Medical teacher
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PowerPoint is an application designed to help the speaker or lecturer assemble professional looking slides to be used in oral presentations. The result sadly is often an unending stream of slides with bullet lists, animations that obscure rather than clarify the point and cartoons that distract from rather than convey the message. ⋯ For most speakers, however, the problem is not with PowerPoint but with how they make use of it. Three approaches to making presentations using PowerPoint are described which should yield rich rewards and a more attentive and appreciative audience.
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The mini-clinical evaluation exercise (mini-CEX) is a 30 minute observed clinical encounter which allows assessment of a resident's clinical competence with feedback on their performance. ⋯ Residents' perceptions of the mini-CEX reflected a tension between the tool's dual roles of assessment and education.
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Physical examination (PEx) skills are declining among medical trainees, yet many institutions are not teaching these systematically and effectively. Many variables contribute to effective teaching: teachers' confidence in their clinical skills, ability to demonstrate and assess these skills; availability of suitable patients; trainee attitude and fatigue; belief that institutions do not value clinical teachers. Finally, the relevance and significance of a systematic exam must be demonstrated or the teaching degenerates into a 'show-and-tell' exercise. ⋯ PEx is important in patient-physician interactions, a valuable contributor to accurate clinical diagnosis and can be taught effectively using practical tips. To reverse the trend of deficient clinical skills, precision of clinical findings should be studied and exam manoeuvres that do not contribute to diagnosis discarded; institutions should value clinical skills teaching, appoint and fund core faculty to teach and provide staff development to improve teaching skills.
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Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS) was recently introduced into the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) to ensure that successful candidates for licensure possess the clinical skills to provide safe and effective patient care. ⋯ Over a third of medical schools are implementing changes to the objectives, content, and/or emphasis of their curriculum, at least partially in response to the institution of Step 2 CS.