Journal of general internal medicine
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Interns are expected to teach medical students, yet there is little formal training in medical school to prepare them for this role. To enhance the teaching skills of our graduating students we initiated a 4-hour "teaching to teach" course as part of the end of the fourth-year curriculum. ⋯ A course preparing fourth-year students to teach during internship is both feasible and reproducible, with a minimal commitment of faculty and resident time. Participants identify it as an important addition to their education and as useful during internship.
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Empathy in the medical setting is appreciation of the patient's emotions and expression of that awareness to the patient. Named as an essential learning objective by the American Association of Medical Colleges, empathy is believed to significantly influence patient satisfaction, adherence to medical recommendations, clinical outcomes, and professional satisfaction. The objective of this study was to identify effective strategies to enhance empathy in undergraduate medical students. ⋯ Given the methodological limitations of the available studies, and uncertainty about which dimensions of empathy should be addressed, larger studies using validated measurement tools are recommended.
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Physicians increasingly face the challenge of managing clinical encounters with patients from a range of cultural backgrounds. Despite widespread interest in cross-cultural care, little is known about resident physicians' perceptions of what will best enable them to provide quality care to diverse patient populations. ⋯ If cross-cultural education is to be successful, it must take into account residents' perspectives and be focused on overcoming residents' cited barriers. It is important to convey that cross-cultural education is a set of skills that can be taught and applied, in a time-efficient manner, rather than requiring an insurmountable knowledge base.
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Incorporating evidence-based medicine (EBM) into clinical practice is an important competency that residency training must address. Residency program directors, and the clinical educators who work with them, should develop curricula to enhance residents' capacity for independent evidence-based practice. ⋯ The authors highlight the limitations of journal club, and suggest additional curricular approaches for an integrated EBM curriculum. Helping residents become effective evidence users will require a sustained effort on the part of residents, faculty, and their educational institutions.
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Although residents commonly manage substance abuse disorders, optimal approaches to teaching these specialized interviewing and intervention skills are unknown. ⋯ Although internal and family medicine residents require additional training in specialized substance abuse skills, immediate feedback provided during an OSCE helped teach needed skills for assessing and managing substance abuse disorders.