IntroductionOutcomes of carotid surgery are commonly evaluated using clinical parameters such as mortality and stroke, and these are mostly based on doctors' and scientific perspectives. Patient-centered health care aims to value the evaluation from the patients' perspective, mostly using Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs). The aim of this study was to gain insights into outcomes that patients undergoing carotid surgery consider important (PROs) and to verify these outcomes by patients themselves.Methods and OutcomesThese protocol-based, exploratory semi-structured, focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted in a single-center teaching hospital. Included patients were symptomatic and underwent an eversion technique between June 2024 and March 2025. FGDs were conducted, 3-12 weeks after surgery, by a medical psychologist. Patients completed the Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire-9 (SDM-Q-9) and the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) preoperatively; the SF-36 was repeated three months after surgery. The physician who informed the patient about treatment options completed the corresponding SDM-Q-9 for clinicians.ResultsA total of 24 patients were enrolled across five FGDs, of whom two withdrew consent. The consecutive sample (n = 22) included 4 women and 18 men (mean age of 77.7 years (SD ± 6.5)). Patients reported trusting their healthcare providers but expressed a desire for more information regarding hospital stay, prescribed medication, and overall recovery. Regarding health status, physical function showed a statistically significant difference (p = .04,95%CI0.55-29.86) between preoperative mean score (80.1) and postoperative (66.2). We found no differences (p = .45) between the mean scores of the patients and doctors regarding the ranking in SDM-Q-9.ConclusionThis study showed that FGDs helped to better understand the patients' perspective and experience regarding outcomes in the carotid surgery care-chain. The findings of the FGDs are highly valuable for optimizing local care pathways and patient information materials, while identifying new domains (such as fatigue) for future multicenter validation.

Lack of self-confidence in clinical teaching roles may discourage potential nurse faculty. Academic-clinical partners studied practicing nurses' responses to an intervention regarding teaching confidence and intent. Researchers used a one-group nonrandom pretest/posttest design with two subscales of the Clinical Nurse Educator Skill Acquisition Assessment tool and open-ended questions. Confidence increased with self-rated d = -1.08 (95% confidence interval [CI], -1.60, 0.54), and CNESSA at d = -1.47 (95% CI, -2.07, -0.85) and d = -2.01 (95% CI, -2.74, -1.27), respectively. Several participants intended to pursue teaching. A multicomponent educational intervention may help reduce the nurse educator shortage, warranting future research.

Diagnostic reasoning is fundamental to safe clinical practice, yet it is often taught through unstructured case discussions that provide limited support for the development of diagnostic expertise. Deliberate reflection is a structured educational strategy supported by more than 15 years of experimental research demonstrating its effectiveness in improving diagnostic reasoning by promoting the refinement of illness scripts, reducing cognitive biases, and supporting learning. However, despite this growing body of evidence, educators still lack concise, evidence informed guidance on how to implement deliberate reflection across different educational contexts. Drawing on the accumulated experimental evidence and recent advances in clinical reasoning education, this article provides twelve practical tips to support the implementation of deliberate reflection. Organised around key implementation decisions, including selecting appropriate learners, choosing reflection formats, matching case complexity to learner expertise, calibrating instructional guidance, promoting transfer, integrating deliberate reflection throughout the curriculum, and preserving its core cognitive principles, these recommendations translate current evidence into a practical guidance.

The CDC John R. Lewis Undergraduate Public Health Scholars Program is a multi-institutional pathway initiative designed to prepare undergraduate and recently graduated students for future education and careers in public health through integrated didactic and experiential learning. Although program models vary by site in modality, duration, and curricular emphasis, all seven partner institutions include 4 pillar components: didactic instruction, experiential learning, research development and dissemination, and professional development. Since its launch in 2012, the program has expanded from four to seven sites and has served an estimated 2671 scholars. Across sites, scholars have contributed substantial public health practice hours through experiential learning placements in more than 240 governmental, academic, Tribal, health care, and community-based organizations. These findings illustrate how diverse implementation models can support a shared framework for undergraduate public health training and inform future pathway program design, adaptation, and scale.

The peer-reviewed literature is the foundation of science and science education. Peer-reviewed journal articles are often assigned as readings or used as references in undergraduate science courses. However, students cannot participate in journal peer review and are rarely taught how to write peer review reports, an authentic form of scientific communication and an important part of the job of a scientist. As such, authentic peer review represents part of STEM's hidden curriculum. Here, we present a modular, project-based curriculum on how to peer review a manuscript and write a balanced peer review report. Students work through outside-of-class, scaffolded assignments that can be clustered within weeks or distributed throughout the semester. These activities embed into disciplinary courses, complementing, not replacing, existing course material, to deepen content understanding and develop communication skills. The curriculum uses preprints: free, online, scientific manuscripts that have not yet undergone peer review. Preprint peer review does not have barriers to access like journal peer review, allowing students and educators to participate. Students are taught how to find preprints of interest and write peer review reports, which can be published online, creating scholarly products with citable digital object identifiers (DOIs). Field testing at six sites demonstrated that the curriculum is highly adaptable across diverse institutional settings, student populations, and course levels. By learning the mechanisms of peer review and authentically participating in it, students in the curriculum have the opportunity to develop scientific literacy, a sense of identity as a scientist, and belonging in the scientific community.

While numerous materials focus on the formal training of biology undergraduate students in laboratory courses, such as in course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), relatively few protocols are available to guide principal investigators and research mentors in one-on-one training of undergraduate student scientists in independent apprentice-style research projects in academic laboratory settings. This often leaves research mentors with the responsibility of developing and implementing curricula, resulting in considerable time investment and potentially unfavorable training outcomes. Here, we have developed an easy-to-follow manual to train undergraduate students who have some course-based knowledge but minimal research experience on the use of the yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) method of assessing protein-protein interactions. As a learning vehicle, the Y2H method teaches students many basic microbiology and molecular biology skills that are relevant to almost any molecular biology experiment. The Y2H method provides a visual readout (yeast growth) that is intuitive and easy to interpret, making it of special appeal to undergraduate researchers. In our experience using this manual to instruct undergraduate researchers, we have successfully and repeatedly trained undergraduate students with varying initial proficiencies and research sophistication in the Y2H technique. Moreover, we have found that this protocol improves understanding of multiple underlying complex biological concepts, as assessed through student answers to the evaluation questions we provide, and their formal end-of-semester written and oral reports.

As cell and gene therapies (CGTs) advance through clinical trials into clinical practice, it becomes increasingly important for genetic counselors (GCs) to understand these therapeutics to discuss them with patients. Despite the apparent need for GCs to obtain CGT-related education, little is known about the training GCs receive on CGT topics in their graduate training. To address this, we performed a cross-sectional quantitative survey of North American genetic counseling training programs. The survey inquired about the extent of training on CGT-related topics as well as barriers and facilitators that influence such training. Leadership from 45 of 65 (69.2%) genetic counseling programs completed the survey. Most currently provide some form of CGT training, although for more than half of the programs, it is relatively new content added to their curriculum within the past 5 years. Most programs provide training on all subtopics explored; however, the teaching methodology used and the number of exposures in each program varied. The most frequent barrier to adding training was lack of time in students' schedules (28.9%) and the most frequent facilitator was access to professionals in the CGT field (53.3%). Despite the consensus that CGT education is important, this study found that many factors influence the robustness of a program's training on these topics, including a lack of consistency in educational content and training modalities among graduate programs. These results and those of previous studies suggest that a centralized resource available to GC students and program leadership could increase access to information about CGT and improve education in this area.

ObjectivePost-traumatic neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome remains an underreported condition, particularly in high-trauma and resource-limited settings. This study aimed to characterize the clinical presentation of post-traumatic neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome and evaluate functional outcomes, recurrence, and factors associated with outcomes following surgical decompression.MethodsThis retrospective cohort study included 400 consecutive patients with post-traumatic neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome who underwent supraclavicular thoracic outlet decompression between 2007 and 2024. Patients with arterial or venous thoracic outlet syndrome were excluded. All patients underwent first-rib resection with anterior and middle scalenectomy and excision of associated anomalous osseous structures when present. Functional outcomes were assessed using the disabilities of the arm, shoulder, and hand score. Recurrence-free survival was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier analysis, and multivariable regression was used to identify factors associated with recurrence and functional improvement. The follow-up duration ranged from 24 to 60 months.ResultsThe mean participant age was 36.1 ± 9.5 years, and 255 patients (63.7%) were women. Falls from height (27.3%), physical assault (26.0%), pedestrian injury (24.8%), and road traffic accidents (22.0%) were the principal trauma mechanisms. Cervical ribs were present in 37.0% and elongated transverse processes in 30.8% of the study participants. The mean disabilities of the arm, shoulder, and hand score decreased from 54.8 ± 9.0 preoperatively to 9.8 ± 6.0 postoperatively (p < 0.001). During follow-up, 120 patients (30.0%) developed recurrence. Cervical rib was associated with increased recurrence (odds ratio: 1.50, 95% confidence interval: 1.05-2.10; p = 0.02) and less functional improvement (β = -2.1; p = 0.04). Pneumothorax requiring chest-tube drainage occurred in 2.0%; no major neural or vascular injuries or perioperative deaths were recorded.ConclusionsIn this retrospective cohort, supraclavicular decompression was associated with substantial functional improvement in selected patients with persistent post-traumatic neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome. Cervical rib may be associated with recurrence and less favorable functional recovery. Prospective multicenter studies are warranted to confirm these findings.