Background: Peer-assisted learning (PAL) is a common teaching and learning method in medical education worldwide. In the setting of skills laboratories (skills labs), student tutors are often employed as an equivalent alternative to faculty teachers. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of qualitative studies which explore the reasons for the personal commitment of student tutors. The aim of our study was to examine how undergraduate students experienced and evaluated their roles as skills lab student tutors, what their motivation was, and whether social and cognitive congruence played a role in their teaching experiences.Methods: We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with student tutors who were currently teaching in a skills lab. After the interviews had been transcribed verbatim, two independent investigators performed a qualitative content analysis according to Mayring.Results: In total, we conducted nine interviews with student tutors. Our results revealed that all student tutors showed great enthusiasm and motivation for their jobs as peer teachers. One of the main motivating factors for student tutors to teach in a skills lab was the possibility to simultaneously share and improve their knowledge and expertise. In general, the participants of our study had high aspirations for their teaching. They found it particularly important to be empathetic with the student learners. At the same time, they thought they would personally benefit from their teaching activities and develop a certain expertise as student tutors.Conclusions: With the present study we are able to gain some insight into what motivates student tutors to teach in a skills lab and what kind of experiences they have. Our results provide an important input for the future training of highly qualified student tutors.

Objective: Climate change is a key threat to human health worldwide. Accordingly, medical education should prepare future physicians for Rebecca Boekels1 Christoph Nikendei1 climate-associated hazards and corresponding professional challenges. Emma Roether1 Currently, this is not yet implemented across the board. The aim of this Hans-Christoph Friederich1review is to present (I) the knowledge and (II) the attitudes of medical students and physicians towards climate change and (III) the expectations of medical education as formulated by medical students. In addi- Till Johannes Bugaj1 tion, the available literature will be used to look at (IV) global teaching activities, (V) international learning goals and learning goal catalogues, and (VI) applied teaching methods and formats. This review should 1 Heidelberg University simplify and, considering the urgency of the topic, accelerate the design Hospital, Department of of future teaching activities. Methodology: The paper is based on a selective literature search supplemented by a topic-guided internet search. Results: Knowledge about the causes and concrete health consequences of climate change seems to be incomplete. The majority of medical students consider human health to be at risk from climate change and the health sector to be inadequately prepared. A majority of surveyed medical students would like to see teaching about climate change. It is evident that internationally, teaching projects on climate change and climate health, as well as topic-specific learning objectives and learning goal catalogues, have been developed and integrated into medical education. Conclusion: There is a need for and acceptance of teaching climate change in the medical curriculum. This literature review can assist in the development and implementation of new teaching formats.

Climate change (CC) is adversely affecting human health and will become far more dangerous in the future, if no substantial measures are taken. Young people in particular are taking an energetic stand for CC awareness. Some CC experts argue that medical doctors are especially well positioned to inform about the impact of CC on public health, as it is well established that they are among the most trusted members of society. However, medical doctors seem to be unsure of their role in addressing CC. This study aimed to investigate future doctors´, i.e., final year medical students´ (FYMS), attitudes towards CC and their personal role in CC education and health care. A questionnaire was developed to examine (1) the expected consequences of CC for FYMS, (2) their perceived individual responsibility, and their attitudes towards an additional (3) professional responsibility. To examine the climate-questionnaire’s component correlations, we ran a factor analysis using oblique (promax) rotation and conducted a one-way ANOVA with repeated measures to compare the mean scores of the factors. Data are presented as mean ± SD or percentage, as appropriate. n = 65 FYMS (response rate: 87%) were participating and all of them completed the questionnaire. Items of the factor professional responsibility showed the lowest level of agreement (47.2 ± 21.2), while the 2 other factors showed higher levels of agreement (expected consequences (75.6 ± 18.4), individual responsibility (75.1 ± 20.6). Future doctors at Heidelberg University Hospital are well-informed about the expected health consequences of CC. They recognize human contributions to CC and make personal decisions to mitigate the impact. However, the opinion that they have a professional responsibility as physicians to patients or society in regard to CC is weaker. Specific teaching could help to change the way future doctors see their role and responsibility in tackling CC.

Primary care physicians (General Practitioners (GPs)) are burdened for various reasons and are particularly affected by stress-related complaints and an increasing prevalence of burnout. Thus, the prevention of physician burnout has become a major interest for health care services. Although many studies have addressed this issue in recent years, little seems to be known about the work strain and burnout rates in GP trainees. Therefore the objective of this article is to review the psychosocial burden and relevant prevention strategies for GPs with a special emphasis on GP trainees. Regardless of the specialty, burnout is more prevalent among medical trainees and so-called “early career” physicians than among the age-matched population. Accordingly, burnout seems to be frequent among GP trainees, although there is some evidence that there are fewer doctors working in general medicine who were already heavily burdened at the time of choosing their career. The sudden assumption of responsibility in patient care as well as the fear of showing imperfection in front of their supervisors, or lack of recognition from senior doctors, the medical team, or patients might be stressors typical to this career stage. GP trainees might also feel burdened by the new level of personal involvement and thus have to develop or increase their individual level of professionality to deal with the patients’ medical and personal problems. In conclusion, interventions to promote physical and mental health of GP trainees are a necessity to ensure passionate GPs in the future and should therefore be integrated into any postgraduate training curriculum in General Practice.

Curiosity is a fundamental human trait that drives learning and exploration. However, research on curiosity has received little attention in the medical field, despite its potential to enhance knowledge acquisition, work performance, and psychosocial well-being. This study aimed to address part of this gap by investigating physicians' perspectives on their personal experiences with curiosity and its role in their professional practice and medical training. This qualitative study was conducted with 12 physicians from the University of Heidelberg Medical Hospital. Participants were contacted randomly via email and invited to participate in the study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews between September 2019 and February 2020. The authors employed Mayring's approach, which denotes a qualitative content analysis method characterized by its systematic and rule-guided approach to analyzing textual data, aiming to extract meaningful insights and patterns or themes. The identified themes were linked to overall categories to draw conclusions from the data. The interviewees highlighted three main areas regarding curiosity's importance [1]: as a driving force for (lifelong) education [2], in building empathetic physician-patient relationships, and [3] as a core quality of a good researcher. They primarily linked curiosity with positive emotions, while the non-expression of curiosity was associated with dissatisfaction, boredom, and exhaustion. Factors such as heavy workloads, time constraints, stress, and lack of autonomy inhibit their curiosity, while varied activities, professional exchange with colleagues, and exposure to new challenges foster it. Physicians' perspectives on the link between burnout and curiosity were not consistent. Interestingly, some viewed curiosity as protective against burnout, while others saw excessive curiosity as a potential source of frustration and burnout. This study represents the first attempt to explore physicians' perspectives on curiosity in medicine. The findings highlight the potential importance of curiosity in shaping medical professionalism and improving patient care. However, its pursuit is hampered by the challenging working conditions faced by doctors, suggesting a need for enhanced support and cultivation.

Curiosity, which has been called the third pillar of academic achievement and positively predicts academic performance (von Stumm et al., 2011), is widely recognized as an important factor in acquiring knowledge and skills in medical training, and may be critical for students´ sound mental health. Medical educators have advocated that curiosity should play a more significant role in medical training and have criticized didactic barriers impeding student curiosity. However, in medical training, curiosity is understudied partly due to a lack of methods for measuring curiosity. Therefore, this study was designed to develop and validate a scale to measure medical curiosity. After reviewing the literature and interviewing a panel of experts (n = 7), 25 preliminary items assessing medical curiosity were developed and administered to n = 305 medical students (n = 163 female and n = 142 male) at Heidelberg University across all medical school years. Following exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with oblique (promax) rotation, we measured medical curiosity in a medical student sample. We have identified two distinct factors: intellectual medical curiosity (IMC) and social medical curiosity (SMC). IMC describes the desire to acquire medical knowledge for curiosity’s sake, while SMC refers to curiosity about human nature and, in particular, patient health. Both factors showed good psychometric properties, with eigenvalues of 6.7 and 3.5, explaining 26.6% and 14.0% of the variance and internal consistencies of 0.796 and 0.866, respectively, and high convergent and discriminant validity. While first-year students showed significantly higher IMC scores than final-year medical students, SMC scores remained stable and tended to increase throughout medical school. This study has succeeded in developing the first scale to measure aspects of medical curiosity and, thus, lays the groundwork for future studies examining medical students’ curiosity. A deeper understanding of medical students’ curiosity can help to foster this curiosity effectively.