Articles: professional-practice.
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Review Meta Analysis
The effectiveness of self-directed learning in health professions education: a systematic review.
Given the continuous advances in the biomedical sciences, health care professionals need to develop the skills necessary for life-long learning. Self-directed learning (SDL) is suggested as the methodology of choice in this context. The purpose of this systematic review is to determine the effectiveness of SDL in improving learning outcomes in health professionals. ⋯ Moderate quality evidence suggests that SDL in health professions education is associated with moderate improvement in the knowledge domain compared with traditional teaching methods and may be as effective in the skills and attitudes domains.
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Self-assessment is an important skill necessary for continued development of a health care professional from student pharmacist throughout their professional career. This paper reviews the literature on student and practitioner self-assessment and whether this skill can be improved upon. ⋯ Experts' external assessment of students should remain the primary method of testing skills and knowledge until self-assessment strategies improve. While self-assessment is important to lifelong learning, external assessment is also important for practitioners' continuing professional development.
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The current article surveys an assortment of legal issues identified by the editors that relate to the malpractice sphere. However, this represents only a small part of the total legal medicine picture. The interaction of law and medical care in the United States today encompasses a broad array of specific points of contact between physicians' professional activities and various public bodies and private entities. Several articles by other authors will appear in subsequent issues of CHEST and flesh out much more comprehensively both the topics outlined briefly here and other legal questions that concern contemporary members of the medical profession.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Mar 2010
Review Meta AnalysisInterventions to change the behaviour of health professionals and the organisation of care to promote weight reduction in overweight and obese people.
The prevalence of obesity is increasing globally and will, if left unchecked, have major implications for both population health and costs to health services. ⋯ Most of the included trials had methodological or reporting weaknesses and were heterogeneous in terms of participants, interventions, outcomes, and settings, so we cannot draw any firm conclusions about the effectiveness of the interventions. All of the evaluated interventions would need further investigation before it was possible to recommend them as effective strategies.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Mar 2010
Review Meta AnalysisTailored interventions to overcome identified barriers to change: effects on professional practice and health care outcomes.
In the previous version of this review, the effectiveness of interventions tailored to barriers to change was found to be uncertain. ⋯ Interventions tailored to prospectively identified barriers are more likely to improve professional practice than no intervention or dissemination of guidelines. However, the methods used to identify barriers and tailor interventions to address them need further development. Research is required to determine the effectiveness of tailored interventions in comparison with other interventions.