BackgroundThe prevalence of psychiatric disorders in children and young people is high but despite this, many doctors have difficulty identifying and managing psychiatric disorders presenting in this age group. The purpose of this study was to determine appropriate curriculum content in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) for a Graduate Entry Medicine (GEM) course. Doctors with a background in primary care who were also involved in undergraduate teaching rated how necessary they considered a number of knowledge, skills and attitudes items were for inclusion in the CAP curriculum.MethodsAn online questionnaire study was carried out using modified Delphi methodology in two rounds. The questionnaire was derived from a list of CAP learning objectives and/or curricular content obtained from a thorough review of the literature. 23 of the 24 doctors who had agreed to participate went on to complete the round one questionnaire (95.8% response rate) with 19 also completing round 2 (82.6%). Where there was high agreement (70% or more) amongst participants, items were considered as having sufficient consensus to either accept or reject them. Mean scores were then used as a way to prioritise items.ResultsAt the end of round two, there was consensus to consider including 26 of the 34 knowledge items, 16 of the 20 skills items and three of the four attitudes items in the CAP curriculum. The most highly rated knowledge, skills and attitudes items were depression/ suicide; communicating with children, young people and families; and rapport building. The majority (83.3%) of round two responders, considered that the current amount of CAP teaching time was “too little”.ConclusionsDelphi methodology proved useful for determining consensus and the priority rankings of the CAP knowledge, skills and attitudes items can now be used to help educators determine which topics to focus upon. The study findings support the need for additional CAP teaching time in the GEM curriculum and will help to shape new CAP content. Additional formal CAP teaching time has already been incorporated into the psychiatry speciality attachment, a new clinical skills session has been developed and CAP topics have been introduced into written and clinical examinations.

This study analysed qualitatively the nature of instructor behaviours and their relationship to leadership. The Critical Incident Technique was used to collect effective and ineffective incidents of instructor behaviour in military training from both instructors' and trainees' perspectives (total incidents ¼ 1150, effective ¼ 696, ineffective ¼ 494), across the three UK Armed Services. Nine dimensions of instructor behaviour were developed with high inter-and intra-coder reliability. No differences were found between instructor and trainee generated incidents or among the three Armed Services. About 82% of the incidents could be recoded with high intercoder reliability into categories of both transformational and transactional leadership. Strong relationships emerged between the following dimensions of both instructor behaviour and leadership respectively: Showing and Demonstrating, and Appropriate Role Model; Using Instructional Strategies and Intellectual Stimulation; Feedback, Practice and Adapting, and Individual Consideration; Forms of Punishment and Control, and Contingent and Non-contingent Punishment. These results inform not only the relationships between instructor behaviours and leadership but also the future training of military instructors, particularly the balance between a traditional authoritarian approach and an individualised supportive one.

The present study introduces a new important variable into a model of training motivation, namely that of being in one's chosen job. Evidence exists that having some control and choice over aspects of training have positive effects on training motivation. We propose that being in one's chosen job will also have such an effect, as it provides trainees with greater autonomy regarding their career progression (e.g., Gagné & Deci, 2005) and aligns their training activity closely with their personal goals (e.g., Locke & Latham, 2002). Pre‐ and post‐training surveys were completed by 232 instructors who were themselves on a military training course. Results confirmed the positive effects of being in one's chosen job on the pre‐training attitudes of self‐efficacy and training motivation with further direct effects on motivation to transfer, and indirect effects on knowledge acquisition and post‐training self‐efficacy. Findings have both theoretical and practical ramifications. Being in one's chosen job should be incorporated into models of training motivation and, whenever possible, employees being re‐deployed should be granted their job preference because this is associated with important positive effects on pre‐training attitudes and motivation to transfer new skills to the work environment.

Introduction The teaching of radiology to medical students has often been criticised for being inadequate and unstructured, with students reporting lack of confidence in assessing x-rays. In this paper, we describe how an e-learning resource, on how to interpret a chest x-ray for medical students, was designed and developed. The aim of the resource was to provide medical students with knowledge of how to interpret a chest x-ray in a systematic approach. Methods The technology used to design the e-learning resource was Xerte Online Toolkits. The design and development of the e-learning resource was based upon andragogical principles and followed Overbaugh’s guidelines and Mayer’s 12 multimedia principles. An instructional design model called ADDIE was used to help develop the resource and its content. These included cases of common conditions, a quiz and summary table at the end. The paper focuses mainly on the way in which instructional design, education and multimedia principles were used to inform the development of the resource. Findings A preliminary evaluation was completed by 18 medical students from year 3–5 who completed the e-learning resource. The feedback was positive with an average rating of 9/10 and 100% of students saying they would recommend the resource to a colleague. Students commented that they liked the resource as it was easy to navigate, had good visual learning and contained good explanations with relevant content. Conclusion and Future Implications This paper demonstrates how, with the use of instructional models, educational theories and principles, an e-learning resource can be created. Preliminary evaluation showed that students were satisfied with the resource and felt it helped them acquire knowledge on how to interpret chest x-rays. This resource can be further utilized either as a standalone resource or before starting clinical placements and may prove particularly useful in the current and challenging learning environment where there is an increased need for digital resources.

In this paper, we describe how an e-learning resource on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) for medical students was designed and developed. The aim of the resource was to provide students with essential knowledge and understanding about ADHD prior to their attendance at a classroom teaching session as well as to serve as a revision tool. The paper focuses on the way in which instructional design, educational and multimedia principles were used to inform the development of the resource. It also reports results of a small-scale evaluation of students’ satisfaction with the resource and the way in which they believed it impacted knowledge acquisition of ADHD related concepts and principles. In addition, we consider ways in which the resource could be further utilized and evaluated, for example as part of a flipped classroom approach to learning, and whether this would be a useful model to use when teaching other aspects of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.