BackgroundStudies in K-12 and college students show that their learning preferences have been strongly shaped by new media technologies like video games, virtual reality environments, the Internet, and social networks. However, there is no known research on medical students' game experiences or attitudes towards new media technologies in medical education. This investigation seeks to elucidate medical student experiences and attitudes, to see whether they warrant the development of new media teaching methods in medicine.MethodsMedical students from two American universities participated. An anonymous, 30-item, cross-sectional survey addressed demographics, game play experience and attitudes on using new media technologies in medical education. Statistical analysis identified: 1) demographic characteristics; 2) differences between the two universities; 3) how video game play differs across gender, age, degree program and familiarity with computers; and 4) characteristics of students who play most frequently.Results217 medical students participated. About half were female (53%). Respondents liked the idea of using technology to enhance healthcare education (98%), felt that education should make better use of new media technologies (96%), and believed that video games can have educational value (80%). A majority (77%) would use a multiplayer online healthcare simulation on their own time, provided that it helped them to accomplish an important goal. Men and women agreed that they were most inclined to use multiplayer simulations if they were fun (97%), and if they helped to develop skill in patient interactions (90%). However, there was significant gender dissonance over types of favorite games, the educational value of video games, and the desire to participate in games that realistically replicated the experience of clinical practice.ConclusionsOverall, medical student respondents, including many who do not play video games, held highly favorable views about the use of video games and related new media technology in medical education. Significant gender differences in game play experience and attitudes may represent male video game design bias that stresses male cognitive aptitudes; medical educators hoping to create serious games that will appeal to both men and women must avoid this.

Skills curriculum (TIBS) was inaugurated to begin training 147 firstyear medical students in skills for promoting health behavior change. Learning activities included lecture, demonstration, reading, quiz, role-play exercises, and standardized patient interviews. After TIBS, the 69 students who provided pre-and postintervention data exhibited more therapeutic attitudes and increased knowledge and self-confidence in applying TIBS skills. Two months later, 52% of the 109 posttest respondents had applied TIBS in clinical settings, often for behaviors other than tobacco use. We conclude that medical students can gain from early training on promoting behavior change. Previous studies have shown that resident physicians 7-11 and advanced medical students 12-14 can learn smoking cessation counseling techniques and improve patients' smoking outcomes. 15 Teaching on therapeutics has typically been reserved until the third year of the medical school curriculum. Earlier training on promoting behavior change might be advantageous. Earlier acquisition and application of skills in promoting behavior change might enhance firstand second-year medical students' sense of belonging and usefulness in clinical environments. Training on such skills might reinforce the importance of fundamental communication skills, such as building rapport, attending to affective issues, and cross-cultural communication. It also might help instill in trainees whose professional identities are still emerging the ethic that promoting behavior change is central to medical practice.These advantages could only be realized if teaching these skills earlier were feasible and acceptable to medical students. This study aimed to determine whether a curriculum on tobacco intervention could garner student acceptance; improve relevant knowledge, attitudes, and self-confidence; and be applied in students' early clinical experience. This paper describes the design and evaluation of the Wisconsin Tobacco Intervention Basic Skills curriculum (TIBS), the first experience in a new longitudinal curriculum on promoting behavior change. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION Target AudienceThe targeted learners were the 147 first-year medical students in the class of 2005 at the University of WisconsinMadison. Eighty-three (56.5%) of the students were female; 64 (43.5%) were male. Mean age and standard deviation were 22.6 ± 3.1 years; 7 (5%) of the students were age 30 or above. Behavior Change ModelWe selected motivational interviewing 16 Curriculum DevelopmentSeveral principles guided curriculum development. The greatest instructional emphasis should be skills development. The intervention model should be structured yet flexible to respond to patients' needs and clinicians' time constraints. Practicing physicians should provide role modeling on the importance of these skills in clinical practice. Sequential learning steps should include knowledge acquisition, skills demonstration, skills practice and feedback, and reinforcement by application in clinical settings. Scarce instructional tim...

The physicians-many of whom noted their enjoyment of teaching for its intrinsic rewards-spent a significant amount of extra time teaching while precepting, and thus both lost income and saw fewer patients. Medical schools need to recognize the valuable contributions of preceptors and find ways to support them.

Little is known about Millennial nursing students' attitudes toward computer games and new media in nursing education and whether these attitudes differ between undergraduates and graduates. This study elicited nursing students' experience with computer games and new media, their attitudes toward various instructional styles and methods, and the role of computer games and new media technologies in nursing education. We e-mailed all nursing students enrolled in two universities to invite their participation in an anonymous cross-sectional online survey. The survey collected demographic data and participants' experience with and attitudes toward video gaming and multi-player online health care simulations. We used descriptive statistics and logistic regression to compare the differences between undergraduates and graduates. Two hundred eighteen nursing students participated. Many of the nursing students support using new media technologies in nursing education. Nurse educators should identify areas suitable for new media integration and further evaluate the effectiveness of these technologies.

BackgroundThe serious consequences of inaccurate diagnosis of acute otitis media have led to a call for greater education to develop proficient pediatric otoscopy skills. Despite the clinical and educational needs, peer-reviewed standardized curricula with validated assessment instruments remain limited. This study evaluated a pediatric otoscopy curriculum incorporated into the Pediatric medical student clerkship with use of outcome measures that included assessment of skills with real patients. The objective was to determine whether students who received the intervention would demonstrate significant gains in pediatric otoscopy skills when compared with students with only routine immersion learning exposure.MethodsDuring their Pediatric clerkship, an intervention group (IG) of 100 medical students received routine instruction and a curriculum intervention. A non-intervention group (NIG) of 30 students received only routine instruction. Outcome measures included written tests and assessment of skills with real patients. A retention group (RG) consisted of 79 students in the IG who completed a written test at the end of medical school. Paired t-tests were used to compare differences in pre-intervention, post-intervention, and retention scores for the IG, NIG, and RG, while analysis of covariance tests were used to compare differences in scores between the IG and NIG.ResultsPre-intervention scores were similar for the IG and NIG for the written test (mean/SD of 12.9/2.9 for IG and 12.9/1.8 for NIG, p = 0.78) and skills checklist (mean/SD of 11.1/4.4 for IG and 10.9/4.0 for NIG, p = 0.88). The IG had significantly higher post-intervention scores than the NIG for the written test (mean/SD of 22.6/1.7 for IG and 13.9/2.5 for NIG, p < 0.001) and skills checklist (mean/SD of 19.2/3.4 for IG and 11.0/3.8 for NIG, p < 0.001). The IG also had significantly higher gain in scores than the NIG for the written test (mean/SD +9.6/2.8 for IG and +1.0/2.3 for NIG, p < 0.001) and skills checklist (mean/SD of +8.1/4.8 for IG and +0.1/4.5 for NIG, p < 0.001). For the RG, there was a significant decrease (p < 0.001) from the post-intervention scores to retention scores (mean/SD of −7.4/2.7) but a significant increase (p < 0.001) from the pre-intervention score to retention score (mean + 2.6/3.3).ConclusionsMedical students who received a formal curriculum intervention demonstrated significant gains in pediatric otoscopy skills when compared with students with only routine immersion learning exposure. However, learning gains diminished over time, emphasizing the need for continued practice opportunities to reinforce students’ skills. Our study provides a formal curriculum to meet identified educational gaps in the important topic of pediatric otoscopy and offers a model for teaching of other clinical skills using rigorous outcome measures including assessment of skills in real patients.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-017-0988-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to ...