Thursday, 01 August 2019

 

How to Manage Stress and Anxiety

On 22 February, the Centre of Medical Education (CME) successfully completed a six-week training course on student support entitled How to Manage Stress and Anxiety,  led by Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology Dr Stelios Georgiades and supported by the Chair of the Centre Professor Alexia Papageorgiou.

In addition, during the month of March, the Centre hosted three innovative events as part of the Erasmus Mobility Exchange Programme:

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

Veena Rodrigues, Professor of Public Health and Medical Education at the Norwich Medical School and Course Director of the MClinEd programme at the University of East Anglia, gave a presentation on how clinical faculty could use Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for their professional development, and at the same time improve student learning in clinical environments.

The Flipped Lecture or Flipped Classroom/A Step-Back Consultation Process

Dr Barbara Jennings, Senior Lecturer in Medical Education at the Norwich Medical School, presented (a) ‘The Flipped Lecture or Flipped Classroom’, which is considered by educationalists as an important aspect of student-centred learning, and (b) ‘A Step-Back Consultation Process’, which enables educational leaders to gain new and important insights and perspectives in designing and managing projects and developing curricula and teams.

Assessment training Courses

The CME has also completed a number of training courses on assessment in Cyprus and abroad, as part of the School’s continuous professional development and support for our partnered clinical sites (e.g., in the UK and USA).

Basic Psychological Support Skills for Medical Students

The environment of medical schools is often considered to be very stressful, projecting rather negative effects to the academic performance of medical students as well as to their physical health and psychosocial wellbeing. As a result, more often than not, when students experience these difficulties, the people they usually approach for help and support are either administrative staff or members of faculty.  Considering that in order to help students effectively requires specialised knowledge and experience, the CME, launched on 17 May the first six-week, one-day- per-week, training programme for a group of staff and faculty members on “Basic Psychological Support Skills for medical students“.  The training programme was run by Dr Stelios Georgiades, Prof Alexia Papageorgiou and Dr Costas Constantinou at Aelia Wellness Retreat.    The programme will be repeated in the academic year 2019-2020 for interested staff and faculty.

Anxiety and Time Management Group

Research studies indicate consistently that stress and anxiety are highly prevalent among medical students around the world.   The available evidence seems to suggest that awareness, recognition, and timely management may reduce anxiety among students thus contributing positively to their overall academic performance and quality of life.  Taking into consideration these research findings, within the wider framework of student centredness, the CME successfully introduced regular anxiety and time management sessions to medical students whose anxiety difficulties interfere with their normal everyday functioning.  The first anxiety and time management group was conducted by Dr Stelios Georgiades and Prof Alexia Papageorgiou.  At the end of the session, the participants expressed their satisfaction and gratitude for being provided with the opportunity to learn how to recognise and manage their anxiety.  New anxiety and time management sessions will be organised for all interested students in the academic year 2019-2020.

Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare and Biomedical Education

Between 1 and 3 July 2019 the CME delivered thesecond module of the Postagraduate Certificate in Healthcare and Biomedical Education (PgCertHBE) course. The module focused on Pedagogical Principles for Transformative Education and was led by Dr Saranne Weller, Reader in Higher Education Practice and Development at the Centre for Innovation and Development of Education, St George’s, University of London. The feedback received from our course participants is very encouraging.

Participant 1: “An excellent opportunity to reflect on and improve teaching practices based on state-of-the-art pedagogical and transformative education principles.”

Participant 2: “However experienced or competent academics might perceive themselves, there is always room for improvement. The PgCert in HBE offers an amazing opportunity for anyone wanting to improve their academic skills, namely designing learning outcomes, preparation of appropriate resources, teaching style, designing appropriate assessment and providing feedback.”

Participant 3: “This course gave me the opportunity to develop not only as a teacher but also to learn processes by which to reflect and change my practice in many other aspects of my professional life.”

Participant 4:    “A very stimulating experience that explored different areas of teaching and learning that was delivered in a highly professional pedagogical milieu. This module provided us with opportunities to review and improve our assessment, teaching and feedback practices and will assist us in further developing these important tasks and skills.”