Integrating Emerging Infections Education into Medical Education: An Innovative Approach.

CONCLUSIONS: Most participants felt that outbreak preparedness was not adequately addressed in their curricula and almost all wanted more instruction. In addition, the didactic course and workshop improved self-reported student knowledge of the basic principles of contagious disease outbreak detection and management. Based on the results of our study, we propose integration of a three-hour simulation-based workshop with other instructional endeavors in emerging infections and biopreparedness into medical education curricula. We recommend the offering of a more comprehensive course for those pursuing emergency medicine and the primary care specialties, as they will be the most likely to encounter an outbreak. A web-based course may be a desirable alternative for institutions that could not otherwise add this training to their curriculum due to logistical reasons or time constraints. Further research is needed to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of these educational strategies. PMID: 28253104 [PubMed]
Source: Medical Education Online - Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Med Educ Online Source Type: research