TNMU Associate Professors Participated in the Training “Ukraine Digital – Clinical Reasoning in Medical Education”

Associate Professors of our university Nataliya Haliyash and Oksana Sydorenko took part in the didactic medical training “Ukraine digital – Clinical reasoning in medical education”, which took place on November 12-26, 2022 in Germany with the financial support of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). The organizers of this event were the Institute of Medical Didactics of the Ludwig-Maximilians University (Munich) and the Charité University Clinic (Berlin).

Ukrainian delegation and organizers of the training “Ukraine digital – Clinical reasoning in medical education”.

Working moments of the training. Johann Schrödelsecker presents the basic principles of curriculum formation.

The training was organized for representatives of higher medical education institutions of Ukraine in order to spread the experience of using the latest pedagogical methods introduced in Germany to improve the development of clinical competences, namely the development of clinical thinking in students during their studies. 25 representatives of all medical universities of Ukraine were involved in the training.

The following seminars were held as part of this training:

Digital learning in higher medical education (Ursula Stadleberger, Professor at the Institute of Medical Didactics, Ludwig-Maximilians University)
Development of medical curricula in Germany. Presentation of the MeCuM^LMU project (Martin Fischer, Professor at the Institute of Medical Didactics, Ludwig-Maximilians University)

From left to right: Nataliya Haliyash, Martin Fischer, Oksana Sydorenko, Johann Schredelseker, Matthias Witti, Lena Haist, Ursula Stadlberger and Karolin Dospil.

On the Way to a Digital Case-Based Curriculum: The Kern Cycle for Medical Curriculum Development (Johann Schrödelsecker, Professor, Institute of Medical Didactics, Ludwig-Maximilians-University)
Cases with key problems as implementation of Case-based learning (Ursula Stadleberger, Professor at the Institute of Medical Didactics, Ludwig-Maximilians University)
Presentation of the DID-ACT and iCoViP project. Implementation of virtual patients (Daloga Rodríguez-Molina and Anja Mayer, Institute of Medical Didactics, Ludwig-Maximilians University)
Workshop on using the CASUS platform for working with web-scenarios (Anna Mayer, Institute of Medical Didactics of the Ludwig-Maximilians University and Angelika Simonson, Certified Medical Educator, Institute of Medical Didactics of the Ludwig-Maximilians University)
Discussion of clinical cases as a very effective method of case-based learning (Fabian Wagner, Institute of Medical Didactics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität)

Nataliya Bohutska (BSMU) presents the method of clinical cases discussion

Teaching doctor-patient communication (Alexander Benz, Institute of Medical Psychology, co-module director of long-term communication training programs KomMeCuM, Charite University Clinic)
Presentation of the LOOOP platform for the implementation of the competence approach in the development of medical curricula (Olaf Ahlers, Head of the LOOOP project, Charité University Clinic)

The participants of the training worked in teams on the task: to identify an important problem related to the training of medical students and to propose its solution. In particular, 5 projects were developed that can be disseminated among medical higher education institutions of Ukraine:

1. Implementation of an end-to-end curriculum for the development of students’ communicative competence.
2. Improving the transformation of students’ knowledge from theoretical to practical application by introducing cases with key problems and web-patients/web-scenarios into curricula.
3. A training course to improve the pedagogical skills of teachers, with the aim of teaching them to work with new student-oriented methods.
4. Improving the theoretical training of students of the first years of study by applying the latest pedagogical approaches.
5. Implementation of an end-to-end curriculum for the development of professionalism and confidence of medical students.

During the discussion and presentation of the results of teamwork.

This part of the training course was held in a picturesque location – a nunnery on Frauenchiemsee Insel on Lake Chiemsee. We thank the organizers and head of this monastery, Frau Scholastica, for the warm, calm, inspiring atmosphere, support and warm welcome of our delegation. It should be said that since the beginning of the war, many Ukrainian refugee women found shelter there, and the nuns initiated the collection and transfer of humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Pictures from Frauenchiemsee Insel.

An introductory tour of the simulation centrуs of the Charité University Clinic (Berlin) and the Institute of Emergency Medicine (Munich) was also organized for the training participants, during which we were introduced to the possibilities and peculiarities of the organization of the work of these centres. It is interesting to note that the level of equipment in the simulation centre of our university is not inferior to the capabilities of the simulation centre in Сharite, but differs in the organization of students’ access to work in it.

Photos from simulation centres.

Our colleagues from Germany support Ukrainians in their struggle and are ready to provide immediate assistance. A surprise was organized for our delegation: during the visit to the Munich Opera House, the flag of Ukraine was hung over the entrance to show the solidarity of the German and Ukrainian people.

During a visit to the Charité clinic

Conclusions:

Given the need to implement a competence-based approach in higher medical education, we need new quality tools. Representatives of medical education in Germany have developed, tested and are ready to share a number of tools that will be useful to us.
In order to optimize the formation of clinical competences, namely the development of clinical thinking in students during training, we recommend the implementation of such methods as cases with key problems and the CASUS platform for working with web-patients.
It is essential to conduct regular trainings/courses for teachers to acquaint them with the latest techniques for use in the educational process.

The Ukrainian delegation at the Brandenburg Gate (Berlin) with Olaf Ahlers in the centre.

We express our appreciation to our German colleagues for the excellent organization of the training, the warm welcome and the sincere desire to share their experiences. We thank the administration of TNMU for their support in organizing the trip.

Information was provided by Nataliya Haliyash and Oksana Sydorenko.

Photographs by the authors.