Medical teacher
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Revalidation is the new method by which doctors in the UK will stay on the medical register. Most doctors will take the appraisal route to revalidation--that is, they will undergo annual appraisals and five successful appraisals will result in revalidation. So there is a lot riding on appraisal. ⋯ One study from outside medicine showed that some learners doing a postgraduate diploma in education admitted to cheating. The current system of appraisal and revalidation is currently under review in light of the Shipman inquiry and many doctors are scared that appraisal may be a stepping stone towards assessment. A guaranteed way of speeding up the drive towards introducing assessment is not taking appraisal seriously.
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Mentoring can be a key component contributing to the success of faculty. We investigated the attitudes of family medicine department Chairs toward mentoring, with emphasis on mentoring female and minority faculty. This qualitative inquiry used semi-structured interviews with 13 Chairs of US departments of family medicine. ⋯ Multiple mentors were suggested for female and minority faculty to meet both their personal career and content needs. Availability of senior faculty is a key resource. Until more senior women and minority faculty are available, cross-gender and cross-ethnicity mentoring will need to be utilized.
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Characteristics of medical students' mentoring relationships and factors that affect mentoring during medical school are poorly understood. The authors conducted four focus groups with fourth-year medical students to explore what students sought from mentors, perceived barriers to mentoring and suggestions for improvement. Data were analyzed using grounded theory. ⋯ Students recommended that the school explicitly promote mentoring with early education about finding mentors, placing the responsibility on students while also expanding the pool of potential mentors. It is concluded that medical students characterize mentoring in terms of the interpersonal dynamics of the relationship, emphasizing personal connection and advocacy. Educating and empowering students along with faculty education regarding students' needs may improve mentoring.
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This study was designed to examine the relationships between scores of two measures of empathy. One was specifically developed for measuring empathy in patient care situations; the other was developed for the general population. It was hypothesized that the overlap between scores of the two measures would be greater for their constructs that are more relevant to patient care. ⋯ The research hypothesis was confirmed by observing higher correlations between those scales of the IRI that were relevant to patient care (e.g. empathic concern, perspective taking) and related factors of the JSPE (compassionate care, perspective taking) than other scales of the IRI that seemed less relevant to patient care (e.g. personal distress and fantasy). These findings provide further support for the validity of the JSPE. It is concluded that physician empathy as measured by the JSPE and its underlying factors are distinct personal attributes that have a limited overlap with fantasy and no overlap with personal distress defined as dimensions of an empathy measure that was developed for the general population.
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To establish medical students' professional competence for the medical profession, we designed a standardized observation procedure and the Amsterdam Attitude and Communication Scale (AACS) with nine five-point scale items, for summative assessment of their communication skills and professional attitudes. This study examines the reliability of the AACS assessment in clinical practice. In the Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, the performance of 442 fifth year clinical students was judged six times in two settings: behaviour in clinical practice was judged independently twice by a doctor and a nurse; one videotaped patient interview was judged independently by a doctor and by a psychologist. The final mark was obtained by averaging ratings across all six assessments. Raters were 88 doctors, 29 nurses, and three psychologists. ⋯ Standard errors (SEs) for absolute judgements indicate measurement precision. Precision of AACS scores is considered sufficient with SEs smaller than 0.25. Multi-disciplinary assessment of students' clinical performance using the AACS is feasible and sufficiently precise (with an overall mean of 3.97 and standard deviation of 0.55, the absolute SE is 0.21). Judgements of behaviour in the clinic were more precise (SEs range from 0.11 to 0.16) than judgements of videotaped interviews (SEs are 0.25 and 0.29). The procedure is sufficiently precise if five or six assessments are combined.