Medical education
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Many doctors rate themselves as ineffective smoking cessation counsellors. It is logical to initiate training efforts with medical students. We incorporated smoking history-taking in the physical diagnosis course at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill using a simple method to teach smoking history-taking skills and to assess its effectiveness as an educational intervention. ⋯ Students who received the guide did significantly better on the OSCE, even after controlling for having discussed taking a smoking history with their preceptors. A simple guide combined with a one-time prompting of preceptors has a positive effect on the acquisition of smoking history-taking skills by the medical students. This strategy may also be useful for teaching and evaluating smoking-cessation counselling skills, for which good smoking history-taking is a necessary basis.
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Cross-sectional imaging such as CT and ultrasound have rapidly developed a central role in diagnostic medicine. However, cross-sectional anatomy has lagged behind in its incorporation into medical school education, often leaving students without even a basic understanding of these images. At Hannover Medical School, we have successfully combined hands-on ultrasound workshops performed by medical students on other students with our anatomy course. This interactive component of our anatomy courses improves our students' understanding of clinical anatomy and introduces them to ultrasound imaging.
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This study of first and fifth year medical students found a general recognition among male and female students that gender affects future career choices and the ability to reach career goals. Females were seen as being disadvantaged both in terms of career choice and their ability to achieve career goals. These views are less abstract and more based upon the reality of personal experiences in clinical attachments among fifth year students. ⋯ Despite the general awareness of the effects of gender in medicine this did not appear to have an effect upon personal career choice. However, some female students were considering career choices at an early stage in their career based on accommodating their future desire to have a family life. Over half of all male and female fifth year students reported that having time for their family was an important consideration in choosing a career.