Medical teacher
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Empathy is one of the fundamental factors in patient care that is beneficial to both patient and physician. ⋯ Results support the construct and criterion-related validities and reliability of the Persian version of the JSPE. Score difference between Iranian and American samples may not reflect a genuine difference in empathy trait and can be explained by cultural factors.
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Exit examinations in medicine are 'high stakes' examinations and as such must satisfy a number of criteria including psychometric robustness, fairness and reliability in the face of legal or other challenges. ⋯ The University of Adelaide's MBBS programme has since dropped the MEQ paper from its exit examination and is evaluating in its place the Script Concordance test.
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The UK General Medical Council (GMC) in its regulatory capacity conducts formal tests of competence (TOCs) on doctors whose performance is of concern. TOCs are individually tailored to each doctor's specialty and grade. ⋯ The blueprint described was easy to construct and is easy to use. It reflects the knowledge, skills and behaviours (learning outcomes) to be assessed. It guides commissioning of test material and enables the systematic and faithful sampling of common and important problems. The principles described have potential for wider application to blueprinting in undergraduate or clinical training programmes. Such a blueprint can provide the essential link between a curriculum and its assessment system and ensure that assessment content is stable over time.
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Formative assessment of medical students' clinical performance during general practice clerkship is necessary to learn consultation skills. ⋯ Patients scored students' performance high compared with students' self-assessments. Teachers' scores were in accordance with patients' scores. Teachers' written evaluations of students were often general. There is a potential for improving teachers' feedback in terms of more specific and concrete comments.
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With the introduction of Tomorrow's Doctors in 1993, medical education began the transition from a time- and process-based system to a competency-based training framework. Implementing competency-based training in postgraduate medical education poses many challenges but ultimately requires a demonstration that the learner is truly competent to progress in training or to the next phase of a professional career. Making this transition requires change at virtually all levels of postgraduate training. Key components of this change include the development of valid and reliable assessment tools such as work-based assessment using direct observation, frequent formative feedback, and learner self-directed assessment; active involvement of the learner in the educational process; and intensive faculty development that addresses curricular design and the assessment of competency.