UCSF Med Ed Scholarship

MedEdPORTAL Featured Pub: Standardized Patient Cases to Measure Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment Skills, Wamsley et al

2011-10-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

Wamsley M, Treit K, Satterfield J, Levitt D, McCance-Katz E, Moreno-John G, et al. Three Standardized Patient Cases to Measure Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Skills in Primary Care Residents . MedEdPORTAL; 2011.
Available from: www.mededportal.org/publication/9005
Three twenty-minute standardized patient encounters that are designed for internal medicine or family medicine residents to assess SBIRT skills and to determine individual areas for improvement. Standardized patient cases include the following:

* 35 year-old man with risky alcohol use and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, contemplative stage.
* 39 year-old woman with low back pain and opiate misuse, precontemplative stage.
* 63 year-old woman with depression and alcohol use disorder, preparation stage.

Each case is written to represent a twenty-minute clinic visit and focuses on substance use history taking, assessment and development of a clear treatment plan. There are no physical exams included in these cases, but if desired the cases could be modified to assess relevant physical examination skills. After each SP case, residents have a ten-minute exercise to assess specific knowledge and skills including: encounter documentation, assessment of stages of change, approach to older patients with substance use, approach to non-English speaking patients with substance use and developing pain contracts with patients.

Submission contains standardized patient training materials and post-case exercises for 3 cases. In addition, there are scoring rubrics for the post-case exercises and for the overall cases. Finally, there is a guide to debriefing the exercise with the residents and a resident evaluation of the exercise.

MedEdPORTAL featured publication - Reflective Ability Rubric and User Guide by Patricia O'Sullivan et al.

2010-09-27T17:03:00.000-07:00

Reflective Ability Rubric and User Guide by Patricia O'Sullivan, EdD, Louise Aronson, MD, MFA, Eva Chittenden, MD, Brian Niehaus, MD, Lee Learman, MD, PhD.
This report contains a rubric for scoring reflective ability and a user guide providing development and psychometric details along with materials to be used in rater training.

See resource on MedEdPORTAL

Advancing geriatrics education: An efficient faculty development program for academic hospitalists increases geriatric teaching, by L. Mazotti et al.

2010-08-19T13:31:00.001-07:00

J Hosp Med. 2010 Aug 17. [Epub ahead of print]

Advancing geriatrics education: An efficient faculty development program for academic hospitalists increases geriatric teaching.

Mazotti L, Moylan A, Murphy E, Harper GM, Johnston CB, Hauer KE.

Department of Medicine, Division of Hospital Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Hospitalists care for an increasing number of older patients. As teachers, they are uniquely positioned to teach geriatric skills to residents. Faculty development programs focused on geriatrics teaching skills are often expensive and time-intensive, and may not enhance trainee learning.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate a train-the-trainer (TTT) model designed to equip hospitalists with knowledge and skills to teach geriatric topics to residents in a time-constrained, resource-limited environment.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey.

SETTING: Academic tertiary hospital.

INTERVENTION: A 10-hour geriatric curriculum, the Reynolds Program for Advancing Geriatrics Education (PAGE), cotaught by geriatricians and hospitalists at preexisting noon conferences over 1 year that consisted of exportable teaching modules.

MEASUREMENTS: Session leaders' and faculty participants' satisfaction, hospitalist geriatrics teaching self-efficacy, residents' self-report of frequency of geriatric teaching received, and frequency of geriatric skill use.

RESULTS: The curriculum was highly rated by session leaders and hospitalist faculty. Hospitalists perceived improvement in geriatric teaching skills, indicating (1: "unlikely" to 5: "highly likely") that they are likely to use these teaching tools in the future (M = 4.61, standard deviation [SD] = 0.53). Residents reported both significantly more geriatrics teaching by hospitalists (P < p ="">

CONCLUSIONS: A time-efficient geriatric faculty development program for hospitalists suggests improvement in the amount and quality of geriatrics teaching and skill practice among faculty and residents at an academic medical center. Concise faculty development programs within preexisting faculty meetings may be a feasible, successful method to increase geriatric skill development in the hospital setting. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2010; (c) 2010 Society of Hospital Medicine.

PMID: 20717891 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

MedEdPORTAL featured publication - Workshop in a Box by Fulton, Burke, Hyland and Kruidering

2010-06-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

Workshop in a Box: Visual Demonstration of Small Group Facilitation Techniques for Faculty Development

This resource is designed for educators who conduct faculty development for small group facilitators. Included in this "workshop in a box" is a DVD with two scripted, character-based dramatizations of small group encounters; an instructors' guide; and structured written workshop materials. The written materials provide guidance and structure for running a small group facilitator training workshop using the DVD. Video clips on the DVD depict a group of learners engaged in a case discussion with one of two facilitators who have contrasting teaching styles. See workshop on MedEdPORTAL.

Innovations in Medical Education: Really Good Stuff

2010-04-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

Recently published in "Really Good Stuff" from Medical Education:

Near-Peer Workshops for Pre-Clerkship Physical Examination Skills.
Judy E Kim, Adam D Schickedanz & Calvin L Chou.

Near-peer instruction, in which a more advanced trainee teaches a junior trainee, can be useful for teaching skills that progress along a continuum of proficiency, require stage-tailored feedback, and benefit from shared perspectives between instructors and learners. This common frame of reference, termed ‘social congruence’, is thought to enhance learners’ comprehension and...

Read more at:
MEDICAL EDUCATION 2010; 44: 499–500
Article

Academic Doctors: Select but Prepare. Patricia S. O’Sullivan, EdD

2010-04-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

Recently published commentary in Medical Education:

Academic Doctors: Select but Prepare.
Patricia S. O’Sullivan, EdD

For those of us in medical education, preparing future faculty members is a major concern and we have attempted to understand the process by which we do this.1 In this issue, Cavalcanti and Detsky2 report on a study of the relationship between the number of publications that a resident has upon entering a residency and his or her subsequent clinical performance. They found little association, but the authors had hoped that publishing history would be a good indicator for a promising career in academic medicine in that it might reflect scholarship and good clinical skills. This study generated a number of questions about what publications might actually be proxy for and, in so doing, highlighted the issue of selecting versus developing future academic doctors. Addressing this dilemma requires the answering of three questions: What is an academic doctor? Can we select for this person? What should we be doing to prepare residents who are interested in becoming academic doctors?

Read more at:

MEDICAL EDUCATION 2010; 44: 438–439
Article

An innovative program to train health sciences researchers to be effective clinical and translational research mentors. Mitchell D. Feldman, et al.

2010-03-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

Johnson, M O, Subak, L, Brown, J S, Lee, K A, Feldman, M D. (2010). An innovative program to train health sciences researchers to be effective clinical and translational research mentors. Academic medicine, 85(3), 484-9.

The creation of the Clinical Translational Science Awards for academic health sciences campuses in 2006 was implicitly accompanied by a call for a new paradigm of faculty development and mentoring to train the next generation of researchers and leaders in this new approach to research. Effective mentoring is critical to help early-career investigators become successful, independent researchers, and a new approach to mentoring is vital to recruit, advance, and retain fellows and junior faculty engaged in clinical and translational research. However, in addition to the many rewards of mentoring, there are numerous substantive barriers to effective mentoring. These barriers include a lack of training in how to be a mentor, lack of time and structural and financial support for mentoring, and competing personal, administrative, and clinical demands. The authors describe an innovative program, the University of California, San Francisco Mentor Development Program (MDP), established in 2006 and designed to train midcareer academic health sciences researchers to be more effective as clinical and translational research mentors. Using a framework for presenting innovations in academic research, they present the rationale, design, implementation, and mechanisms being used to evaluate and sustain the MDP. Specific details of the objectives and content of the MDP sessions are provided as well as evaluation criteria and a link to specific curriculum materials.

Article

Perspective: Uses and misuses of thresholds in diagnostic decision making. Tierney, LM et al.

2010-03-23T10:51:00.000-07:00

Warner, J L, Najarian, R M, & Tierney, L M. (2010). Perspective: Uses and misuses of thresholds in diagnostic decision making. Academic medicine, 85(3), 556-63.

The concept of thresholds plays a vital role in decisions involving the initiation, continuation, and completion of diagnostic testing. Much research has focused on the development of explicit thresholds, in the form of practice guidelines and decision analyses. However, these tools are used infrequently; most medical decisions are made at the bedside, using implicit thresholds. Study of these thresholds can lead to a deeper understanding of clinical decision making. The authors examine some factors constituting individual clinicians' implicit thresholds. They propose a model for static thresholds using the concept of situational gravity to explain why some thresholds are high, and some low. Next, they consider the hypothetical effects of incorrect placement of thresholds (miscalibration) and changes to thresholds during diagnosis (manipulation). They demonstrate these concepts using common clinical scenarios. Through analysis of miscalibration of thresholds, the authors demonstrate some common maladaptive clinical behaviors, which are nevertheless internally consistent. They then explain how manipulation of thresholds gives rise to common cognitive heuristics including premature closure and anchoring. They also discuss the case where no threshold has been exceeded despite exhaustive collection of data, which commonly leads to application of the availability or representativeness heuristics. Awareness of implicit thresholds allows for a more effective understanding of the processes of medical decision making and, possibly, to the avoidance of detrimental heuristics and their associated medical errors. Research toward accurately defining these thresholds for individual physicians and toward determining their dynamic properties during the diagnostic process may yield valuable insights.

Article

Professional Formation: Extending Medicine's Lineage of Service Into the Next Century. Michael W. Rabow, MD, et al.

2010-02-12T14:07:00.000-08:00

Professional Formation: Extending Medicine's Lineage of Service Into the Next Century
Rabow MW, Remen RN, Parmelee DX, Inui TS.

In his 1910 report on medical education, Flexner emphasized the importance of competency in basic sciences. Less widely recognized is that he also emphasized the necessity of liberal education. On the Flexner Report's 100th anniversary, medicine is challenged to realize Flexner's full vision for medical education to ensure that physicians are prepared to lead lives of compassion and service as well as to perform with technical proficiency. To meet the complex medical and social challenges of the next century, medical educators must continue to promote cognitive expertise while concurrently supporting "professional formation"-the moral and professional development of students, their ability to stay true to their personal service values and the core values of the profession, and the integration of their individual maturation with growth in clinical competency. The goal of professional formation is to anchor students to foundational principles while helping them navigate the inevitable moral conflicts in medical practice. The consequences of inadequate support for professional formation are profound, impacting individual learners, patients, the profession, and society at large. Among the many successful professional formation projects nationally, two long-standing programs are described in modest detail to identify common elements that might guide future developments elsewhere. Key elements include experiential and reflective processes, use of personal narratives, integration of self and expertise, and candid discussion within a safe community of learners. Committing to professional formation within medical education will require transformation of formal and informal curricula and will necessitate a rebalancing of attention and financial support within schools of medicine.

View article here.

Calls for Reform of Medical Education by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: 1910 and 2010. David M. Irby, et al.

2010-02-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

Calls for Reform of Medical Education by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: 1910 and 2010
Irby, David M. PhD; Cooke, Molly MD; O'Brien, Bridget C. PhD

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which in 1910 helped stimulate the transformation of North American medical education with the publication of the Flexner Report, has a venerated place in the history of American medical education. Within a decade following Flexner's report, a strong scientifically oriented and rigorous form of medical education became well established; its structures and processes have changed relatively little since. However, the forces of change are again challenging medical education, and new calls for reform are emerging. In 2010, the Carnegie Foundation will issue another report, Educating Physicians: A Call for Reform of Medical School and Residency, that calls for (1) standardizing learning outcomes and individualizing the learning process, (2) promoting multiple forms of integration, (3) incorporating habits of inquiry and improvement, and (4) focusing on the progressive formation of the physician's professional identity. The authors, who wrote the 2010 Carnegie report, trace the seeds of these themes in Flexner's work and describe their own conceptions of them, addressing the prior and current challenges to medical education as well as recommendations for achieving excellence. The authors hope that the new report will generate the same excitement about educational innovation and reform of undergraduate and graduate medical education as the Flexner Report did a century ago.

View article here.

Utility of the AAMC's Graduation Questionnaire to Study Behavioral and Social Sciences Domains in Undergraduate Medical Education. Carrie Chen, et. al.

2010-01-10T05:34:00.000-08:00

Utility of the AAMC's Graduation Questionnaire to Study Behavioral and Social Sciences Domains in Undergraduate Medical Education. - Carney, Patricia A. PhD; Rdesinski, Rebecca; Blank, Arthur E. PhD; Graham, Mark PhD; Wimmers, Paul PhD; Chen, H Carrie MD; Thompson, Britta PhD; Jackson, Stacey A.; Foertsch, Julie PhD; Hollar, David PhD.

Purpose: The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on social and behavioral sciences (SBS) indicated that 50% of morbidity and mortality in the United States is associated with SBS factors, which the report also found were inadequately taught in medical school. A multischool collaborative explored whether the Association of American Medical Colleges Graduation Questionnaire (GQ) could be used to study changes in the six SBS domains identified in the IOM report.

Method: A content analysis conducted with the GQ identified 30 SBS variables, which were narrowed to 24 using a modified Delphi approach. Summary data were pooled from nine medical schools for 2006 and 2007, representing 1,126 students. Data were generated on students' perceptions of curricular experiences, attitudes related to SBS curricula, and confidence with relevant clinical knowledge and skills. The authors determined the sample sizes required for various effect sizes to assess the utility of the GQ.

Results: The 24 variables were classified into five of six IOM domains representing a total of nine analytic categories with cumulative scale means ranging from 60.8 to 93.4. Taking into account the correlations among measures over time, and assuming a two-sided test, 80% power, alpha at .05, and standard deviation of 4.1, the authors found that 34 medical schools would be required for inclusion to attain an estimated effect size of 0.50 (50%). With a sample size of nine schools, the ability to detect changes would require a very high effect size of 107%.

Conclusions: Detecting SBS changes associated with curricular innovations would require a large collaborative of medical schools. Using a national measure (the GQ) to assess curricular innovations in most areas of SBS is possible if enough medical schools were involved in such an effort.

Article available here.

CME and Its Role in the Academic Medical Center: Increasing Integration, Adding Value - Robert Baron et al.

2010-01-10T05:26:00.000-08:00

CME and Its Role in the Academic Medical Center: Increasing Integration, Adding Value - Davis, David A. MD; Baron, Robert B. MD, MS; Grichnik, Katherine MD; Topulos, George P. MD; Agus, Zalman S. MD; Dorman, Todd MD.

Continuing medical education (CME), as it is currently structured, funded, and institutionalized, plays a marginal role in the academic medical center (AMC). In contrast, several models of more effective, integrated CME exist, and these enable the AMC to better achieve its potential in education, research, and health care delivery. Examples of such models are presented, emphasizing quality and performance improvement; regional, national, and public outreach; faculty and staff development; and research and scholarly activity.

Although there are many reasons to maintain the status quo of CME programs, there are offsetting forces for change to be found in accreditation processes, movements toward maintenance of certification and licensure, and the need for the AMC to achieve higher quality standards. These models may offer a view of the potential of academic CME to be a major vehicle for the effective integration in quality, regional, and faculty development arenas, and as a scholarly and outcomes-oriented pursuit. Sitting at the right table and sufficiently integrated, CME holds real potential to help the AMC meet its multiple goals and missions.

Commentary available here.

Conflict of Interest Policies: An Opportunity for the Medical Profession to Take the Lead - Bernard Lo, MD

2010-01-10T05:24:00.000-08:00

Conflict of Interest Policies: An Opportunity for the Medical Profession to Take the Lead - Bernard Lo, MD

This is a commentary on Steinman MA, Boscardin CK, Aguayo L, Baron RB. Commercial influence and learner-perceived bias in continuing medical education. Acad Med. 2010;85:74–79; Camilleri M, Parke II DW. Perspective: Conflict of interest and professional organizations: considerations and recommendations. Acad Med. 2010;85:85–91; and Dubovsky SL, Kaye DL, Pristach CA, DelRegno P, Pessar L, Stiles K. Can academic departments maintain industry relationships while promoting physician professionalism? Acad Med. 2010;85:68–73.

Commentary available here.

Remediation of the Deficiencies of Physicians Across the Continuum From Medical School to Practice...Hauer et. al.

2009-12-08T16:36:00.000-08:00

Remediation of the Deficiencies of Physicians Across the Continuum From Medical School to Practice: A Thematic Review of the Literature.

Despite widespread endorsement of competency-based assessment of medical trainees and practicing physicians, methods for identifying those who are not competent and strategies for remediation of their deficits are not standardized. This literature review describes the published studies of deficit remediation at the undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education levels. Thirteen studies primarily describe small, single-institution efforts to remediate deficient knowledge or clinical skills of trainees or below-standard-practice performance of practicing physicians. Working from these studies and research from the learning sciences, the authors propose a model that includes multiple assessment tools for identifying deficiencies, individualized instruction, deliberate practice followed by feedback and reflection, and reassessment. The findings of the study reveal a paucity of evidence to guide best practices of remediation in medical education at all levels. There is an urgent need for multiinstitutional, outcomes-based research on strategies for remediation of less than fully competent trainees and physicians with the use of long-term follow-up to determine the impact on future performance. Read online.

Hauer, Karen E. MD; Ciccone, Andrea MS; Henzel, Thomas R. EdD; Katsufrakis, Peter MD, MBA; Miller, Stephen H. MD, MPH; Norcross, William A. MD; Papadakis, Maxine A. MD; Irby, David M. PhD.

Academic Medicine: December 2009 - Volume 84 - Issue 12 - pp 1822-1832

Impact of an In-Person Versus Web-Based Practice Standardized Patient Examination. Hauer et. al.

2009-11-22T10:38:00.000-08:00

Background: Optimal methods of preparing students for highstakes standardized patient (SP) examinations are unknown.

Purposes: The purpose is to compare the impact of two formats of a formative SP examination (Web-based vs. in-person) on scores on a subsequent high-stakes SP examination and to compare students’ satisfaction with each formative examination format.

Methods: Clustered randomized trial comparing a Web-based module versus in-person formative SP examination. We compared scores on a subsequent high-stakes SP examination and satisfaction.

Results: Scores on the subsequent high-stakes SP examination did not differ between the two formative formats but were higher after the formative assessment than without ( p < .001). Satisfaction was higher with the in-person than Web-based formative assessment format (4.00 vs. 3.62 on a 5-point scale, p= .01).

Conclusions: Two formats of a formative SP examination led to equivalent improvement
in scores on a subsequent high-stakes examination. Students preferred an in-person formative examination to online but were satisfied with both.

Hauer, KE, Chou, CL, Souza, KH, Henry, D, Loeser, H, Burke, C, Mayfield, C, O’Sullivan, PO. Impact of an In-Person Versus Web-Based Practice Standardized Patient Examination on Student Performance on a Subsequent High-Stakes. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 21: 4, 284 — 290.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10401330903228307

Innovations in Medical Education: Really Good Stuff

2009-10-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

Recently published in "Really Good Stuff" from Medical Education. Volume43, Issue11,2009.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117964731/home

Near-peer videos for physical examination instruction (p 1095-1096). Adam D Schickedanz, Judy E Kim, Calvin L Chou

Continuity in a longitudinal out-patient attachment...Wamsley MA, Dubowitz N, Kohli P, Cooke M, O'Brien BC

2009-08-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

Continuity in a longitudinal out-patient attachment for Year 3 medical students.

Med Educ. 2009 Aug 6;

Authors: Wamsley MA, Dubowitz N, Kohli P, Cooke M, O'Brien BC

Medical Education 2009Context Concerns about the quality of medical student learning experiences during traditional clerkships have prompted calls to restructure clinical education around continuity. Many US medical schools have added longitudinal out-patient attachments to enhance student continuity with patients and supervising doctors. However, continuity with patients can be difficult to achieve and little is known about the independent effect of continuity with a supervising doctor and setting. This study describes students' perceptions of the types of continuity experienced in longitudinal attachments and the learning associated with continuity. Methods This is a qualitative study using a grounded theory approach. Interviews were conducted with 12 Year 3 medical students about their continuity experiences with patients, supervisors and settings during their attachment. The resulting data were subjected to thematic analysis. Results Continuity with supervising doctors provided students with career mentorship and personal support. Student autonomy varied and was most dependent on the supervisor and setting. Students with patient continuity were more likely to report learning about chronic illness and communication skills. Students described the longitudinal attachment as helping them to develop their clinical skills and gain self-confidence within their role as future doctors, and as influencing their career choice. Conclusions There is much variation in student experiences of patient continuity during a longitudinal attachment. Continuity with patients, supervisors and settings affects student learning in different ways. Additional dimensions of the experience, such as the nature of the patient-doctor relationship, the pace of work and the patient population, impact learning outcomes and should be considered when continuity experiences are being designed.

PMID: 19674297 Learn More

Remediation techniques for student performance problems...Saxena V, O'Sullivan PS, Teherani A, Irby DM, Hauer KE

2009-05-24T08:36:00.000-07:00

Remediation techniques for student performance problems after a comprehensive clinical skills assessment.

Acad Med. 2009 May;84(5):669-76

Authors: Saxena V, O'Sullivan PS, Teherani A, Irby DM, Hauer KE

PURPOSE: Poor performance on a medical school comprehensive clinical skills assessment after core clerkships requires remediation. Little is known about techniques used to remedy students' skills deficits and their effectiveness. The authors identified remediation strategies used at U.S. medical schools and determined instructors' confidence in remediation.

METHOD: In the fall of 2007, the authors surveyed persons responsible for remediation at U.S. medical schools that conduct comprehensive clinical assessments and remediation. Respondents reported their use of four types of remediation strategies: (1) clinical activities, (2) independent study, (3) precepted video review of exam recording, and (4) organized group activities for deficits in history-taking, physical examination, knowledge, clinical reasoning, professionalism, and communication. The authors assessed confidence in remediation for the six skill areas and analyzed these measures using repeated-measures analysis of variance.

RESULTS: Fifty-three of 71 (74.6%) participants responded. Educators most commonly employ the precepted video review remediation activity across the six skill areas, and they use the clinical activities least commonly. Confidence in remediating the six skill areas was below the "agree" level. Confidence was highest for remediating history-taking and physical examination problems and lowest for professionalism.

CONCLUSION: Educators express modest confidence in remediating fourth-year students' clinical skills deficiencies. The finding that schools employ primarily video review for remediation suggests a potential need to augment opportunities for mentored skills practice to address deficits more effectively. The remediation literature similarly stresses the importance of multiple approaches tailored to particular deficits.

PMID: 19704207 Learn More

Consequences within medical schools for students with poor performance...Hauer KE, Teherani A, Kerr KM, Irby DM, O'Sullivan PS

2009-05-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

Consequences within medical schools for students with poor performance on a medical school standardized patient comprehensive assessment.

Acad Med. 2009 May;84(5):663-8

Authors: Hauer KE, Teherani A, Kerr KM, Irby DM, O'Sullivan PS

PURPOSE: Medical schools increasingly employ comprehensive standardized patient assessments to ensure medical students' clinical competence. The consequences of poor performance on the assessment and the institutional factors associated with imposing consequences are unknown.

METHOD: In 2006, the investigators surveyed 122 U.S. medical school curriculum deans about comprehensive assessments using standardized patients after core clerkships, with questions about exam characteristics, institutional commitment to the examination (years of experience, exam infrastructure, clerkship director involvement), academic consequences of failing the assessment, and satisfaction with remediation.

RESULTS: Ninety-three of 122 (76%) deans responded. Eighty-two (88%) conducted a comprehensive assessment in years three or four of medical school. Of those, required remediation was the only consequence of failing employed by 61 schools (74%), and only 39 (47%) required retesting for graduation. Participants were somewhat satisfied with (mean 3.45 out of maximum 5, SD 1.08) and confident in (3.37, SD 1.17) their remediation process. Satisfaction and confidence were associated with requiring remediation (P = .003) and retesting (P < .001), but experience with the exam, exam infrastructure, and clerkship director involvement were not. No school demographic characteristics or measures of institutional commitment were related to external reporting of students' comprehensive assessment scores. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the prevalence of comprehensive assessments, schools attach few academic consequences to poor performance. Educators are only moderately satisfied with their efforts to remediate poor performers. However, schools with greater trust in their remediation process than other schools are more likely to enforce consequences of poor performance. PMID: 19704205 Learn more

Becoming an academic doctor: perceptions of scholarly careers. O'Sullivan PS, Niehaus B, Lockspeiser TM, Irby DM ...

2009-04-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

Becoming an academic doctor: perceptions of scholarly careers.

Med Educ. 2009 Apr;43(4):335-41

Authors: O'Sullivan PS, Niehaus B, Lockspeiser TM, Irby DM

OBJECTIVES: Despite a recognised need to prepare future faculty members, little research has been conducted on how best to accomplish this task, especially among learners and faculty members within research-intensive medical schools.

METHODS: We interviewed 40 medical students, residents and faculty members from a single institution in the USA and asked questions about which careers the school does and should prepare individuals for, and the strengths of the institution for doing so. Interviews were conducted in person at a location chosen by the participant. All interviews were transcribed and coded using qualitative methods and software. The coding and themes were reviewed and discussed among members of the research team and verified by external reviewers.

RESULTS: We identified five themes related to becoming an academic doctor: early exposure to research; role models and mentoring; career pathways; interplay of personal and social factors, and career support for junior faculty members.

CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that opportunities should be structured within undergraduate and graduate medical education to stimulate interest in careers as academic doctors and to aid junior faculty members to act as role models who can encourage learners to pursue careers in academic medicine.

PMID: 19335575 Learn More