Medical teacher
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The experience and lessons learned in the design, implementation and initial evaluation of a demonstration faculty-to-faculty mentoring program, during a time of major institutional reorganization, are described. The question addressed was: Can a voluntary mentoring program be established with minimal resources and be effective in the context of major organizational change? Key design elements included two-tiered programs (one year preceptoring and multi-year mentoring), voluntary participation, and selection of senior faculty members by the junior faculty members. A total of 20% of junior faculty and 30% of senior faculty participated. ⋯ There was high satisfaction with the mentoring relationship, especially the psychosocial mentoring functions, and a trend toward increased retention of minority faculty. Within two years, the program was institutionalized into the Office for Faculty Affairs, and faculty approved a mentoring policy. It is concluded that voluntary mentoring programs can have a positive impact on junior and senior faculty satisfaction, reinvigorate the collegial culture, and improve productivity and retention even during a time of reorganization and minimal resources.
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How likely is a diagnosis, given a particular medical test result? This probability can be determined by using Bayes's rule; however, previous research has shown that doctors often experience problems with Bayesian inferences. These findings illustrate the need to teach statistical reasoning in medical education. ⋯ Evaluation took place two months after training by testing students' ability to correctly solve a Bayesian inference task with information represented as probabilities. While both approaches improved performance, almost three times as many students were able to profit from representation training as opposed to rule training.