Session 7: Skills, Competences and Problem Based Learning

Background The research achievements introduced in the clinics led to the necessity of implementation of new methods of teaching in the modern medical education system. One of these methods - PBL was introduced in Georgia. Objective The aim of our study was to find out how the PBL would produce or improve communication skills in Georgian students. Method To achieve this objective, we scrupulously monitored and studied 8 tutorials. 64 the first-second-third –year and the fifth-sixth-year students with various academic excellence took part in them. Research included videotape review of sessions, role-play with simulated/virtual patients, questionnaires. Outcome measures included objective and subjective ratings made by researchers, doctors, tutors, students. We were observing / studying in dynamics their individual and team working skills during PBL sessions (in the first / second / third sessions): the clear presentational skills of the knowledge / opinions / ideas, with verbal / non-verbal communication means; Analyzing the listened information in order to recognize the knowledge, values, beliefs, intentions; Using the communication for informing / giving instructions / motivating and persuading;The correct and free communication in different environments;Compromising and putting the team's interests before his/her own. Taking his/her share of responsibility for the team work and evaluating the contribution of each team member in the overall activity. Results It turned out that on the first tutorial the students taught with the traditional / classical learning methods had problems in: interpreting verbal skills, listening to someone's opinion and taking responsibility , but the situation significantly improved in the following PBL sessions. Conclusions The above mentioned issue has elevated our hopes that the medical students will absorb more successfully all communicative skills necessary for the doctor when they are taught with PBL rather than with traditional methods.

Currently being a highly qualified medical specialist means to be a member of an international medical society. One of the major resources to enter the international medical field is excellent English skills, as the English language has become a lingua franca in Medicine. Thus, our aim is to enhance students’ motivation to study English for professional purposes starting from the first year in the medical school. We organized the Internet competition in English skills among first-year students from two Russian medical schools (USMU in the Urals and KrasSMU in Siberia). The competition had three stages held during 30 days in November-December, 2014 via the Internet on the e-educational platforms of the universities. All tasks were related to medical profession. Overall 130 students took part in the competition doing the reading, listening and writing tasks at the first stage. The best 35 students continued their work at the second stage where they created a video on the topic “Health is not simply the absence of sickness”. Then 10 students were selected to participate in the final, which was held as a teleconference between the universities. The evaluation of students’ works was performed by competent English teachers. The results of the competition showed that medical students enthusiastically accepted new teaching methods developing their creativity. The first-year medical students expressed a desire for their involvement in unusual educational projects and were interested in studying English for professional purposes. Thus, we may include outstanding educational techniques in the studying process to keep medical students motivated and develop their individual skills and abilities. Moreover, such competitions promote better communication between the universities.

An intriguing educational approach, learning by teaching, was applied in the course of Dental Informatics. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect that teaching expectancy (preparation to teach) and actually teaching have on skills and knowledge that students are expected to acquire during the course. In order to assess the applicability of this method to various forms of educational materials, students were asked to prepare and present educational objects that would be part of the current semester's curriculum. These were short lectures, computer laboratory exercises and virtual patient cases. The instructors evaluated their content and presentation fulfillment. Focus group sessions were held so as to capture the students' perception of the pedagogic technique. The results indicate that learning by teaching can enhance the quality of knowledge in Dental Informatics and increase computer, research, communication and cognitive skills of the involved students.