Medicine News: Hacking Medical Education

miércoles, 8 de julio de 2015

Hacking Medical Education

Today, Thursday 9th of July 2015, I have the opportunity to speak to Australia’s medical students at The AMSA National Convention Melbourne 2015 about ‘Hacking Medical Education’. This post contains the resources for the talk.

The talk is dedicated to the memory of Dr John Hinds, who tragically died last weekend. The simplest advice one can give to any medical student is “Be like that guy – Dr John Hinds“.

What do I mean by Hacking Medical Education?

Hacking means many things – all of which apply to this talk to some extent (especially the latter):

“gaining unauthorised access to data in a system…”
“cut with rough or heavy blows”
“to modify or write… in a skillful or clever way”

By medical education, I don’t only mean getting through medical school, but also (and more importantly) our lifelong path of learning in medicine.

HACK #1 Learn from Osler!

Becoming an Oslerphile
The Master Work is Work (unfortunately there are no shortcuts to learning!)
“Medicine is learned at the bedside… the patient is our first, last and only true teacher” a lesson from Osler via The Breakfast Club‘s Tim Koelmeyer
The key to learning is work, the key to work is to love it – have fun, see the comedic side of life and cultivate your inner Egerton Y. Davis!

HACK #2 Discover the hidden curriculum!

There are three at least three ‘hidden curricula':
- the unintended things you learn from a course
- the things you really need to know to pass the course (may be different from what is stated)
- the ‘internal’ curriculum you need to develop to be the doctor you want to be and look after the patients in front of you
The Necessary Evil of Examinations (they are ‘rocks of offence’, however ‘assessment drives learning’)
FCICM Exam Preparation (preparation for an exam must be exam specific, this page outlines useful approaches for the Fellowship of the College of Intensive Care Medicine; however many of the suggestions and techniques are generalisable)
We don’t need no FOAM Curriculum (we need to develop our own ‘internal curricula’ that supplement those set for use by Universities and Colleges – FOAM resources can help here… see below!)

HACK #3 Apply cognitive science!

Effective learning techniques are not widely taught, are not widely known and are not widely performed
Cognitive science highlights some promising techniques, although definitive evidence of their effectiveness in the medical setting is generally lacking
We construct knowledge, it isn’t transferred
Learning by Spaced Repetition (I used software called Anki to help me remember key facts for exams)
Effective Learning Techniques Revealed (brief summary of the techniques given the thumbs by Dunlosky et al, 2013)
Dunlosky J, et al. Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2013; 14 (1): 4 DOI:10.1177/1529100612453266 [Free Full Text] (great review of the science of effective learning techniques)
Brown PC, Roedinger HL, McDaniel MA. Make It Stick. Harvard University Press, 14 Apr 2014 [Google Books] (excellent popularisation of the ‘new learning science’)
Education Theory for the #MedEd Clinician (key insights from Jonathan Sherbino, a master clinician educator)

HACK #4 Simulate!

good patient outcomes need more than individual competence, they need collective competence – team-based simulations can help achieve this
In situ simulation (simulation in the workplace, with real teams in the environment in which we work, rocks!)
Simulation-based learning helps develop essential non-technical skills: Crisis Resource Managment, Communication in a crisis and Speaking up

HACK #5 Join the FOAM Party!

Why FOAM? Facts, Fallacies and Foibles (my talk providing an overview of FOAM)
Nickson CP, Cadogan MD. Free Open Access Medical education (FOAM) for the emergency physician. Emerg Med Australas. 2014;26:(1)76-83. [pubmed] [Free Full Text]
FOAM (Free Open-Access Meducation homepage)
Is FOAM at fault? (FOAM is an adjunct, nothing replaces the bedside mentor!)
SMACC (the Social Media and Critical Care conference)
RAGE podcast (the Resuscitationist’s Awesome Guide to Everything)
INTENSIVE (the Alfred ICU’s education and knowledge translation blog)

HACK #6 Be a Critical Thinker!

All Doctors are Jackasses (all human beings are subject to cognitive biases, metacognition and critical thinking skills can help guard against them)
Critical thinking
Skeptical medicine

HACK #7 Work Smarter and Get Things Done!

EMCrit Podcast 136 – Getting Shit Done
How I Work Smarter (a series of posts on Academic Life in Emergency Medicine where successful clinicians, researchers and medical educators share their insights)

FINAL WORDS