation of the COVID-19 in medical students' daily lives initiated from the perception of unexpected event, propagated to nervous and stressed feeling, trouble relaxing, feeling like a failure, and were followed by trouble concentrating, feeling loss of control for situation, and fear of infecting colleagues. These six features were also principal mediators within the intra-individual covariance networks comprised of changed lifestyle, personal attitude, and mental health at COVID-19 pandemic. Psychosocial supports targeting nervousness, trouble relaxing and concentrating, fear of spreading infection to colleagues, feelings of a failure or loss of situational control are required for better mental health of medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

PurposeThe introduction of community-based medical education would help improve the quality of primary care. This paper suggests learning objectives and an educational program for community-based medical education.MethodsThe educational program was developed in a 1-day consensus workshop. Twenty experts, including faculty members from family medicine department of a college of medicine in Seoul and community-based preceptors, participated in the program. A needs-assessment survey was conducted among community-based preceptors before the workshop. Through this workshop, we derived learning objectives and a standardized curriculum for community-based medical education.ResultsIn the questionnaire before the workshop, community-based preceptors voiced concerns over the program’s potential costs and the time required for teaching. The learning objectives and educational programs derived from the workshop’s consensus were consistent with the characteristics of the primary care. Based on the results of this workshop, the joint expert team developed a standard educational program on two core topics: clinical teaching and mentoring.ConclusionFrom this curriculum development process, participants could construct a more standardized curriculum for community-based medical education. Future studies are needed to evaluate the long-term outcomes of these educational programs, such as the learners’ satisfaction and achievement.

BackgroundIt is critical to develop remedial education for underperforming medical students, but little is known about how to create an effective remediation program. Deliberate practice (DP) is a structured and reflective activity that is designed to optimize performance. Here we applied the concept of DP to create remedial education to improve the clinical practices of medical students. We also analyzed the effectiveness of the remediation program.MethodsBased on the expert performance approach of DP, we designed a 4-week remedial program for clinical performance that included feedback and reflection. There were 74 student participants in this program from 2014 to 2017. Their clinical performance was re-evaluated after completion, and changes in their clinical performance scores were analyzed.ResultsStudents who completed the remediation program showed significant improvements in clinical performance scores (P < 0.001). Most students found the program to be instructive and helpful for improving their clinical performance. They reported that role play with peers was the most helpful for improving their skills.ConclusionThe DP-based remediation program improved the clinical performance of failing medical students. This remediation program should continue to be offered to underperforming students to ensure that medical school graduates are competent.