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This is the first comprehensive account of \"Anatomy in National Socialism\". Traces the gradual escalation of ethical transgressions in anatomy during National Socialism from the traditional anatomical work with the dead to human experimentation, and points to the need for vigilance against similar gradual ethical compromise in contemporary medical ethics. Demonstrates the manner in which anatomists became complicit in the complete annihilation of the perceived \"enemies\" of the Nazi-government. Demands the full reconstruction of the biographies and memorialization of Nazi-victims, whose bodies were used for anatomical purposes.

Background As ultrasound is one of the most utilized imaging procedures in clinical practice in Germany, its integration into undergraduate medical education is imperative. Thereby, the limited availability of qualified instructors is a major challenge. Peer tutors, who are trained to instruct their peers collaboratively, could resolve staff constraints. This systematic review explores the literature on peer teaching in undergraduate ultrasound education, aiming to provide an overview of methodologies, outcomes, and peer teacher training concepts. Methods Following the PRISMA guidelines, a systematic literature review was conducted on the subject of peer teaching in undergraduate ultrasound education. Using PubMed and Google Scholar as databases, studies in English or German involving training concepts for peer teachers in undergraduate ultrasound education, published up to November 21, 2023, were included. Data extraction of original studies followed the PICOS schema with special respect to didactic concepts of peer tutor training programs and the effectiveness of peer teachers compared to faculty instructors. A modified version of the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to assess the quality of included studies. Results Finally, the search resulted in 20 relevant original studies, including 16 studies exploring peer teacher training concepts. Predominantly, peer teachers studied in their 4th year of medical school and on average one year further compared to their students. Peer teacher training was integrated into curricula by course-based concepts (93.8%) and internships (50.0%). Didactic modalities varied, encompassing laboratory rotations including the scanning of patients, the scanning of fellow students, lectures, and didactic training. The median training duration was about ten days. Of six comparative studies, five found peer-assisted learning to be comparably effective and one even better than faculty-led courses. Conclusion Despite the growing amount of literature underlining the effectiveness and wide application of peer teaching in ultrasound education, training concepts stay heterogenous without a standardized system for training and qualifying peer teachers. Developing comprehensive guidelines for peer tutor education could increase acceptance and recognition of peer-assisted learning and ensure minimum training standards.

Background The anatomy dissection course is a major part of the first two years of the traditional medical curriculum in Germany. The vast amount of content to be learned and the repeated examination is unanimously perceived by students and teachers as a major stress factor that contributes to the increase of psychosocial stress during the first two years of the course of study. Published interventions for specific stress reduction are scarce. Methods In a randomized, controlled design two intervention groups were compared with a control group (CG) over the whole dissection course (nine measuring points before, during and after first and second semester). The ‘Stress Management intervention (IVSM)’ targeted at the setting of personal standards, the ‘Friendly Feedback intervention (IVFF)’ at the context of frequent testing. Quantitative surveys were distributed at nine measuring points. The questionnaire comprised validated instruments and self-developed items regarding stress, positive and negative affect, anxiety, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and perceived performance. Results Out of 195 students inscribed in the dissection course, 166 (85%) agreed to participate in the study. The experience of stress during the dissection course was significantly higher in the CG than in the IVFF. Anxiety and negative affect were lower in students of the IVFF while positive affect, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy were higher than in the CG. For anxiety and negative affect in the IVSM this was especially seen at the end of the second semester. The self-perceived increase in both knowledge and preparedness for the first big oral and written examination did not differ between the study groups. About three quarters of the participants would choose the intervention ‘Friendly Feedback’ if given the choice. Conclusions Replacing formal tests with friendly feedback has proven to be an effective measure to reduce stress and negative affect and foster positive affect, self-efficacy, and intrinsic motivation, while it did not impair self-perceived academic performance.

Background The social distancing and suspension of on-campus learning, imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, are likely to influence medical training for months if not years. Thus, there is a need for digital replacement for classroom teaching, especially for hands-on courses, during which social distancing is hardly possible. Here, we investigated students’ learning experience with a newly designed digital training course in neurophysiology, with intercalated teaching blocks in either asynchronous (unsupervised online lectures and e-labs) or synchronous (online seminars, supervised by instructors) formats. Methods The accompanying anonymized prospective study included 146 student participants. At the beginning and the end of the course, students were invited to answer anonymous online questionnaires with 18 and 25 items, respectively. We conducted both qualitative analyses of students’ survey responses and statistical analyses of the results of cohort-specific summative examinations. The summative assessment results were compared both between 4 current cohorts and with the respective historical cohorts. Results Despite having little prior experience with e-learning (4.5 on the 1-7 scale), students adapted remarkably well to this online format. They appreciated its higher flexibility, time efficiency, student-oriented nature (especially when using inverted classroom settings), tolerance towards the individual learning style and family circumstances, and valued the ability to work through lectures and e-labs at their own learning speed. The major complaints concerned diminished social contacts with instructors and fellow students, the inability to ask questions as they occur, and the lack of sufficient technical expertise. The students valued the newly developed e-labs, especially the implementation of interactive preparative measures (PreLabs) and the intuitive lab design offered by the chosen software ( Lt Platform from AD Instruments). The summative examinations at the end of the course documented the quality of knowledge transfer, which was comparable to that of previous classically instructed cohorts. Conclusion Despite the missing personal contact between the faculty and the students, inherent to online teaching, the all-digital training course described here proofed to be of good educational value and, in case the pandemic continues, is worse considering for the future. Some of the described building blocks, like digital lectures or interactive PreLabs, may survive the pandemics to enrich the medical education toolbox in the future.

Background The COVID-19 pandemic poses a huge challenge for clinical teaching due to contact restrictions and social distancing. Medical teachers have to balance potential risks and benefits of bedside teaching, especially in course formats intended to foster practical clinical skills. In this context, we aimed to address the question, whether presence-based teaching formats without patient involvement are suitable to teach practical skills. Methods In this quasi-experimental study, presence-based teaching formats with and without patient contact were retrospectively compared regarding their effects on medical students’ theoretical knowledge and practical skills, i.e. the performance and clinical interpretation of the neurological exam. To this end, evaluations from 102 students and their lecturers participating in a neurological bedside teaching course at a German university hospital between October 2020 and April 2021 were obtained. Students were initially randomly assigned to course dates. However, 53 students assigned to courses in November and December 2020, were not able to go bedside due to contact restrictions. These students formed the interventional group and the remaining 49 students the control group. The primary outcome measures were students’ overall grading of the course (school grades, 1–6) as well as ratings of knowledge and skills provided by the students themselves and their lecturers on a numerical rating scale (0–10). Comparison between groups was performed using frequentist and Bayesian t-statistics. Results The teaching format without patient contact received a significantly poorer overall grade by the students ( p  = 0.018). However, improvements in the students’ self-ratings of knowledge and skills did not differ between the two formats (all p  > 0.05, BF 10max  = 0.42). Moreover, especially practical skills were even rated significantly better in the group without patient contact by the lecturers ( p  < 0.001). Conclusions Teaching formats without patient contact are less well-received by the students. However, they are able to teach practical skills regarding the performance and clinical interpretation of examination techniques. Still, the evaluations obtained might not adequately capture the importance of bedside teaching in preparing future physicians for their practice. Perspectively, hybrid teaching approaches including flipped-classroom concepts hold considerable potential to enhance effectiveness of bedside teaching in the present pandemic situation and in the future.

When sports are part of a person's profession or education, their careers are often handicapped by pain, a complex physical and mental state that may already occur at lower career stages. This study was designed to assess the occurrence of pain among sports students and the prevalence of relevant contributing psychosocial co-factors. Exploratory cross-sectional study surveying students at 89 sports faculties of universities in the DACH region using the German Sports Pain Questionnaire. It includes several validated surveys related to pain occurrence in different body regions, injuries, pain diagnoses and pain intensity, depression, anxiety, stress, self-compassion, analgesic and alcohol consumption, as well as sleep quality, health-related quality of life and impairments of quality of life by pain. A total of 865 sports students gave consent to participate in the study, and 664 participants (78%; 23.3 ± 2.84 years, 60% female, 40% male) completed the full survey. More than half of the students (53%; n = 403) showed current pain in 2-5 regions of the body, while subjective pain tolerance was enhanced. General injuries or accidents, medically and self-diagnosed pain diagnoses during the last eight weeks were reported by 30%. A current pain intensity ≥ 3 NRS was prevalent in 28% (n = 205), which correlated with increased pain-related biopsychosocial scores. Sports students had increased scores for depression, anxiety and stress, and self-compassion was reduced (compared to age-controlled national reference data, sports students head increased scores). The mean weekly training workload was 5-7 hours. Analgesics and alcohol consumption was increased, 61% reported insomnia. Across sports students, pain and biopsychosocial burden seem significantly increased when compared to other students and age-controlled cohorts. The data implies the need of giving greater importance to pain management at least from the time of sports studies in order to prevent pain and health risks in sports.

Societal Impact Statement It is critical that people understand the importance of plants to all life on Earth, and this must be taught in an understandable and engaging way at an early age. Plant reproduction provides useful real‐life examples for teaching students about the biology of plants. However, what do students actually know about this process? We asked students to complete one of three writing tasks to ascertain their understanding of plant reproduction. Their responses provide useful insight into their conceptions of plant reproduction. Ultimately, better knowledge of students' conceptions of topics like plant reproduction can provide educators with important insights to help guide and improve teaching of plant biology in schools. Summary Teaching botany is a challenge due to the phenomenon of “plant blindness” and students' general lack of interest in plants. The reproduction of flowering plants can serve as a useful topic for teaching botany by providing a real‐life context to aid learning. However, research has shown that students have difficulties in understanding how the stages of plant reproduction are connected. This study aims to examine students' conceptions of the processes of plant reproduction. Students' conceptions were analyzed in a multi‐method approach. A total of 724 students from fifth to 12th grade (aged 10–18 years) were assessed using three different types of writing and drawing tasks. Students' conceptions were analyzed in a qualitative content analysis. Results show that students struggle to differentiate between pollination and seed dispersal. Moreover, students have better knowledge about the function of seeds than about the function of pollen. Students are most familiar with seed dispersal by wind and pollination by bees. Better knowledge of students' conceptions can greatly aid teaching. Students' awareness of the function of seeds can be used as a starting point for teaching plant reproduction. The writing and drawing tasks of the study can be used in class to assess students' conceptions in an easy way to make conceptions and their development visible to both students and teachers. Knowledge about students' conceptions of plant reproduction can serve as a basis for deeper understanding and improve how plant biology is taught in schools. It is critical that people understand the importance of plants to all life on Earth, and this must be taught in an understandable and engaging way at an early age. Plant reproduction provides useful real‐life examples for teaching students about the biology of plants. However, what do students actually know about this process? We asked students to complete one of three writing tasks to ascertain their understanding of plant reproduction. Their responses provide useful insight into their conceptions of plant reproduction. Ultimately, better knowledge of students' conceptions of topics like plant reproduction can provide educators with important insights to help guide and improve teaching of plant biology in schools.

Background: Although the number of older patients is increasing in almost all medical specialties, the interest of medical students in geriatrics as a career is still low. Because quality of medical education and educators strongly influences student career decisions, it is important to develop curricula that motivate students to become self-directed, lifelong learners in the field of geriatric medicine. Objectives: We evaluated training aspects in terms of time, core content of teaching goals, and quality of undergraduate geriatric education in medical schools in Austria and Germany. Methods: A standardized paper questionnaire was sent to all 36 German and 4 Austrian medical faculties to evaluate quantitative aspects, content, and quality of pregraduate medical education in geriatrics. Results were compared to the recommendations of the Geriatric Medicine Section of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS). Results: A total of 33/36 (92 of the German medical faculties) and 4/4 (100 of the Austrian medical faculties) responded to the questionnaire. In most of the faculties, geriatric medicine was taught as an independent discipline in the core curriculum, with learning objectives absent in almost one third of the faculties. A medical student's first contact with geriatric medicine occurred on average during the second clinical year (median 8th semester). Although the content of geriatric curricula strongly varied among the faculties, core knowledge as recommended by the UEMS was integrated into most of the curricula. Teaching strategies regarding the development of attitudes and skills also recommended by the UEMS were identified in the curriculum of only some faculties. Conclusions: Geriatrics seems to be an established subject in most German and Austrian faculties. However, the current data clearly indicate highly variable quality in geriatric pregraduate training at German and Austrian universities. Because curricula should prepare young people using competence-based training and assessment methods, room for improvement remains not only in terms of structure, but also regarding quality of training to develop self-directed lifelong learners.

It is well-accepted that the jaw plays an active role in influencing vowel height. The general aim of the current study is to further investigate the extent to which the jaw is active in producing consonantal distinctions, with specific focus on coronal consonants. Therefore, tongue tip and jaw positions are compared for the German coronal consonants /s, , t, d, n, l/, that is, consonants having the same active articulators (apical/laminal) but differing in manner of articulation. In order to test the stability of articulatory positions for each of these coronal consonants, a natural perturbation paradigm was introduced by recording two levels of vocal effort: comfortable, and loud without shouting. Tongue and jaw movements of five speakers of German were recorded by means of EMMA during /aCa/ sequences. By analyzing the tongue tip and jaw positions and their spatial variability we found that (1) the jaw's contribution to these consonants varies with manner of articulation, and (2) for all coronal consonants the positions are stable across loudness conditions except for those of the nasal. Results are discussed with respect to the tasks of the jaw, and the possible articulatory adjustments that may accompany louder speech.