Medical education
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We placed anaesthesia teams into a stressful environment in order to explore interactions between members of different professional groups and to investigate their perspectives on the impact of these interactions on team performance. ⋯ Effective management of medical emergencies depends on optimal team function. We have identified important factors affecting interactions between different health professionals in the anaesthesia team, and their perceived influences on team function. This provides evidence on which to build appropriate and specific strategies for interdisciplinary team training in operating theatre staff.
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To test hypotheses regarding the longitudinal effects of problem-based learning (PBL) and conventional learning relating to students' appreciation of the curriculum, self-assessment of general competencies, summative assessment of clinical competence and indicators of career development. ⋯ The results suggest that PBL affects self-rated competencies. These outcomes confirm earlier findings. However, clinical competence measures did not support this finding.
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To determine whether graduate and non-graduate entrants to medical school differ in their views on the first year spent in medical practice as a pre-registration house officer. ⋯ 'Quality of life' issues, a sense of being fairly rewarded, and expectations about one's physical working environment seem a little more important to graduate than to non-graduate entrants. Apart from these, the findings suggest that graduate status, at entry to medical school, has no appreciable influence on attitudes to the work of a junior hospital doctor.
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Multicenter Study
Portfolio learning for foundation doctors: early feedback on its use in the clinical workplace.
A learning portfolio was developed to support the development of trainee doctors piloting Foundation Programme prototypes across the Northern Deanery in 2004 and 2005. Trainee doctors and their educational supervisors were surveyed about their experiences of using the portfolio in the clinical workplace. ⋯ Learning portfolios are now an integral part of Foundation Programme training but this evaluation suggests that many trainee doctors and educational supervisors are yet to be convinced of their educational value. Gaining multi-source feedback, a substantial component of trainee doctors' portfolios, impacts on the wider clinical team and presents a significant challenge to trainees. Educational supervisors continued to rely on feedback from clinical colleagues, rather than portfolio evidence, to monitor trainee doctors' development. Such factors may serve to disengage trainees with the portfolio process by overshadowing any perceived educational gains.
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Review Multicenter Study
Current status of teaching on spirituality in UK medical schools.
To investigate the current status of teaching on spirituality in medicine in UK medical schools and to establish if and how medical schools are preparing future doctors to identify patients' spiritual needs. ⋯ Although 59% (n = 10) of respondent medical schools (the actual UK figure lies between 31% and 78%) currently provide some form of teaching on spirituality, there is significant room for improvement. There is little uniformity between medical schools with regard to content, form, amount or type of staff member delivering the teaching. It would be beneficial to introduce a standardised curriculum on spirituality across all UK medical schools.