Juha Nieminen

MED NORD–A tool for measuring medical students’ well-being and study orientations

Background: The relationship between medical students’ well-being, motivation, and their conceptions of learning and knowledge has not been previously explored. Aims: This study aimed to validate a research instrument intending to measure medical students’ (n = 280) (1) experiences of stress, anxiety and disinterest, (2) motivational (thinking) strategies, (3) conceptions of learning and knowledge (epistemologies), and (4) approaches to learning. Methods: We developed an instrument, MED NORD, which is a composition of scales measuring different theoretical constructs that previously have shown good predictive value, validity and reliability. A principal component analysis with Varimax-rotation was performed in order to see how the scales related to each other. Results: The internal consistency reliability was found to be satisfactory or good for each scale. The results showed five factors: Dysfunctional Orientation, Collaborative Knowledge Building Orientation, Cookbook Orientation, Social Orientation, and Individual Abilities Orientation. These study orientations were related to how medical students perceived their learning environment. Conclusions: The new tool showed consistency and validity and was judged appropriate for future use in measuring medical students’ well-being and study orientations.

Medical undergraduate students’ beliefs and attitudes toward pain – How do they mature?

At the University of Helsinki, pain‐related topics are taught throughout medical studies but without a formal pain curriculum. The purpose of this study was to assess medical students’ attitudes towards pain.

On the relationship between group functioning and study success in problem-based learning

Introduction  In problem‐based learning (PBL), discussion in the tutorial group plays a central role in stimulating student learning. Problems are the principal input for stimulating discussion. The quality of discussion is assumed to influence student learning and, in the end, study success.

How do tutors intervene when conflicts on knowledge arise in tutorial groups

Recent research on problem-based learning (PBL) has shown that students need support when dealing with conflicting ideas in PBL-tutorial discussions. In the present study, we examined tutor facilitation during tutorial discussions, and particularly how the facilitation helped students to collaboratively resolve conflicts on knowledge. The study involved four PBL-tutorial sessions that included altogether 33 first-year medical and dental students. The sessions were videotaped and analysed using qualitative interaction analysis. Our aim was to find out how the tutor interventions encouraged students to elaborate on conflicting ideas, and how the interventions differed between conflict and non-conflict situations. We also examined how the tutors intervened during conflicts about factual or conceptual knowledge. The tutorial discussions included 92 tutor intervention episodes and 43 conflict episodes. The tutors intervened during 24 of the conflict episodes and resolved 13 of these episodes. Generally, the tutors often intervened by confirming what the students had said or by giving explanations, but they rarely asked questions that would stimulate the elaboration of knowledge. During conflicts on knowledge the tutors gave more explanations, but did little to encourage the students to deal with conflicting ideas. The tutors more often resolved conflicts on factual knowledge than conceptual knowledge. The findings suggest that tutor training should focus on promoting tutors’ understanding on when to give direct explanations, and when and how to encourage students to collaboratively elaborate on conflicting ideas.

Follow-up evaluation of Finnish undergraduate education in otorhinolaryngology

Editor It is important to ascertain that the teaching objectives of undergraduate medical education meet the professional needs of medical students’ future practice. The core curriculum in medical education, as well as the work demands for a general practitioner, have changed during the last decade, which necessitates continuous monitoring of how well the goals of the evolving medical education have been met.

Contradictions in clinical teachers’ engagement in educational development: an activity theory analysis

Many medical universities offer educational development activities to support clinical teachers in their teaching role. Research has focused on the scope and effectiveness of such activities and on why individual teachers attend. However, systemic perspectives that go beyond a focus on individual participants are scarce in the existing literature. Employing activity theory, we explored how clinical teachers’ engagement in educational development was affected by the systems they act within. Three focus groups were held with clinical teachers from different professions. A thematic analysis was used to map the contradictions between the systems that the participants were part of and the manifestations of these contradictions in the system of education. In our model, clinical teachers were part of three activity systems directed by the objects of patient care, research and education respectively. Contradictions arose between these systems as their objects were not aligned. This manifested through the enacted values of the academic hospital, difficulties establishing educational discussions in the clinical workplace, the transient nature of educational employments, and impediments to developing a teacher identity. These findings offer insights into the complexities of engaging in educational development as clinical teachers’ priorities interact with the practices and values of the academic hospital, suggesting that attention needs to shift from individual teachers to developing the systems in which they work.