Background: The World Health Organization has defined social accountability of medical schools as “…obligation to direct their education, research, and service activities toward addressing the priority health concerns of the community.” The current study looked at the extent to which the concept was understood in an Indian medical school, exploring how faculty perceived and were involved in directing a response to the social obligation of their medical school. Methods: Seventeen semi-structured audio-recorded interviews were conducted by purposive sampling of faculty from different disciplines. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed through a collaborative thematic approach to gain insight into faculty knowledge of the “obligation triad” of responsibility, responsiveness, and accountability; enablers and barriers in implementation; and understanding stakeholder roles. Results: Faculty were unfamiliar with the terms and were unaware of the movement towards socially accountable schools. They were, however, sensitive to their responsibilities towards students and the community. Four major themes emerged: Perceptions of social obligation, awareness of social and cultural values, the role of partnerships, and moving toward a socially accountable model. Discussion: Sensitizing students towards community needs, impact of cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, importance of contextual curriculum, and stakeholder roles were some of the challenges highlighted in developing a socially accountable medical school.

Background: Sexual harassment (SH) may occur anywhere in the world, including the hospital setting. Medical and nursing students are not excluded from being sexually harassed during their clinical practice. This study examined the experiences and compared the perception of SH between female medical and nursing students during their clinical practice in Perak, Malaysia. Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study design was done among female medical and nursing students during their clinical practice. Results: Total respondents were 481 female medical and nursing students (response rate of 96.2%). About 17.8% of medical and 18.8% of nursing students had been sexually harassed. The most common harasser for medical and nursing students were males (51.2% and 48.8%, respectively), patients (39.7% and 60.3%, respectively), age 30s (41.0% and 59.0%, respectively) and 40s (65.5% and 34.5%, respectively), occurred in medical wards for both groups (50% each). From the SH checklist, 76.9% of medical and 73.5% of nursing students had experienced at least one item of the total 18 items. The abnormal sexual desire of an individual was chosen as the reason for SH by 44.9% of medical and 33.8% of nursing students. The majority of respondents said the issue of SH in clinical practice was very serious. Around 32% of medical students choose the fear of being disadvantaged during clinical practice as the reason why the victims kept quiet while 41.5% of nursing students chose because of not having evidence. Both groups of students suggested establishing rules and laws relating to SH (30.8% and 35.5%, respectively) as effective methods to prevent it. About 75.3% of medical and 81.6% of nursing students agreed that it was very necessary for implementing a SH prevention program. Discussion: Although SH is not a new issue, there is insufficient exposure about SH among medical and nursing students. This can be corrected by increasing their knowledge and awareness about SH.

Background: Most Indian medical schools lack formal leadership training though students are expected to evolve into leaders. The Student Leadership Program (SLP) was designed and evaluated with an objective to incorporate and strengthen leadership skills in undergraduates and to initiate change in organizational practice through the development of a Student Leadership Society. Methods: The SLP was designed using best evidence guidelines in medical education. Competencies and learning outcomes were identified in four domains: reflective writing, self-management, team management, and experiential learning. A stepwise program was implemented over 6 months in which participants wrote reflections at the end of each program session. So as to gain objective evidence of behavioral change in participants in relation to the leadership training, their reflections were qualitatively analyzed and corresponding codes and themes were derived. Results: We describe the content and stepwise process of implementation of our pilot leadership program, which included 24 final-year students. Results of qualitative analysis are presented in relation to the domains of self-management, team management, and evaluation of experimental learning. Among the findings were: students viewed assertive skills training as the most powerful learning experience within self-management, and in team management, the session on “Myers–Briggs Type Indicator for understanding one's own leadership style” was seen as the most powerful learning tool, while the session on conflict management was the most difficult in this domain. A Student Leadership Society was instituted. Discussion: In this study, students' reflections helped us better understand factors (the “how” and “why”) that make leadership training more effective. The SLP, with a strong evidence base, achieved the intended learning outcomes. A Student Leadership Society was constituted as a networking platform to explore the long-term effects of leadership training on organizational practice. The content and process of our pilot leadership program and lessons learned through understanding of students' perspectives should be applicable to subsequent iterations of student leadership development programs here and in other settings.

Background: The Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics requires that undergraduate dietetics courses utilize a variety of educational approaches to facilitate learning. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate undergraduate nutrition students' perceptions of 16 classroom-based learning activities before and after taking an upper-level nutrition course. Methods: A survey was completed by students before and after taking an upper-level nutrition course, Methods in Nutrition Education, at a single university in the southwest region of the United States in fall 2016 and 2017. The survey included demographic questions and assessed students' perceptions of the helpfulness of 16 traditional and active classroom-based activities to learning. Perceptions were measured via Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree) at baseline and postcourse. Wilcoxon signed rank tests assessed changes in students' perceptions of learning activities from baseline to postcourse (significance = P < 0.05). Results: Ninety-seven completed baseline surveys; 67 (69%) completed postcourse surveys. Observing professionals (median = 5), interviewing professionals (median = 5), and critical thinking (median = 4) were perceived as most helpful to learning postcourse. Students agreed critical thinking, integrating material from other courses, interviewing professionals, case studies, writing short reports and summaries, and group projects and activities were significantly more helpful postcourse compared to baseline (P < 0.05). Discussion: Undergraduate nutrition students perceive a variety of classroom-based activities are helpful to learning including traditional (textbook readings, lectures) and active learning strategies (observation, practice). Instructors may consider implementing a variety of traditional and active learning strategies in upper-level nutrition and health-related courses to facilitate learning.

Background: Due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, learning institutions were faced with many challenges while transitioning their in-person courses to an online format for teaching, learning, and testing. One of these challenges included the continuation of assessments in a safe but secure manner. Discussion: Professional health programs may need to implement new policies to ensure a fair, safe testing process that maintains exam integrity during remote assessments. We concluded that transitioning to remote assessments for health professional schools posed many challenges. Further studies may elaborate the effectiveness and limitations of the various approaches used for remote assessments by professional health programs during the pandemic.

Background: Due to the increasing awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco, quite a few tobacco users have shown interest in quitting. But, still there is lack of knowledge, lack of tobacco cessation support, and strong cultural habits which influence their inability to quit. Dentists are less likely to provide tobacco cessation advice and counseling and they feel inadequately prepared to provide tobacco cessation education to their patients as compared to physicians and other health professionals. Furthermore, tobacco cessation counseling is not yet a part of routine dental practice and is not incorporated in the dental curriculum. The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge and attitude of dental students of Navi Mumbai on tobacco cessation counseling. Methods: It is a cross-sectional survey-based study. A total of 691 interns and 4^th year BDS students were assessed using a structured questionnaire. Results: About 75.3% of the participants claimed that they were not sufficiently trained to provide tobacco cessation counseling. However, 84.2% indicated willingness to counsel their patients regarding the same. About 62.1% felt that the patients do not listen to dental students about quitting and 89.6% of students agreed that counseling patients on tobacco cessation is their duty. Discussion: Dental students lacked confidence in providing counseling to tobacco users due to lack of knowledge on tobacco cessation counseling. However, majority of the participants were also motivated to undertake special training for counseling. The study highlights the importance of introducing tobacco cessation counseling program in the curriculum of dental students to create awareness about the same and to help dental professionals provide effective tobacco cessation counseling.