BMC medical education
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BMC medical education · Jan 2005
Design and validation of the Health Professionals' Attitudes Toward the Homeless Inventory (HPATHI).
Recent literature has called for humanistic care of patients and for medical schools to begin incorporating humanism into medical education. To assess the attitudes of health-care professionals toward homeless patients and to demonstrate how those attitudes might impact optimal care, we developed and validated a new survey instrument, the Health Professional Attitudes Toward the Homeless Inventory (HPATHI). An instrument that measures providers' attitudes toward the homeless could offer meaningful information for the design and implementation of educational activities that foster more compassionate homeless health care. Our intention was to describe the process of designing and validating the new instrument and to discuss the usefulness of the instrument for assessing the impact of educational experiences that involve working directly with the homeless on the attitudes, interest, and confidence of medical students and other health-care professionals. ⋯ The HPATHI demonstrated strong reliability for the total scale and satisfactory test-retest reliability. Extreme group comparisons suggested that experience with the homeless rather than medical training itself could affect health-care professionals' attitudes toward the homeless. This could have implications for the evaluation of medical school curricula.
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BMC medical education · Jan 2005
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyCardiac auscultation training of medical students: a comparison of electronic sensor-based and acoustic stethoscopes.
To determine whether the use of an electronic, sensor based stethoscope affects the cardiac auscultation skills of undergraduate medical students. ⋯ Whether an electronic or a conventional stethoscope was used during training and testing did not affect the students' performance on a cardiac auscultation test.
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This study was designed to assess the motivations of senior medical clinicians to teach medical students. This understanding could improve the recruitment and retention of important clinical teachers. ⋯ This study provides some insights into factors that may be utilised in the design of teaching programs that meet teacher motivations and ultimately enhance the effectiveness of the medical teaching workforce.
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BMC medical education · Jan 2005
Well-being in residency training: a survey examining resident physician satisfaction both within and outside of residency training and mental health in Alberta.
Despite the critical importance of well-being during residency training, only a few Canadian studies have examined stress in residency and none have examined well-being resources. No recent studies have reported any significant concerns with respect to perceived stress levels in residency. We investigated the level of perceived stress, mental health and understanding and need for well-being resources among resident physicians in training programs in Alberta, Canada. ⋯ Many Albertan residents experience significant stressors and emotional and mental health problems. Some of which differ among genders. This study can serve as a basis for future resource application, research and advocacy for overall improvements to well-being during residency training.
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BMC medical education · Jan 2005
Developing essential professional skills: a framework for teaching and learning about feedback.
The ability to give and receive feedback effectively is a key skill for doctors, aids learning between all levels of the medical hierarchy, and provides a basis for reflective practice and life-long learning. How best to teach this skill? ⋯ We conclude by asking whether it is possible to build a consensus approach to a framework for teaching and learning feedback skills?