Medical teacher
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Burnout remains a widespread issue in graduate medical education, with current trends to mitigate burnout shifting toward institutional systematic interventions as opposed to personal individual interventions. In this article, we propose utilizing Knowle's adult learning theory in conjunction with Maslach's organizational context for burnout to implement systemic changes within the postgraduate training environment that we posit would both optimize the learning experience and reduce the incidence of burnout.
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Gender inequity in academic medicine remains an important issue worldwide. While institutional programs and policies can help promote equity in recruitment, retention, scholarship, promotion, and leadership, they often do not address the physical and social isolation that many women in international academic medicine face. ⋯ Based on a multidisciplinary literature review on change processes, group formation, and women's empowerment, as well as lessons learned from personal experience, we offer 12 tips to successfully create, maintain, and support physician women's groups, employing Kotter's change-management framework. We believe that these groups can provide a structured platform for networking opportunities to advance women physicians in academic medicine worldwide.
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Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions in yourself and in others. EI has long been recognized as a critical component for individual and organizational success within the business realm, and there is emerging evidence that enhancing EI is equally important in the medical setting. ⋯ Based on the existing literature and the authors' experiences, these 12 tips provide practical suggestions on how to introduce EI into a medical curriculum. These tips have broad applicability, and can be implemented in courses on topics such as professionalism, leadership development, empathy, patient safety, or wellness.
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The use of virtual patients (VPs), due to their high complexity and/or inappropriate sequencing with other instructional methods, might cause a high cognitive load, which hampers learning. ⋯ Collaborative use of VPs after a lecture is the most efficient instructional method, of those tested, as it leads to better learning and transfer combined with lower cognitive load, when compared with independent use of VPs, either before or after the lecture.
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The relatively new term "Professional Identity Formation" (PIF) complements behavior-based and attitude-based perspectives on professionalism. Unprofessional behavior and its remediation should also be addressed from this perspective. However, a framework is needed to guide discussion and remediation of unprofessional behavior, which can encompass behavior-based, attitude-based, and identity-based perspectives on professionalism. ⋯ By reflecting on all the different levels of the framework, educators guard themselves against narrowing the discussion to either professional behavior or professional identity. The multi-level professionalism framework can help educators and students to gain a better understanding of the root of unprofessional behavior, and of remediation strategies that would be appropriate. For despite the recent emphasis on PIF, unprofessional behavior and its remediation will remain important issues in medical education.