Family medicine
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A dearth of training and resources exists for mentors to address the unique needs of faculty from racial/ethnic groups that are underrepresented in medicine (URiM). Mentoring Underrepresented Faculty for Academic Excellence (MUFAE) was a multi-institutional mentoring program designed to provide mentors where there were none. ⋯ MUFAE is a model for academic societies to address the lack of mentors for URiM faculty. Mentees and mentors found the experience a meaningful one that fills a need in academic mentoring.
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Departments of family medicine are centered around the tripartite mission of education, research, and clinical care. Historically, these three missions have been balanced and interdependent; however, changes in the funding and structures of health systems have resulted in shrinking education and research missions and an increased emphasis on clinical care. In the wake of waning state and federal contributions to primary care research, many departments of family medicine have adopted a private practice approach. ⋯ Meanwhile, the administrative burden of electronic health records (EHRs) has further encroached on time previously allocated to research, with the EHR burden disproportionately affecting the primary care workforce. To counteract mission competition in departments of family medicine and to recover the vital missions of education and scholarship, devising a clear plan for reclaiming and sustaining a tripartite mission is important. Advocating for increased primary care research funding, enhancing EHRs, balancing clinical and education metrics, and supporting primary care research, especially for groups underrepresented in medicine, are interventions to help fully support education and research missions and to recover and sustain mission balance in departments of family medicine.
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Most research in residency training has focused on quality improvement within a single program. We explored resident involvement in curricular and clinical practice change, the learning environment, and resident satisfaction in 3-year family medicine residencies compared to matched 4-year residencies. ⋯ Four-year residents were involved in a greater number of quality improvement projects and had a more diverse profile of involvement than those in 3-year residency programs. Involvement in practice and curricular change and the learning environment were associated with greater levels of resident satisfaction with training in both 3-year and 4-year programs.
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Patient navigation programs help guide vulnerable populations, such as those experiencing homelessness, through the health care system. Medical students developed the student-run Patient Navigator Program (PNP) to serve persons experiencing homelessness (PEH) in the Dallas area. The objective of this study was to build on previously published data to determine how medical student attitudes, knowledge, and confidence working with PEH changed during involvement in the PNP, particularly after participating as a patient navigator. ⋯ Improvements from time point 1 to 2 demonstrated the value of didactic learning, while further improvements from time point 2 to 3 demonstrated the added benefit of hands-on experiential learning. Our study illustrates the potential educational benefits that a PNP provides to medical students who may encounter or care for this population during their careers.
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Training residents in family systems and family-oriented care holds the potential to increase empathy for patients and to grow self-awareness of how one's own family of origin affects clinical practice. Little has been studied about how training residents in family systems affects their clinical practice after they graduate residency. ⋯ Thirty-five graduates (58.3%) returned completed surveys. Overall, 26 of 35 (74.3%) respondents felt that the family systems curriculum had helped them a fair amount or a great deal in the care of their patients. In particular, 29 of 35 (82.9%) felt that the curriculum helped them a fair amount or a great deal in maintaining empathy. Compared to other longitudinal courses, 32 of 35 (91.4%) respondents indicated that they liked the curriculum somewhat or a great deal. Conclusions: More than half the respondents found all elements of the curriculum helpful in their clinical practice, especially in the areas of caring for patients and maintaining empathy. The responses will be used as a baseline for comparison to improve the training. Continued research, perhaps in the form of randomized controlled trials using several residencies, could help in developing elements for more standardized curriculum in family-oriented care training.