Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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There is scant empirical work exploring academic physicians' psychosocial adjustment during late-career transitions or on the factors that influence their retirement decisions. The authors examine these issues through the lens of sociopsychological identity theory, specifically examining how identity threat influences academic physicians' decisions about retirement. ⋯ Identity-related struggles are a significant feature of academic physicians' considerations about late-career transitions. Understanding these challenges, their antecedents, and their consequences can prepare faculty, and their institutions, to better manage late-career transitions. Individual- and institution-level implications are discussed.
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A fundamental goal of medical education is the active, constructive, transformative process of professional identity formation (PIF). Medical educators are thus charged with designing standardized and personalized curricula for guiding, supporting, and challenging learners on the developmental professional identity pathway, including the process of socialization. The author of this Commentary provides an overview of foundational principles and key drivers of PIF supporting the being, relating, and doing the work of a compassionate and competent physician. ⋯ Central emergent themes of reflective practice, relationships, and resilience are described as supporting and reciprocally enhancing PIF. Overarching lessons include attending to learners' and faculty's PIF within a developmental trajectory of the professional life cycle; process and content within PIF curricula as well as learners' individual and collective voices; curricular/extracurricular factors contributing to socialization, self-awareness, development of core values, and moral leadership; integrating PIF domains within pedagogy; faculty development for skilled mentoring and reflective coaching; and implementing resilience-promoting skill sets as "protective" within PIF. Outcomes assessment including the impact of curricula on learners and on patient-centered care can be challenging, and potential next steps toward this goal are discussed.
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It is difficult to engage clinicians in continuing medical education that does not focus on clinical expertise. Evolving online technologies (e.g., massive open online courses [MOOCs]) are disrupting and transforming medical education, but few online nonclinical professional development resources exist. ⋯ The MEdIC series is proof of concept that online activities can engage clinicians in nonclinical professional development. The early experience suggests the connectivist nature of MEdIC allows for crowdsourcing solutions to ill-defined problems via the wisdom of readers. This methodology may also be effective for other nonclinical and medical education topics.
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Letter Historical Article
How do U.S. and Canadian medical schools teach about the role of physicians in the Holocaust?
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A recent Institute of Medicine report concluded that lesbian and gay individuals face discrimination from health care providers and called for research on provider attitudes. Medical school is a critical juncture for improving future providers' treatment of sexual minorities. This study examined both explicit bias and implicit bias against lesbian women and gay men among first-year medical students, focusing on two predictors of such bias, contact and empathy. ⋯ The prevalence of negative attitudes presents an important challenge for medical education, highlighting the need for more research on possible causes of bias. Findings on contact and empathy point to possible curriculum-based interventions aimed at ensuring high-quality care for sexual minorities.