Focus Group to Create a Virtual Case Study Model Unit for the Dmu E-Parasitology

Peña²

2018

ICERI2018 Proceedings

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The programme of Physician Associate (PA) is a relatively new Master's (MSc) programme in the United Kingdom (UK) to train future health care professionals that will work under the supervision of a medical doctor as part of a medical team. Although PAs cannot prescribe, they will provide crucial support to doctors by dealing with patients in general practitioner surgeries or hospitals. The UK Department of Health (DoH) in collaboration with the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of General Practitioners has established the Competence and Curriculum Framework for the physician associate qualification. The minimum length of the programme is 90 weeks, equivalent to 3,150 hours of nominal study time, with a minimum of 1,600 hours assigned to clinical learning. The DoH has also published the matrix specification of core clinical requirements for the PA, in which the competences for diagnosing and managing different medical conditions are described. In relation to human parasitic infections, the core clinical conditions for PAs have been divided into different categories as follows: 1A) is able to diagnose and manage, without referral, threadworms (Enterobius vermicularis) and hookworms (Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus); 1B) is able to identify and take measures to avoid immediate deterioration of amebiasis (Entamoeba histolytica) and malaria (Plasmodium spp.); and 2B) is able to undertake the day-today management of the patient when diagnoses has been made for toxoplasmosis (Toxoplasma gondii). De Montfort University (DMU, Leicester, UK) has launched the MSc Physician Associate Studies as part of its curricula in 2017/18. In order to develop clinical medical parasitology skills and reflection/critical thinking of the PA students, we have developed and implemented a two hour workshop in the module "Community Health", in which PA students (n=12) have used the novel website resource DMU e-Parasitology to resolve two highly interactive virtual clinical case studies related to Entamoeba histolytica and Plasmodium spp. The DMU e-Parasitology, which is being developed by three European universities, is aimed at facilitating the teaching and learning of parasitology and it is publicly available through the DMU website: http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk. Briefly, the virtual case studies provide the user with a medical history of a patient and different clinical slides to diagnose parasitic diseases by their identifiable structures and characteristics using a virtual microscope. The user will navigate through different interactive questions and mini quizzes to reach diagnoses, management, treatment and tailor prevention techniques for the case study proposed. The workshop was well-received by PA students, as evidenced by their favourable evaluation. The PA students that completed the voluntary questionnaire indicated that the design used to build the module of the virtual case studies was appropriate (50% agreed, 50% strongly agreed). A similar percentage reported that the exercises and assessments pres...

Section: Physician Associate Programme At De Montfort Universitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching Medical Parasitology in a New Physician Associate Master’s Programme

Peña²

2018

ICERI2018 Proceedings

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“…• Focus group for case study module: postgraduate students enrolled in MSc Advanced Biomedical Science at DMU in 2017/18; [6]). These students indicated that the overall package is interactive (71.4% agreed, 28.57 strongly agreed) and the design of the virtual laboratory (100% agreed) was suitable.…”

Section: Preliminary Results Of Students' Opinion About the Virtual Lmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a Virtual Environment for Teaching and Learning Biomedical Techniques and Equipment for the Study of Human Pathogens

Fenoy²,

Evans³

et al. 2018

EDULEARN Proceedings

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An international innovative teaching group from different Spain) and biomedical scientists registered by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC, UK) are developing a complete e-learning package in medical parasitology for undergraduate and postgraduate students that study Health Sciences. This package, named DMU e-Parasitology, is accessible through the DMU website (http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk) and will present different modules including a virtual laboratory module for the study of traditional and novel biomedical laboratory techniques and equipment for detecting, identifying and studying human pathogens, specifically parasites. These techniques could also be potentially used to study other pathogens such as bacteria or viruses. The virtual biomedical laboratory is under development, but is available in the DMU website here: http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk/learn/laboratory.htm. To develop this new module of the DMU e-Parasitology, we are using Storyline 360 software and the scaffolding and methods used to build the theoretical module (Peña-Fernández et al., 2017) [1]. To facilitate the navigation, study and comprehension of the final user, we have divided the virtual laboratory into a series of sub-sections that include different units; the sub-sections so far are: microscopes (with units such as the electron microscope); molecular biology (e.g. polymerase chain reaction and gel electrophoresis); biological safety cabinets and cell/parasite culture; biochemical and immunological techniques (e.g. magnetic immunoseparation); histology (e.g. microtome) and staining techniques (e.g. Kinyoun staining). The virtual laboratory units are highly interactive and present short videos of academics and/or technicians working in real conditions with the different laboratory equipment such as a thermocycler, a microtome, or a biological safety cabinet, as well as performing a specific technique such as a staining to determine pathogens. Therefore, the user of this virtual environment will receive a complete and "real" experience of the work in a biomedical laboratory. The DMU e-Parasitology package, and specifically its virtual laboratory environment, could help technicians and students across the world to learn how to work in a biomedical laboratory as well as to perform techniques to identify and diagnose human pathogens such as microsporidia or Plasmodium spp. Thus, the virtual resource is supported by a virtual library that includes a real collection of clinical slides that will provide the user with the functionality of a light and/or an immunofluorescence microscope. In conclusion, the virtual laboratory may serve as a high quality and reliable on-line environment for the learning of techniques and equipment. These resources can be used to improve the learning of undergraduate and postgraduate students of human health sciences as well as to develop CPD training. Moreover, the virtual laboratory module may impact in the teaching of laboratory techniques and skills in developing countries due to their limited resou...

“…• Students will be asked to complete a virtual clinical case study on HIV available in the DMU e-Parasitology package. We will follow recent successful experiences from our team in the development and introduction of these case studies in other undergraduate and postgraduate programmes [11].…”

Section: Future Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching Intervention to Enhance Hiv Infection Awareness in a Biomedical Science Degree

Peña²,

Escalera³

2018

ICERI2018 Proceedings

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Condom use remains the predominant prophylactic intervention to control rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. However, chemoprophylactic strategies, which involve preexposure prophyaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophyaxis (PEP), have emerged as appropriate prevention tools to minimise and prevent future infections. Different studies have indicated that PrEP can prevent new HIV infections among men who have sex with men when used daily or event-based, and it is also effective with heterosexuals and people who inject drugs. However, appropriate education is needed as recent reports have observed a decline in adherence to PrEP over time, particularly in young adults, which will impact on the effectiveness of PrEP. Thus, we created a brief educational short intervention (3 hours) to increase the awareness of HIV with second year BMedSci Medical Science (Hons) students at De Montfort University (DMU, UK) in 2016/17 (Peña-Fernández et al., 2017) [1]. Briefly, BMedSci students tailored a community-centred intervention programme to reduce HIV infection rates following evidence-based public health methodology. 92% indicated an acquisition of knowledge for preventing HIV transmission and tools to fight this disease. However, BMedSci students also showed a lack of knowledge of preventative measures (PrEP and PEP), routes of transmission and appropriate screening. We implemented a similar teaching strategy with BSc Biomedical Science (BMS) students enrolled in the level 4 module of Basic Microbiology in 2017/18, but limited to two hours: one-hour lecture and one hour workshop in which different HIV prevention strategies were discussed and analysed by students. BMS students were also provided with an overview about the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 90:90:90 targets in the UK (2016, [2]). In a similar way as with the BMedSci cohort, BMS students showed little awareness about PEP/PrEP, specifically knowledge about what they are/how they work, access and usage. This teaching intervention was well-received by students according to the feedback provided in the final module level feedback. BMS participants (n=27 out of 187 students) indicated that they enjoyed the session and suggested a practical session and the introduction of case studies to enhance the teaching intervention. We are developing a virtual clinical case study on HIV following recent successful experiences in the development and introduction of these novel learning strategies and have performed small modifications in the delivery of this workshop for 2018/19 to increase engagement and interaction. In conclusion, we consider that similar short education interventions that specifically target HIV chemoprophylaxis would be needed in any degree to prevent the decline in adherence to PrEP over time observed in young adults and reduce PEP/PrEP stigma and other barriers which could impede their access.