Critical Analysis: Media's Influence on Medical Education Today

This essay critically analyzes the use of media in medical education, focusing on its integration into learning interventions. It highlights the shift towards communication skills, cognitive abilities, and IT skills in medical education, facilitated by online platforms like Facebook and YouTube. The essay discusses the advantages of media, such as enhanced engagement, personalized learning environments, and access to vast information resources. It also addresses challenges, including the prevalence of unvalidated information and potential exposure to inappropriate content. The author shares their experience using media for a research assignment, emphasizing the importance of guiding students towards reliable sources. The conclusion advocates for embracing media in medical education to improve quality, while also acknowledging the need for careful oversight and guidance.

Running Head: USE OF MEDIA IN MEDICAL TEACHING
Use of Media in Medical Education
Students Name
University Affiliation
Date

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Use of Media in Medical Education
Introduction
Medical teaching is a very intricate art as well as skill. Medical teaching process requires
and demands feedback, self-discipline, eagerness, practice and hard work so as to make sure that
students or learners are on the right track. Even medical learners who have the inherent talent
have to undergo the learning process to enhance their performance. It should be noted that the
concept of medical training started many decades ago in Singapore and it has since been made
mandatory for any student aspiring to be a professional and registered medical and nursing
student. Teaching usually facilitates learning as well as motivates the learners to usually learn in
the best way possible. The aim of teaching is to develop attitudes and skills and not limited to
dispensing and delivering information. The use of media has been included in most teaching
process especially with the advent and invention of information technology not only in
Singapore but also in the entire globe. In the medical education, most teachers and educators
have adopted the use of media to enhance learning process especially with current generation of
students and learners who are techno savvy. The aim of this paper will be to critically analyze
use of media in the medical learning and education. The paper will identify one learning
intervention and analyze the use of media in that learning intervention. The paper will then
conclude by analyzing how the use of media can be improved to promote and enhance not only
the learning intervention but also in the entire medical department.
Use of media in medical education
Currently, with application of new modes of teaching as well as learning methods,
emphasis on evaluation has been changed to the use of greater communication skills, cognitive

USE OF MEDIA IN MEDICAL TEACHING 3
abilities, professionalism and IT skills (Amgad and AlFaar, 2014). Emphasis is also shifting in
medical education from medical education which is based on competency to medical education
that is based on outcomes and the assessment of workplace performance. This is where the use of
media in medical teaching comes in (McArthur and Bostedo-Conway, 2012).
Online websites and applications in which users retrieve, explore and even contribute
contents and use those which have been posted or generated by other users are popular media to
communicate as well as share data (Bahner et al, 2012). For instance, Facebook is one of the
media platforms which has over 1.2 billion users monthly and more than 73 million users per
day. In Singapore, media platforms especially social media platforms are popular with numerous
individuals checking on social media applications many times daily. With this popularity in the
media platforms in the country, numerous medical and healthcare experts, professionals and
medical teaching institutions have embraced the use of media in promoting medical education
and information. For instance, social media can be useful and important in enhancing and
promoting medical education.
Limitations on work hours for residents can restrict their ability and capacity to take part
in in-person educational sessions and conferences. Most of the media platforms may be found
temporarily as well as geographically in synchronized means, enabling for efficient storage as
well as searchable content and as well as encouraging interactivity (Brisson et al, 2015). This
may offer specific advantages and benefits over the more conventional formats of education.
Moreover, most of the medical professional learners prefer media as their basic data source and
the digital students have accepted online media as part of their education. According to El Bialy
& Ayoub (2017), Social media networks users normally interact via sharing of video messages,
audios, texts and photos.

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The use of media especially social media by the medical learners has become a popular
and famous method in engaging learners and teachers. According to Dewey and Vygotsky
principles of social construction, active participation, information sharing and social interaction
in social media activities can motivate learning. In a study conducted to evaluate and assess the
integration of Skype, Twitter, Flicker, YouTube and Facebook, in two medical courses for fourth
year students for medicine, the results showed that most students were willing and were satisfied
with the new and advanced approach medical education.

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Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5138570/

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5138570/
These results of a study that was conducted in Saudi Arabia shows that social media is
mostly used in learning by health students in the country. Most of the students in the study
indicated that they use social media as part of their education. YouTube is the most accessed
media platform that is mostly used by students since it has the largest volume of educational and
learning materials which are helpful and enhance learning. However, it also contains most of the
information having low quality and not backed up by scientific evidence. Thus, it is important to
create a unique and special platform in which educational discussions as well as materials can be

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reviewed by medical professionals (Galiatsatos et al, 2016). Coming up with such a website will
require the presence of guidelines and regulations for posting health educational materials
involving ethical terms, that is, respect of and the confidentiality of rights of patients. There is
scientific and empirical evidence that the use of media platforms is famous with the students in
places of higher learning.
How the Use of Media Helped Us in the Learning Intervention
My learning intervention where the use of media was of great importance was in teaching
where our lecturer gave us an assignment to research on a given topic in medical research
methods. This was an assignment that every student was to research not only in the school
library but also in the online internet sources. Just like many students in Singapore who have
embrace the sue of social media in the learning process, I decided to use every source of
information to research on the topic that we were given by our lecturer. The sources that I have
found helpful were the library sources as well as media sources (electronic medial sources like
the electronic media platforms and the internet).
Advantages of using media in Medical Education (learning process)
I discovered that the use of media especially social media is more active learning process
as compared to the conventional didactic learning process. Through the use of social media,
students become more confident enabling them to debate medical topics as well as eventually
share each others’ views and thoughts on the subject matter. For instance, in the assignment that
we were given by our lecturer, media platform increased the engagement between the class
members as well as simulated the interaction among students, generating more content on the
topic which ultimately improved our grades on that assignment. Social media also helped us to

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create personal learning environment; learner-designed methods which integrate numerous tools
like videos, pictures, games, apps etc. chosen by learners to match their pace and style of
learning. These learning environments helped students especially students who are considered as
weak in the classroom to understand the topic according to their pace and style (Richter,
Muhlestein & Wilks, 2014). The environments also helped us to increase the amount of control
over how we wanted to learn unlike the conventional mode of learning where a teacher has the
full control over how a student should learn. Through the application of media, our tutor was
able to distribute as well as share valuable information on the topic that we were to discuss and
research on. This not only helped us to acquire more information on the subject but we also had
time interacting with our tutor, therefore, improving and enhancing the relationship between the
teacher and student relationship (Kind et al, 2014).
Innovations through the use of media in medical Education
Through application of the media, we were able to retrieve important information through
published journals, articles, medical scientific encyclopedias and online books. These enabled us
to save both time and money; time in looking for information materials in the school library, a
task that is always tedious and hard, and money that we could have used in purchasing books for
doing the assignment. Media also provided a platform through which we discussed new ideas of
the topic given thus becoming more innovative and active. The use of Facebook, for instance, by
my class members was high with the students uploading and sharing anatomical structures. This
showed that Facebook is a multifunctional media tool which allows students and educators to
adapt to their learning as well as teaching styles. Through the use of YouTube, we were able to
view the video formats of our assignment as well as visualize the assignment concepts and ideas,
thus, heightening our understanding of the subject.

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Challenges and limitations of using Media in Medical Education
In as much as media is considered as an important tool in the medical education, it has
some glaring challenges that must be mitigated in order to enhance quality medical education.
For instance, according to Sherbino (2015), most of the information available in some of the
electronic media platforms are not scientifically validated especially in YouTube. Thus, most of
the information that the students are exposed to are misleading as well as incorrect (Rabee et al,
2015). Most of the students when given time to learn through social media, they will search and
look for misleading and immoral contents that are not intended for learning and for their
consumption (Hillman and Sherbino, 2015). Thus, such students will be exposed to various
immoral and unethical information which will corrupt their minds.
Recommendations
It is important for lecturers to guide students on the type of information they need to look
for in the media and avoid dangerous source of information (Jalali & Wood, 2014).
Conclusion
The use of media significantly helped me to understand one of the learning interventions;
an assignment on a given topic that were to do research and discuss in the class. therefore, most
of the health and medical learning institutions should embrace using media to enhance education
quality.

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