Medical education
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From July 1997, the General Medical Council (GMC) has had the power to investigate doctors whose performance is considered to be seriously deficient. Assessment procedures have been developed for all medical specialties to include peer review of performance in practice and tests of competence. Peer review is conducted by teams of at least two medical assessors and one lay assessor. ⋯ High fidelity is achieved through the use of actors who simulate third party interviewees and trained doctors who role play the assessee. A subgroup of assessors, selected to lead the assessment teams, undergo training in handling group dynamics, report writing and in defending the assessment report against legal challenge. Debriefing of assessors following real assessments has been strongly positive with regard to their preparedness and confidence in undertaking the assessment.
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This article examines literature on interdisciplinary education and teamwork in health care, to discover the major issues and best practices. ⋯ Much of the literature pertained to programme evaluations of academic activities, and did not compare interdisciplinary education with traditional methods. Many questions about when to educate, who to educate and how to educate remain unanswered and open to future research.
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The purpose of this study was to gather additional evidence for the validity and reliability of spoken English proficiency ratings provided by trained standardized patients (SPs) in high-stakes clinical skills examination. ⋯ The pattern of the relationships, both within assessment components and with external criterion measures, suggests that valid measures of spoken English proficiency are obtained. This result, combined with the high reproducibility of the ratings over encounters and SPs, supports the use of trained SPs to measure spoken English skills in a simulated medical environment.
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To examine young doctors' views on a number of professional issues including professional regulation, multidisciplinary teamwork, priority setting, clinical autonomy and private practice. ⋯ The results highlight the heterogeneity of the profession and the influence of specialty and gender on professional values. Doctors' attitudes had also been shaped by broader social changes, especially debates surrounding regulation of the profession, rising public expectations and the need for rationing of NHS care.