BMC medical education
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BMC medical education · Jan 2012
Do medical student attitudes towards patients with chronic low back pain improve during training? a cross-sectional study.
Health care professionals with positive attitudes towards the functional abilities of patients with low back pain are more likely to encourage activity and avoidance of rest as per recommended guidelines. This study investigated whether medical student training fosters positive attitudes towards patients with back pain and their ability to function. ⋯ Undergraduate medical training promotes positive attitudes towards the functional ability of patients with back pain, suggesting that students may be more likely to develop an evidence-based approach to this patient group after qualification. Some adjustments to training may be warranted to encourage a more positive shift in attitudes.
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BMC medical education · Jan 2012
Limited intervention improves technical skill in focus assessed transthoracic echocardiography among novice examiners.
Previous studies addressing teaching and learning in point-of-care ultrasound have primarily focussed on image interpretation and not on the technical quality of the images. We hypothesized that a limited intervention of 10 supervised examinations would improve the technical skills in Focus Assessed Transthoracic Echocardiography (FATE) and that physicians with no experience in FATE would quickly adopt technical skills allowing for image quality suitable for interpretation. ⋯ Improvement of technical skills in FATE can be achieved with a limited intervention and upon completion of intervention 93% of images achieved are suitable for clinical interpretation.