BMC medical education
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BMC medical education · Aug 2014
Residents' and preceptors' perceptions of the use of the iPad for clinical teaching in a family medicine residency program.
As Family Medicine programs across Canada are transitioning into a competency-based curriculum, medical students and clinical teachers are increasingly incorporating tablet computers in their work and educational activities. The purpose of this pilot study was to identify how preceptors and residents use tablet computers to implement and adopt a new family medicine curriculum and to evaluate how they access applications (apps) through their tablet in an effort to support and enhance effective teaching and learning. ⋯ iPad's interface should be fully enhanced to allow easy access to online curriculum and its built-in resources. The differences in computer proficiency level among users should be reduced by sharing knowledge through workshops led by more skillful iPad users. To facilitate collection of information through the iPad, the design of electronic data-input forms should consider the participants' reported negative perceptions towards typing data through mobile devices. Technology deployment projects should gather sufficient evidence from pilot studies in order to guide efforts to adapt resources and infrastructure to relevant needs of Family Medicine teachers and learners.
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BMC medical education · Aug 2014
Practical knowledge of experienced nurses in critical care: a qualitative study of their narratives.
Scholars of nursing practices have claimed practical knowledge is source of knowledge in its own right, nevertheless we know little about this knowledge associated with day-to-day practice. The purpose of this study is to describe knowledge that the more experienced nurses the in ICU make use of and discover the components of care it includes. Understanding this knowledge can contribute to improving the working practices of nurses with less experience. ⋯ These results show that stories of experiences describe a contextual practical knowledge that the more experienced nurses develop as a natural and spontaneous response. In critical patients the application of everyday practical knowledge greatly influences their well-being. In those cases in which the nurses describe how they have protected the patients from error, this practical knowledge can mean the difference between life and death. The study highlights the need to manage practical knowledge and undertake further research. The study is useful in keeping clinical practice up-to-date.
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BMC medical education · Aug 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialThe Academy for Future Science Faculty: randomized controlled trial of theory-driven coaching to shape development and diversity of early-career scientists.
Approaches to training biomedical scientists have created a talented research community. However, they have failed to create a professional workforce that includes many racial and ethnic minorities and women in proportion to their representation in the population or in PhD training. This is particularly true at the faculty level. Explanations for the absence of diversity in faculty ranks can be found in social science theories that reveal processes by which individuals develop identities, experiences, and skills required to be seen as legitimate within the profession. ⋯ The strategy being tested is based upon a novel application of the well-established principles of deploying highly skilled coaches, selected and trained for their ability to develop talents of others. This coaching model is intended to be a complement, rather than a substitute, for traditional mentoring in biomedical research training, and is being tested as such.