Medical education
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To evaluate the impact of a modern medical curriculum on students' proposed behaviour on encountering ethical dilemmas. ⋯ While the first year of the curriculum had a positive impact on students, the remainder of the curriculum did not impact to the same extent. These findings support the recommendation that small group teaching, the predominant teaching method in Year 1, should be preferred to lecture and large group teaching, the predominant method of the remaining curricular years. Full integration of ethics and law teaching within the rest of the curriculum is recommended, particularly during the clinical years. This has training implications for all medical teachers involved in the curriculum. The assessment of ethics should be incorporated into all formal examinations. It is recommended that ethics be addressed as part of a wider approach to professionalism in order to promote integration.
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Editorial Comment
Decline in empathy in medical education: how can we stop the rot?
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Teaching and evaluating first and second year medical students' practice of evidence-based medicine.
To implement an evidence-based medicine (EBM) curriculum for Year 1 and 2 medical students, and to develop a method to evaluate their practice of EBM in discrete and relevant worksteps. ⋯ Although we have demonstrated preliminary reliability and validity of a new evaluation instrument that assess the domains of scientific knowledge, work habits and reasoning skills required in the practice of EBM, many of the correlations were weak, and we remain in the very early stages of determining if, when and how EBM instruction should occur in medical education.