Medical teacher
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This study examined how an interactive seminar focusing on two medically unexplained illnesses, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia, influenced medical student attitudes toward CFS, a more strongly stigmatized illness. ⋯ This type of instruction may lead to potentially more receptive professional attitudes toward providing care to these underserved patients.
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Effective patient-provider communication is crucial to achieving good health care outcomes. To accomplish this with patients of limited English proficiency, learning to work effectively with interpreters is essential. ⋯ Our findings highlight the feasibility and usefulness of training students to work effectively with interpreters. Evaluation and feedback from students and faculty have been positive. Cost for this curriculum enhancement was reasonable, making it feasible to introduce the training into a wide variety of medical and allied health programs.
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The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine was designed to encourage medical students to pursue careers as physician investigators. Our faculty decided that assessment should enhance learning and adopted only formative assessments to document student performance in relation to nine broad-based competencies. No grades are used to judge student performance throughout the 5-year program. Instead, assessments are competency-based, relate directly to performance standards, and are stored in e-Portfolios to track progress and document student achievement. The class size is limited to 32 students a year. ⋯ Using assessment data for formative purposes may encourage application and integration of knowledge, help students identify performance gaps, foster student development of learning plans and promote student responsibility for learning. Discussion provides applications for institutions with larger classes to consider.
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Disaster and bioterrorism preparedness is poorly integrated into the curricula of internal medicine residency programs. Given that victims may present to a variety of healthcare venues, including primary care practices, inpatient hospital wards, and intensive care units, we developed a curriculum to address this need. ⋯ In this pilot study, a disaster-preparedness curriculum including simulation-based training had a positive effect on residents' knowledge base and ability to respond to disaster. However, this effect had diminished after one year, indicating the need for reinforcement at regular intervals.
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In response to a change in health and societal need, the system of medical education in Japan has undergone major reform within the last two decades. Although the general health status of Japanese citizens ranks amongst the highest in the world, a rapidly increasingly elderly population, a social insurance system in crisis and a decrease in the number of practicing physicians is severely affecting this enviable position. ⋯ In order to produce a new breed of future doctors, Japanese medical education has undergone major reform: problem-based learning and clinical skills development has been instituted in most medical schools, more rigid assessment methods, ensuring competency and fitness to practice have been introduced, and there has been an increase in purposeful clinical attachments with a hands-on approach rather than a traditional observation model. A new postgraduate residency programme, introduced in 2004, hopes to improve general competency levels, while medical schools throughout the country are paying attention to modern medical education and faculty development.