Family medicine
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In May 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the US Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use (MEC) to provide evidence-based guidance on contraceptive safety in US women with medical conditions. The CDC MEC was adapted from similar World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. ⋯ Although the CDC MEC is designed to be used regularly by primary care and specialty physicians, relatively few used it in the first year after its release. Even when the CDC MEC is provided to assist in answering case questions, physicians appear to have difficulty answering correctly. More work is needed to disseminate and clarify the CDC MEC.
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Lack of quality mentorship has been identified as an impediment to a successful academic career. This study serves as a needs assessment to understand baseline mentoring among faculty in an academic department of family medicine and the existing relationships between mentorship, job satisfaction, and academic productivity before the department begins a structured mentorship program. ⋯ Although faculty believe mentorship is important, less than half have a current mentor. Junior faculty are disproportionately dissatisfied by lack of mentorship. Mentorship was associated with some elements of academic productivity but not with job satisfaction. Further study of the impact of a more structured mentorship program is needed.
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Peer teaching engages students as teachers and is widely used in K-12 education, many universities, and increasingly in medical schools. It draws on the social and cognitive congruence between learner and teacher and can be attractive to medical schools faced with a growing number of learners but a static faculty size. Peer teachers can give lectures on assigned topics, lead problem-based learning sessions, and provide one on one support to classmates in the form of tutoring. ⋯ We find evidence from several different educational settings that peer teaching benefits both the peer teachers and the learners. This suggests that peer teaching is a valuable methodology for medical schools to engage learners as teachers.
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There is awareness of depression in resident physicians, yet limited information on self-treatment or informal treatment behaviors for depression. This study sought to identify the prevalence of moderate to severe depression, self-treatment, and informal treatment for depression in resident physicians. ⋯ Moderate to severe depression in resident physicians is common and undertreated. Self-treatment behaviors of self-prescribing and use of clinical samples have a low prevalence but are present. Similarly, informally obtaining prescription antidepressants and informally prescribing antidepressants to other residents exist at a low rate.