Must Reads

What is a ‘Must Read’ for those interested in medical education?

Each month, we identify 3-4 noteworthy articles from the health professions education literature and label them as “must reads.” Selection is based on several criteria including originality and methodological rigor. Our process includes a formal search of the peer-reviewed literature, screening titles and abstracts, full text review, and an editorial meeting to achieve consensus.

Who are we and why are we doing this?

Our reviewers include individuals with expertise in teaching, educational oversight, and research as well as those who are beginning their careers as educational scholars.

The volume of health professions education articles has become overwhelming. In curating some of the best new published papers, we hope to make it easier for all of us to keep abreast of cutting edge educational scholarship and practices.

We’d welcome involvement in the selection process. This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ so reviewers can earn CME credit. They can also contribute to Must Reads research. If you are interested in supporting this work or have perspectives to share, please email Sean Tackett: stacket1@jhmi.edu.

You can also follow @MedEdMustReads on X (aka Twitter), follow the must reads page on LinkedIn, and/or sign up to receive an email each month if you want to be updated on new must reads selections.

(Current Reviewers: Syed Muhammad Ali, Elie Dargham, Suni Ebby, Mohammad Kabakibi, Anisha Kshetrapal, Liju Mathew, Amin Nakhostin-Ansari, Aditi Narsinghpura, Ashley Paul, Julianne Perretta, Katherine Senko, Sean Tackett, Scott Wright, Tony Zhu)

Featured This Month

The Gist

• Thematic analysis of 9590 Reddit comments to understand medical student financial hardships.
• Describes the personal and financial costs to students and structural factors that influence them.

Why This is a Must Read

Pursuing a career in medicine takes substantial time and money. This study characterizes the challenges faced by students with limited financial resources and suggests more proactive support is needed.

The Gist

• Analysis of 9 years of data from New Zealand’s Medical School Outcomes Database to determine if clinical rotation length was associated with specialty choice.
• No consistent associations were found; instead work culture was highest ranked.

Why This is a Must Read

Every country seeks to have the right mix of skills in its physician workforce. These data suggest that increasing time in a specialty rotation would not help as much as improving workplace environments.

The Gist

• Commentary reflecting on 20 years of teaching an oath to students at the start of medical school.
• Discusses whether physicians have an ethical obligation to defer to AI “expertise” when it exceeds their own and argues that AI should not replace human judgment.

Why This is a Must Read

Physicians have professed oaths for millennia. This article asks us to consider how traditional expressions of professional values should be interpreted in an AI era.

Featured

The Gist

• Commentary that challenges conventional ideas about high-stakes testing.
• Contends that no assessment is strictly formative or summative and that the scope, timeline, and justifications given for assessments need to broaden to align with healthcare needs.

Why This is a Must Read

Healthcare is complex and continuously changing, but high-stakes tests can be rigid, narrow, and potentially counterproductive. This article proposes new ways of thinking about assessment systems so they promote learning throughout education and practice.

The Gist

• Innovation report randomizing internal medicine teams to use a comic book (vs. usual practice) for orientation to bedside patient presentations.
• Attending physicians liked using comics, and learners’ confidence in bedside rounding increased.

Why This is a Must Read

Bedside presentations can benefit patients and clinicians but are not always done. This article shares a creative and feasible way to make bedside rounding more approachable and may inspire similar interventions.

The Gist

• Tips for institutions to implement program level assessment.
• Proposes ways to diagnose institutional readiness, plan implementation, and sustain changes based on Organizational Readiness Theory.

Why This is a Must Read

Educational assessments should be coordinated throughout a program to support feedback and demonstrate learner achievements, but instead assessments are often fragmented. This article suggests strategies to overcome barriers and to make and maintain changes that add value to learning.

The Gist

• Commentary on “never-skilling” – the failure to develop competency and the erosion of metacognitive skills – that can occur with AI over-reliance.
• Summarizes what’s known, suggests gradual AI integration to maintain cognitive friction, and proposes a research agenda.

Why This is a Must Read

Never-skilling may be the greatest threat that AI poses to medical education. This article provides a robust overview and several frameworks that can guide educational program design and research.

The Gist

• Interviews of 23 supervising physicians on how they use stress to improve learning.
• Describes 6 elements as (1) setting clear expectations; (2) assessing baseline stress; (3) introducing, (4) monitoring, and (5) modifying stressors; and (6) debriefing.

Why This is a Must Read

Finding the stress sweet spot - where it motivates and challenges learners rather than exhausting or demoralizing them - is not easy to do. This article provides a framework that can help clinical educators optimize stress for learning purposes.

The Gist

• Tips to enhance interprofessional learning based on the Landscapes of Practice theory.
• Provides actionable steps for medical trainees, supervising physicians, other health professionals, and program leaders.

Why This is a Must Read

Teamwork is essential to clinical practice, but interprofessional learning remains challenging. This article’s practical advice could enhance interprofessional understanding and performance.