In West China Medical School of Sichuan University, the practice and exploration of the medical curriculum construction of "inquiry-class" teaching mode has been implemented with the support of the school since the spring semester of 2013. As a result a series of achievements have been made through the recruitment of graduate assistants to participate in auxiliary teaching in the mode of "large class teaching - small group discussion", as well as the reform of assessment methods and implementation of formative evaluation plus building effective assessment and management mechanism for curriculum.
The teaching of Clinical Pharmacology plays a very important role in medical education. In this article, we introduce our exploration and practice in Clinical Pharmacology course in West China Hospital of Sichuan University, which combines Good Clinical Practice with teaching methods such as problem-based learning and case-based learning. Furthermore, we analyze the actual effects in optimizing teaching content, renewing teaching mode, and improving teachers’ teaching ability, etc. We hope this article could provide new ideas for the teaching reform of undergraduate Clinical Pharmacology course.
Objective To investigate the current status of higher education of allied health professions (AHPs), professional human resource as well as the career development of allied health professionals, and to provide references for the planning of higher education of AHPs in China. Methods Literature was reviewed in relation to the current status of higher education of AHPs and professional human resource in China. A questionnaire survey was conducted to determine the career development conditions of allied health professionals. Results a) Currently, the higher education of AHPs in China was faced with such problems as a limited scale, a lower structural level, and an absent degree system. b) The number of allied health professionals was small with lower qualifications. Higher-end professionals were in shortage. C) The professionals saw multiples glass ceilings over career orientation, academic advancement, and professional entitlement. Conclusion Efforts should be made to expand the scale of higher education of AHPs, elevate degree structure, and to construct a professional education system with multiple layers and categories. The professional education should be combined with the career development for planning and collaboration to provide assurance for the career development of the professional in China.
ObjectiveTo discuss the present situation of emergency physicians' communicational ability and the intervention measures.
MethodsWe investigated 66 students who participated in continuing medical education of "emergency physicians' communication skills training course" from 2010 to 2013. All students accepted systematic training. After the training, we did the investigation again, and then made a comparison before and after the training.
ResultsA major 78.8% of the students in this training had never taken part in the training of communication skills before; 51.5% of the students thought that the improvement of communication ability could be achieved mainly through long-term accumulation of clinical experiences. Students' self-evaluation showed that communication problem occurred 2 times a year in 10.6% of them, 3 times in 22.7%, 4 times in 24.2%, and five or more times in 34.8%. Students' role playing score in the scenario training rose from 5.374±0.686 to 6.717±0.517 after the training, and the difference was statistically significant (P=0.024).
ConclusionEmergency physicians lack knowledge of communication skills which needs to be improved. Through training, the skills can be improved significantly.
Objective To assess the efficacy and safety of Rhubarb and adjunvent drugs for chronic renal failure. Methods Electronic database searching including Medline, Cochrane Library and CBM from 1980 to Dec., 2000 was performed. Handsearching was applied to 15 kinds of nephrological and traditional Chinese medicine journals such as Chinese Journal of Nephology. Randomised and quasi-randomised trials concerning Rhubarb treatment for CRF were selected. The selected studies were assessed for their methodological quality and the data were extracted to perform the Meta-analysis. Results Eighteen randomised and quasi-randomised trials including 1 322 patients met the inclusion criteria, but their methodological quality was low. Compared to non-specific treatment, Rhubarb showed significant positive effects on relieving symptoms, lowering serum creatinine, improving HGB and adjusting disturbance of lipid metabolism. The effect of Rhubarb on reducing the number of death [OR 0.15, 95%CI (0.06 to 0.36), P=0.000] and the number of progressing into end-stage renal disease [OR 0.38, 95%CI (0.09 to1.64), P=0.19] was not confirmed because of the small sample size. Conclusions Rhubarb may have the same effect on CRF in the short-term observation. But its long-term effect of delaying the progression of CRF is still unclear. Well designed, randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials with long-term follow up and clinical related outcomes are warranted.
