Medical education
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The development and maintenance of expertise in any domain requires extensive, sustained practice of the necessary skills. However, the quantity of time spent is not the only factor in achieving expertise; the quality of this time is at least as important. The development and maintenance of expertise requires extensive time dedicated specifically to the improvement of skills, an activity termed deliberate practise. ⋯ As a result, motivational factors are fundamental to the development of expertise. Overcoming deficiencies in self-monitoring is not a sufficient remedy. It is also necessary is that clinicians form an attitude toward work that includes continual re-investment in improvement.
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Little is known about patterns of clinical skills acquisition among junior doctors undertaking clinical training in the early postgraduate period. A better understanding would assist in the design of effective educational interventions for this group. ⋯ Early postgraduate medical trainees in a Sydney teaching hospital acquire high levels of confidence and experience in most skill areas after two years of training. The first postgraduate year is particularly significant for the development of clinical skills.
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A survey of medical students' experiences of sexual harassment during medical training. ⋯ Genderized sexual harassment exists in medical training. While both male and female students report episodes perceived as sexual harassment a difference in interpretation results in greater vulnerability for female students. Medical educators need to address issues of gender, sexual harassment, and the setting and maintaining of sexual boundaries in order to avoid a hostile learning environment.
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This paper explores the fundamental reasons for partnership in health care and medical education. It reviews the philosophical and policy contexts of health care trends and suggests that many of these trends can be summarized as a process of diffusion relating to: (a) what is on the health agenda, (b) who sets the health agenda and (c) the increasing indeterminacy of the health agenda. Various aspects of the 'social turn' in health care are introduced and offered as a partial explanation for the diffusion of the health agenda. Finally, some of the implications of these discussions for medical education are set out, in particular the need for partnerships within and beyond the academy.