Family medicine
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Patient identifiers are used in the opening lines of case presentations and written documentation in health care and medical education settings. These identifiers can reflect physicians' implicit biases, which are known to impact patient care. Yet, no clear recommendations for the use of patient identifiers to reduce bias and stigma in patient care and medical education learning environments currently exist. We describe a process and outcomes for articulating such recommendations. ⋯ Our institution vetted these patient identifier recommendations via public comment and consensus methodology. Next steps include implementation across the undergraduate medical education program, including classroom and clinical settings. Other institutions could consider similar processes as key steps to reduce bias and stigma in their medical education programs.
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A majority of medical students believe that treating sexual concerns is important for their careers. However, a minority feel that they have received adequate instruction in medical school. This novel supplemental reproductive and sexual health curriculum at a large academic medical center aimed to address this gap and to improve attitudes, comfort, and knowledge about sexual and reproductive health topics among learners. ⋯ This course elaborated on topics to which medical students traditionally lack adequate exposure, with significant improvement in comfort counseling patients. A disparity between the classroom and virtual setting suggests limitations of online learning for these topics.
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Among the oldest in the nation, the University of Utah Physician Assistant Program (UPAP) serves the state of Utah and surrounding areas and is a division of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. Recognizing the need to produce health care providers from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, UPAP instituted structural changes to improve student compositional diversity. This paper is a presentation and evaluation of the changes made to determine their relationship with compositional diversity, ultimate practice setting, and national rankings. ⋯ The UPAP experience demonstrates that intentional diversity efforts are associated with improvement in racial/ethnic diversity and national rankings. Other medical school graduate programs, specifically the medical doctor (MD), public health, and basic science programs can use this model to improve their compositional diversity.
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Active learning, defined as a variety of teaching methods that engage the learner in self-evaluation and personalized learning, is emerging as the new educational standard. This study aimed to evaluate how family medicine clerkship directors are incorporating active learning methods into the clerkship curriculum. ⋯ The use of active learning in the family medicine clerkship is required both by educational standards and student expectations. Clerkship directors may feel challenged by lack of resources in their attempts to adopt active learning. However, there are many methods of active learning, such as online modules, that are less faculty time intensive.