Morgan Jacqueline
University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
BMC Med Educ. 2025 Jan 4;25(1):20. doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-06392-0.
Free Open Access Medical Education (FOAMed) is an emergent phenomenon within medical education. The rise of FOAMed resources has meant that medical education needs no longer be confined to the lecture theatre or the hospital setting, but rather, can be produced and shared amongst any individual or group with access to internet and a suitable device. This study presents a review of the use of FOAMed resources by students as part of their university medical education.
A literature search of terms relevant to the topic of FOAMed use by medical students was completed and reviewed. The included results were subsequently analysed and categorised through qualitative analysis.
The increasingly digital cohort of medical students, fitting into the Gen Z and millennial generations, are generations that have taken strongly to FOAMed resources (Toohey et al., Western J Emerg Med 337-343, 2016, Shorey et al., Nurse Educ Pract 57:103247, 2021), with many of their learning styles being applicable to the methods of study that students were faced with in the online-heavy medical curriculums due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Marshall and Wolanskyj-Spinner, Mayo Clinc Proceedings 95:1135-7, 2020). However, despite the increasing use of FOAMed resources by these students, observed university study recommendations fail to recommend or integrate these resources into the curriculum. This review presents an exploration of the use of FOAMed resources by students as part of their university medical education.
This literature review found that students are increasingly utilising FOAMed as an integral part of their medical education, demonstrating self-determined learning. However, most of the literature on this topic is of the descriptive type, with little literature available on how universities are incorporating this form of student learning into the formal curriculum.
免费开放获取医学教育（FOAMed）是医学教育领域中一种新兴现象。FOAMed资源的兴起意味着医学教育不再局限于讲堂或医院环境，而是可以由任何能够访问互联网并拥有合适设备的个人或团体来制作和分享。本研究对医学生在大学医学教育中使用FOAMed资源的情况进行了综述。
完成并回顾了对与医学生使用FOAMed主题相关术语的文献检索。随后，通过定性分析对纳入的结果进行了分析和分类。
越来越多的数字时代医学生，属于Z世代和千禧一代，他们非常热衷于FOAMed资源（Toohey等人，《西方急诊医学杂志》337 - 343页，2016年；Shorey等人，《护士教育实践》57:103247，2021年），他们的许多学习方式适用于因新冠疫情而线上课程占比很大的医学课程中，学生所面临的学习方法（Marshall和Wolanskyj - Spinner，《梅奥诊所学报》95:1135 - 1137页，2020年）。然而，尽管这些学生对FOAMed资源的使用日益增加，但观察到的大学学习建议并未推荐或将这些资源整合到课程中。本综述探讨了医学生在大学医学教育中使用FOAMed资源的情况。
这篇文献综述发现，学生越来越多地将FOAMed作为医学教育的一个组成部分，展示了自主学习。然而，关于这个主题的大多数文献属于描述性类型，关于大学如何将这种学生学习形式纳入正式课程的文献很少。
