BMC medical education
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BMC medical education · May 2013
Comparative StudyThe effect of implementing undergraduate competency-based medical education on students' knowledge acquisition, clinical performance and perceived preparedness for practice: a comparative study.
Little is known about the gains and losses associated with the implementation of undergraduate competency-based medical education. Therefore, we compared knowledge acquisition, clinical performance and perceived preparedness for practice of students from a competency-based active learning (CBAL) curriculum and a prior active learning (AL) curriculum. ⋯ Our data do not support the assumption that competency-based education results in graduates who are better prepared for medical practice. More research is needed before we can draw generalizable conclusions on the potential of undergraduate competency-based medical education.
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BMC medical education · May 2013
Details acquired from medical history and patients' experience of empathy--two sides of the same coin.
History taking and empathetic communication are two important aspects in successful physician-patient interaction. Gathering important information from the patient's medical history is needed for effective clinical decision making while empathy is relevant for patient satisfaction. We wanted to investigate whether medical students near graduation are able to combine both skills as required in daily medical practice. ⋯ Gathering sufficient medical data from a patient's history and empathetic communication are two completely separate sides of the coin of history taking. While both skills have to be acquired during medical school training with particular focus on their respective learning objectives, medical students need to be provided with additional learning and feedback opportunities where they can be observed exercising both skills combined as required in physicians' daily practice.