Journal of general internal medicine
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Assessing patient-centered care: one approach to health disparities education.
Patient-centered care has been described as one approach to cultural competency education that could reduce racial and ethnic health disparities by preparing providers to deliver care that is respectful and responsive to the preferences of each patient. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of a curriculum in teaching patient-centered care (PCC) behaviors to medical students, we drew on the work of Kleinman, Eisenberg, and Good to develop a scale that could be embedded across cases in an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). ⋯ The insertion of PCC items across multiple cases in a comprehensive OSCE can provide a reliable estimate of students' use of PCC behaviors without incurring extra costs associated with implementing a special cross-cultural OSCE. This approach is particularly feasible when an OSCE is already part of the standard assessment of clinical skills. Reliability may be increased with an additional investment in SP training.
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Comparative Study
Medical students' perceptions of their teachers' and their own cultural competency: implications for education.
Enhancing the cultural competency of students is emerging as a key issue in medical education; however, students may perceive that they are more able to function within cross-cultural situations than their teachers, reducing the effectiveness of cultural competency educational efforts. ⋯ Our results indicate that students perceive the cultural competency of their attendings and residents to be the same or lower than themselves. These findings indicate that this is an important area for future research and curricular reform, considering the vital role that attendings and residents play in the education of medical students.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Cardiac procedures among American Indians and Alaska Natives compared to non-Hispanic whites hospitalized with ischemic heart disease in California.
American Indians/Alaska Natives (AIAN) experience a high burden of cardiovascular disease with rates for fatal and nonfatal heart disease approximately twofold higher than the U.S. population. ⋯ AIAN were not less likely to receive cardiac procedures as non-Hispanic whites during hospitalizations for ischemic heart disease. Additional research is needed to determine whether differences in specialty referral patterns, patients' treatment preferences, or outpatient management may explain some of the health disparities due to cardiovascular disease that is found among AIAN.
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Comparative Study
Improving underrepresented minority medical student recruitment with health disparities curriculum.
Diversity improves all students' academic experiences and their abilities to work with patients from differing backgrounds. Little is known about what makes minority students select one medical school over another. ⋯ The required health disparities course may have contributed to the increased enrollment of URM students at PSOM in 2007 and 2008.
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In caring exclusively for inpatients, hospitalists are expected to perform hospital procedures. The type and frequency of procedures they perform are not well characterized. ⋯ Hospitalists perform inpatient procedures more often and at higher volumes than non-hospitalists. Yet many do not perform procedures that are designated as hospitalist "core competencies."