Medicine

Using ICTS to improve medical education and training

Ashley Macleod, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Problem

There has been a noted decline in the number of students seeking to become medical practitioners in rural areas because of professional isolation (Palmer & Dodson, 2011). Because of this potential for isolation, it is essential for medical professionals to collaborate and discuss relevant current issues and cutting edge practices with experts and authorities beyond their inner circles (Manning & DeBakey, 2001). Also relevant in rural communities is that real life challenging diagnostic cases can be rare, depending upon the pool of patients which the student can access (Chen, Cheng, Weng, Chen & Lin, 2009). With regards to the aforementioned current issues and cutting edge practices, as hospitals and clinics continue to evolve, students who have only been trained to complete hardcopies of medical reports may find themselves unprepared for the reality of a present day health care environment (Curry, 2010).

In developing countries, it can be exceptionally difficult for medical students to access patients to complete the practical component of their training, as poor road conditions, long and severe winters and lack of public transportation are all limiting factors (Amarsaikhan, Lkhagvasuren, Oyun, & Batchuluun, 2007).  It can be problematic to accommodate a sizeable number of students in a hospital training area because access to patients willing to allow students to participate in their care is limited, thus restricting the contact time each individual learner can spend honing their craft (Nagunwa & Lwoga, 2012).  Often patient hesitancy to permit medical students to practice on them stems from the fact that the medical field can be a high risk, high stakes environment where novice student errors can potentially be life threatening to a patient (Curtis, DiazGranados & Feldman, 2012).  Exacerbating this situation the reality that duty hour restrictions have been implemented and students could be spread out over a large geographic area, causing problems with the scheduling of face to face, on the job evaluations (Olson, Mata & Koszalka, 2013).