Natl Med J India
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Admission of a patient to an intensive care unit (ICU) can result in tremendous stress to family caregivers not only because of the need to provide physical and emotional support to the sick relative, but also due to the burden of decision-making on behalf of the critically ill person. We enquired about family caregivers' perspectives on intensive care, the challenges they faced with decision-making and their perceptions on the nature of their interactions with healthcare providers. ⋯ Our study highlights the problems faced by family caregivers and of the need to improve their satisfaction through clear and simple communication strategies.
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Construct validity and predictive utility of internal assessment in undergraduate medical education.
Internal assessment is a partial requirement of all medical college examinations in India. It can help teachers provide remedial action and guide learning. But its utility and acceptability is doubted because, with no external control, internal assessment is considered prone to misuse. It is therefore not used as a tool for learning. There is no study on the validity of internal assessment from India. ⋯ Internal assessment marks correlate well with marks in university examinations. This provides evidence for construct validity and predictive utility of internal assessment. Internal assessment can predict performance at summative examinations and allow remedial action.