BMC medical education
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BMC medical education · Sep 2016
Medical students' learning orientation regarding interracial interactions affects preparedness to care for minority patients: a report from Medical Student CHANGES.
There is a paucity of evidence on how to train medical students to provide equitable, high quality care to racial and ethnic minority patients. We test the hypothesis that medical schools' ability to foster a learning orientation toward interracial interactions (i.e., that students can improve their ability to successfully interact with people of another race and learn from their mistakes), will contribute to white medical students' readiness to care for racial minority patients. We then test the hypothesis that white medical students who perceive their medical school environment as supporting a learning orientation will benefit more from disparities training. ⋯ Coursework aimed at reducing healthcare disparities and improving the care of racial minority patients was only effective when white medical students perceived their school as having a learning orientation toward interracial interactions. Results suggest that medical school faculty should present interracial encounters as opportunities to practice skills shown to reduce bias, and faculty and students should be encouraged to learn from one another about mistakes in interracial encounters. Future research should explore aspects of the medical school environment that contribute to an interracial learning orientation.
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BMC medical education · Sep 2016
Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy: making sense of the total score through a second order confirmatory factor analysis.
Empathy is a key aspect of the physician-patient interactions. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) is one of the most used empathy measures of medical students. The development of cross-cultural empathy studies depends on valid and reliable translations of the JSE. This study sought to: (1) adapt and assess the psychometric properties in Spanish students of the Spanish JSE validated in Mexican students; (2) test a second order latent factor model. ⋯ The findings provide support for the sensitivity, construct validity and reliability of the adapted Spanish JSE-S with Spanish medical students. Data confirm the hypothesized second order latent factor model. This version may be useful in future research examining empathy in Spanish medical students, as well as in cross-cultural studies.
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BMC medical education · Sep 2016
Applying mathematical models to predict resident physician performance and alertness on traditional and novel work schedules.
In 2011 the U.S. Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education began limiting first year resident physicians (interns) to shifts of ≤16 consecutive hours. Controversy persists regarding the effectiveness of this policy for reducing errors and accidents while promoting education and patient care. Using a mathematical model of the effects of circadian rhythms and length of time awake on objective performance and subjective alertness, we quantitatively compared predictions for traditional intern schedules to those that limit work to ≤ 16 consecutive hours. ⋯ Three proposed schedules that eliminate extended shifts may improve performance and alertness compared with traditional Q3 or Q4 schedules. Predicted times of worse performance and alertness were at night, which is also a time when supervision of trainees is lower. Mathematical modeling provides a quantitative comparison approach with potential to aid residency programs in schedule analysis and redesign.
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BMC medical education · Sep 2016
Observational StudyDevelopment and validation of the guideline for reporting evidence-based practice educational interventions and teaching (GREET).
The majority of reporting guidelines assist researchers to report consistent information concerning study design, however, they contain limited information for describing study interventions. Using a three-stage development process, the Guideline for Reporting Evidence-based practice Educational interventions and Teaching (GREET) checklist and accompanying explanatory paper were developed to provide guidance for the reporting of educational interventions for evidence-based practice (EBP). The aim of this study was to complete the final development for the GREET checklist, incorporating psychometric testing to determine inter-rater reliability and criterion validity. ⋯ The final GREET checklist comprises 17 items which are recommended for reporting EBP educational interventions. Further validation of the GREET checklist with experts in EBP research and education is recommended.