Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The EPAs approach has had a great impact on medical education since it emerged in 2005. Its dissemination has required translation into several languages, sometimes generating terminological and meaning confusion. This paper is the result of an expert consensus procedure regarding the translation of key terms for understanding the EPA approach in Spanish and Portuguese. It was carried out through a process of meaning analysis of each term in its idiomatic context and of the practice of health professionals training in Latin America. Participated on this consensus by twelve professionals, teachers and scholars involved in the implementation and training with EPAs in eight countries, who participated as coordinator, facilitators or participants in the International Course Ins and Outs of EPAs for Latin America.

Background: The Forensic Science Undergraduate Program —hosted by the School of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)—aims to train highly qualified forensic science professionals. Eight years after welcoming its first students, we offer an overview of the admission process, grade point average, graduation rate, choice of degree-awarding options, and entry into the workplace. Objective: To carry out a detailed analysis of student profiles at different stages of their undergraduate studies that provides key information for making decisions towards the development of the competencies that define the skill set of the forensic scientist and better prepare them to perform in the job market.Method: This is a descriptive work that offers an overview of the student profiles from their admission to their entry into the workplace by means of information analyzed with descriptive statistics and presented graphically using R and Microsoft Excel.Results: Data analysis portrays a student population that performs well in both high school and university, with minimal failure rates and correspondingly high and timely graduation rates, and better employment prospects than those enjoyed by other graduates of UNAM. Conclusions: The information presented will be useful to guide decision-making that leads to adjusting teaching and evaluation to the professional profile and nature of forensic science, as well as disseminating the potential of the forensic scientist’s skill set to facilitate their employment. It will also serve as a basis for future more in-depth analysis of social service performance, degree options and employment opportunities.

Introduction: Reading implies understanding, interpreting or reflecting on the meaning of something written with the aim of intellectual development and communication skills. So it is important that the medical student have a good reading habit in order to acquire critical reading skills to assess the quality of the evidence.Objective: To determine the factors associated with reading habits in medical students at Universidad Peruana Los Andes.Method: Observational, analytical and transversal study. A questionnaire was applied to 248 students from the first to the fifth year of their studies, consisting of two parts: the first on sociodemographic characteristics, academic and factors that influence reading and the second contained the assessment of reading habit. To determine the association, the Chi-square and t Student tests were used. In addition, crude and adjusted prevalence ratios were calculated using generalized linear models.Results: Of the 248 students, most had a good reading habit (69.3%). The female sex had a better reading habit (74.4%) (p = 0.016) and the male had a bad reading habit (RPc:1.43; IC95%:1.01-2.05). On the other hand, the main reason for academic reading had a significant association with good reading habits (RPc:2.78; IC95%:1.59-4.86). Finally, in the adjusted analysis, the latter was the only one with statistical significance (RPa:2.84; IC95%:1.67-4.82).Conclusions: The good reading habit was the most frequent. The associated factors were the male sex and the main academic motivation. It is recommended to take measures to improve reading habits through workshops or the formation of reading clubs.

Introduction: The examination for access to medical specialization in Spain, known as the MIR test, has been convened annually since 1978 jointly by the Ministries of Health and Education and Vocational Training, and is carried out simultaneously at various locations throughout Spain. Access to the different medical specialties is conditioned by the academic scale achieved in the Medicine degree, as well as by the result of said test.Objective: The present work analyses the results of the doctors that took MIR tests of 2019 and 2020 according to their academic scale.Method: For this study, the information published by the Ministry of Health regarding the final results of the doctors who attended 2019 and 2020 calls was employed. This information includes the average grade of all the doctors who performed the exam, as well as the number of order obtained in the test.Results: Although the average score has a weight of only 10% on the score that gives rise to the ordering of the doctors in the MIR test, there is a correlation between the scale and the order number obtained that allows choosing between the different specialized health training places offered in the call.Conclusions: In most cases, the individuals who obtained a better average grade in the Medicine degree are those who obtain the best results in the MIR test. It is considered that this is due to the addition of a higher level of initial knowledge at the beginning of the preparation of the test, together with a greater use of said preparation time linked to their ability and work habit, previously trained throughout the six courses of the degree.

Introduction: Summative assessment is usually applied at the end of an academic period to measure a student’s learning outcome, these assessments use various representations of patients, from real patients to written narratives based on clinical cases. There is scarse evidence about association between the results of written assessments based on clinical cases and academic performance in medical students.Objective: To evaluate the correlation between the score of an annual written exam based on clinical cases with multiple choice questions and the weighted average –as an indicator of academic performance– in students of human medicine in Peru.Method: Secondary data análisis with longitudinal panel design for the period 2017 to 2020. The annual exam has 250 multiple-choice questions based on a clinical context drawn from published case reports. Each correctly answered question provided one point, the score was transformed to a vigesimal scale and its correlation with the weighted average was evaluated. Scatter plots and the calculation of the spearman correlation coefficient were performed. The analysis was performed for each academic year.Results: Data from 228 students were analyzed, the means of annual exam scores varies between 9.61 (standard deviation = 1.91) for 2019 to 10.75 (standard deviation = 2.34) for 2018. In all years, a significant direct linear correlation was found between the annual weighted average and the annual exam score. The highest correlation occurred in 2019 (Spearman’s rho [rS = 0.812]). In the correlation analysis according to sex, significant correlations were obtain.Conclusions: In each of the years analyzed, the score obtained in the annual exam is directly linearly correlated with the academic performance, a direct linear correlation was also found between the annual exam scores.

Introduction: The social service in palliative care aims for doctors in the last stage of training in the Bachelor of Medical Surgeon to integrate a vision of care towards people who face diseases that limit or threaten their lives. Coping with death represents emotional and existential challenges, however, improve training in palliative care can promote self-competence in working with death.Aim: This study aim to evaluate the self-competence to work with death in undergrate doctors, before and after performing social service in a palliative care unit, as well as depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms.Method: The emotional and existential dimension of self-competence in death work was evaluated in 25 undergrate doctors from two generations of the Rotary social service in Palliative Care of the UNAM Faculty of Medicine, before starting the social service and at the end of it. The spanish versio of Self-competence in Death Work Scale (SC-DWS), the Beck Depression Inventory (IDB) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (IAB) were used in this study. Descriptive statistics and Student’s t test for related samples were used.Results: In the participants of the 2019 generation, a statistically significant increase was observed in the total score of the SC-DWS, in its existencial and emotional subscales and in depressive symptoms. In the participants of the 2020 generation, a decrease was observed in the total score of the SC-DWS and in the existencial and emotional subscales.Conclusion: This study provides evidence of the relevance of training in palliative care in undergraduate doctors to increase self-competence in death work, especially in highly stressful contexts due to its relationship with death processes such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: The context and harshness of the pandemic has highlighted the need for the contribution of public health. Latin America, given the conditions of life and health care, resents their contributions.Notions of public health: Reviewed: levels of complexity in health sciences; the way public health works; the public, the political and politics; the health sector (intrasector) and the intersector; relevant contextual features for the task of public health and that add uncertainty in the region.The need to strengthen public health training in undergraduate and residency training, especially in Latin America: The recommendation made 30 years ago by the World Federation for Medical Education seems to be valid, for which efforts should be strengthened. The contribution it makes to improving the level of health of people and communities is illustrated by two significant problems in Latin America.The medical specialist in public health and some of its training programs: The work of the medical specialist in public health (MESP), their training and political-institutional context are linked to each other, so relevance is key. Regardless of the country, the training programs share an insufficient visibility that restricts their contribution. The specificity of the MESP seems to be associated with the combination of doses and proportions of skills that result in a credible professional who motivates the medical community and mobilizes work groups.The Public Health Training Program of the University of Chile: Structure, learning strategies, the Program’s hallmark subject and evaluative dimension are reviewed.Competencies worked on in the training of the specialist doctor in public health, potential contribution to the training of other specialists: Training experiences derived from metacognition, work with complexity and the relationship with non-health professions and disciplines are exposed.

Introduction: There are several factors associated with student’s academic success or failure among which high school attainment before enrolled to the medical school is included. The previous academic achievement of new students was evaluated by a diagnostic test that was used in the present work. Objective: To determine the correlation of academic performance in the courses of Anatomy, Cellular Biology and Medical Histology and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology vs eight topics from the diagnostic test by the high school’s origin.Method: Correlational study between the average grade in the evaluation of three first-year courses vs the diagnostic evaluation of 4716 students of four medical students’ classes. Correlations were determined by levels, from general to particular and by high school of origin.Results: Determining correlations by bachelors’ school of origin revealed that each of the eight subjects of the diagnostic exam presented high correlation values, which allows postulating regression models to predict students’ academic performance in the three courses reviewed.Conclusions: Approaching the study by high school allowed identifying the highest correlations and therefore generating regression models that could predict the probable academic performance of new students enrolled in the medical school. It was confirmed that the students with the highest probability of academic success are those with the most comprehensive background knowledge.

This article is the product of a review of historical literature that analyzes the emergence and development of physiotherapy in México since its prevenience as a part of rehabilitation sciences until reach its own independence during the process of transformation it to a professionalization discipline in the XX century. The analysis of the reflections upon the reviewed documents and the interviews made to people that were part of the historical process are sort out under the next premises: first, the historical analysis of the social, institutional and scientific processes that bring on the emergence of physiotherapy as an independent profession secondary from rehabilitation upon the transfer of knowledge of western Europe to America under the model of George Basalla1. Second, the theorical tensions and joints between rehabilitation medicine and physiotherapy that were involved in the process for considering physiotherapy a profession with a lack of scientific knowledge, therefore physiotherapist were not recognized as an autonomic professional with own identity for its practice. Finally the change of paradigms in health models, such as the biopsychosocial model, the evolution of rehabilitation concepts such as the incorporation of International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF) promoted by World Health Organization as a conceptual frame that permits a global view of the functioning of the individuals in a context that includes the emergence of new professions such as physiotherapy un which multidisciplinary work among health professionals, permits to consolidate aspects of identity and autonomy of the profession.