Transforming a U.S. scholarly concentrations program internationally: lessons learned

Abstract

Background Scholarly Concentrations programs in U.S. medical schools aim to instill passion for critical thinking and promote careers in academic medicine. The rise of these programs has seen variable goals, structure, and outcomes. Transformation of these programs internationally is in its infancy. Methods We describe implementation of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Scholarly Concentrations program, offering Basic Science, Clinical Science, Medical Ethics/Healing Arts, History of Medicine, and Public Health/Community Service, at Bezmiâlem Vakif University in Istanbul, Turkey. Over six modules in the preclinical years, students develop a faculty-mentored experience which encourages the acquisition of attitudes and skills for self-directed, lifelong learning and scholarship. This culminates in abstract and project presentation. We report program characteristics (context and logistics) and outcomes (student engagement and experiences). Results The Scholarly Concentrations program at Bezmiâlem began in 2014, with nearly two completed cohorts of students. In comparison to Johns Hopkins, students at Bezmiâlem begin at an earlier age (thus do not have as much prior research experience) and are subsequently evaluated for residency in terms of test scores rather than scholarship and publications, but have a similar level of intellectual curiosity and desire to take ownership of their project. Eighty-two percent of Bezmiâlem students stated the project they pursued was either their own idea or was an idea they formed after meeting with their mentor. Students at Bezmialem were more likely to choose Clinical Science projects ( p = 0.009). Only 5% of Bezmiâlem students in end-of-course survey felt dissatisfied with the level of ownership they experienced with their project, a frequency similar to that seen by Johns Hopkins students (2%). Conclusions Scholarly Concentrations programs play an important role in U.S. medical schools, and these programs can be successfully implemented internationally. The Scholarly Concentrations program at Johns Hopkins has been transformed to a program at Bezmiâlem in Istanbul, the first program outside North America or the European Union. When designing these programs, one must consider the context, logistics, student engagement, and outcomes. While long-term outcomes are needed, this can serve as a model for implementation elsewhere. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-019-1545-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A realist review of scholarly experiences in medical education

“…Twenty-two scholarly experiences from 28 studies were included in the realist review (Table S2). Ten (12 articles) were from the USA, 7,8,11,14,16,17,[25][26][27][28][29][30] two from each of Australia 31,32 and Turkey 6,13 and one from each of Saudi Arabia, 15 India, 10,33 Canada, 9,34 Japan, 35 South Africa, 36 Sweden, [37][38][39][40] Sudan 12 and the Netherlands. 41 Sixteen programmes (20 studies) used a cross-sectional study design.…”

“…Some scholarly experiences remain solely focused on research (laboratory or clinical); however, others have a broader scope and include experiences focussed on quality improvement, public health and medical education, literature reviews and community programmes 11 . Supervision arrangements include academic research staff, mentors or clinical supervisors 12‐14 . with time allocated (or not) for student supervision 15,16 …”

“…11 Supervision arrangements include academic research staff, mentors or clinical supervisors. [12][13][14] with time allocated (or not) for student supervision. 15,16 While scholarly experiences in medicine are acknowledged as encompassing a broad range of activities, 5 to date, the research about medical student scholarly experiences has largely focused on research outputs (eg peer-reviewed publications, posters, conference presentations), subsequent interest/participation in research (eg PhD enrolments) or student satisfaction with their scholarly experience.…”

A medical student scholarly concentrations program: scholarly self-efficacy and impact on future research activities

“…Our current study uses self-efficacy measurement as a tool for applying a student-centered approach to evaluate the SC program, and thus could be used as a starting point for this sort of assessment and guideline development. Finally, recent work has investigated the translation of SC programs to international settings, highlighting specific areas of promise and challenge, and proposing follow-up investigations [15].…”

“…The SC program has been described previously [14,15]. Briefly, at the beginning of the SC program, students choose from one of five concentrations to pursue (Basic Science, Clinical Research, History of Medicine, Humanism & Ethics in Medicine, and Public Health).…”