Medical education
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OBJECTIVES Many factors influence the career specialty decisions made by medical students. The aim of this study was to broaden consideration of the determinants of specialty choice in a large population of medical students in their sixth year of study. METHODS A total of 2588 students distributed across all of the 39 medical schools in France participated in a National Practice Examination in December 2008, after which an electronic questionnaire was administered. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS Students' career choices regarding specialties or general practice result from the interplay among several factors. Career interest in general practice is particularly low. Initiatives to address the factors affecting student career choices regarding less favoured specialties and to deal with the growing feminisation of the profession, which will lead to irreversible changes in clinical practice, are required.
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OBJECTIVES In-patient rounds are a major educational and patient care-related activity in teaching hospitals. This exploratory study was conducted to gain better understanding of team interactions during rounds and to assess student and resident perceptions of the utility of this activity. METHODS Data were collected by a non-participant observer using a novel, personal digital assistant (PDA)-based data collection system. ⋯ Individuals who are not directly involved in a case are often minimally involved. Participants felt that rounds were most useful for patient care and, contrary to expectations, students and residents viewed attending physician-dominated sessions as more educational. To improve the educational impact of rounds, the order of patient discussion should be planned to highlight specific teaching points, preceptors (teaching staff) should ensure that all team members are actively engaged in the process and learning should be made explicit.
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Multicenter Study
The transition from medical student to junior doctor: today's experiences of Tomorrow's Doctors.
CONTEXT Medical education in the UK has recently undergone radical reform. Tomorrow's Doctors has prescribed undergraduate curriculum change and the Foundation Programme has overhauled postgraduate education. OBJECTIVES This study explored the experiences of junior doctors during their first year of clinical practice. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS Medical schools need to ensure that students are provided with early exposure to clinical environments which allow for continuing 'meaningful' contact with patients and increasing opportunities to 'act up' to the role of junior doctor, even as students. Patient safety guidelines present a major challenge to achieving this, although with adequate supervision the two aims are not mutually exclusive. Further support and supervision should be made available to junior doctors in situations where they are dealing with the death of a patient and on surgical placements.
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OBJECTIVES As the medical profession continues to change, so do the educational methods by which medical students are taught. Various authors have acknowledged the need for alternative teaching and learning strategies that will enable medical students to retain vast amounts of information, integrate critical thinking skills and solve a range of complex clinical problems. Previous research has indicated that concept maps may be one such teaching and learning strategy. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS This review provides ideas for medical school faculty staff on the use of concept maps in teaching and learning. Strategies such as fostering critical thinking and clinical reasoning, incorporating concept mapping within problem-based learning, and using concept mapping in group and collaborative learning are identified. New developments in medical education include the use of serial concept maps, concept maps as a methodology to assist learners with lower cognitive competence, and the combination of group concept maps with structured feedback.