Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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To describe and evaluate an innovative research program supported by the National Institutes of Health, "Promoting Research Opportunities Fully-Prospective Academics Transforming Health" (PROF-PATH), designed to support medical students from groups underrepresented-in-medicine (URM) interested in pursuing academic careers. ⋯ An innovative program for URM medical students participating in mentored research was successful in supporting academic career interest and academic self-efficacy. Schools motivated to increase diversity in academic medicine should consider adapting PROF-PATH.
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By describing an instance of racial violence by a patient against a resident physician, the authors hope to stimulate further discussion by addressing three specific questions about managing racist patients: (1) How should the resident (or any level of trainee) respond to the immediate situation? (2) How should the unit respond to the event as a community? and (3) How should the institution (hospital and/or academic institution) respond to the event? The authors argue that responses to such incidents should acknowledge the history of structural racism in U. S. society and in medicine. The authors recommend an approach that names the racism directly while addressing the safety of the patient and the providers in the moment, supports those affected in the aftermath, and considers appropriate consequences for the perpetrators of violence.
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The Penn State College of Medicine (PSCOM) faced escalating reports of learner mistreatment in 2013-2017. As systems were implemented to gather and respond to student reports, faculty members expressed concern that these were creating a culture that focused on negative behaviors to the exclusion of acknowledging outstanding teaching that was also occurring. ⋯ Future plans include examining the impact of being named an exceptional teacher, ways exceptional teachers create respectful teaching interactions, and common threads within student narratives that illuminate specific techniques, behaviors, and attitudes that create exceptional teaching experiences.
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Comparative Study
Debriefing for the Transfer of Learning: The Importance of Context.
The advent of simulation-based education has caused a renewed interest in feedback and debriefing. However, little attention has been given to the issue of transfer of learning from the simulation environment to real-life and novel situations. In this article, the authors discuss the importance of context in learning, based on the frameworks of analogical transfer and situated cognition, and the limitations that context imposes on transfer. ⋯ In decontextualization, the underlying abstract principles are extracted without reference to the situation, and in recontextualization, those principles are adapted and applied to new situations and to the real-life counterpart. This requires that the surface and deep features that characterize the lived situation be previously compared and contrasted with those of the same situation with hypothetical scenarios ("what if"), of new situations within the same family of situations, of the prototype situation, and of real-life situations. These strategies are integrated into a cyclical contextualization, decontextualization, and recontextualization model to enhance debriefing.
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Lack of specialty board certification has been reported as a significant physician-level predictor of receiving a disciplinary action from a state medical board. This study investigated the association between family physicians receiving a disciplinary action from a state medical board and certification by the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM). ⋯ Disciplinary actions are uncommon events. Family physicians who had ever been ABFM certified were less likely to receive an action. The most severe actions were associated with decreased odds of being board certified at the time of the action. Receiving the most severe action type increased the likelihood of physicians holding a prior but not current certification.