Journal of medical education
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The component parts and development of a comprehensive system to evaluate and improve teaching in a school of medicine are described by the author in this paper. This system integrates quantitative measures of teaching (student/resident ratings of classroom and clinical teaching), descriptive documentation (faculty teaching load, innovations, and research on teaching), and qualitative judgments (peer review) on the full spectrum of instruction in medicine. Medical school policies have standardized evaluation criteria, instrumentation, and procedures while granting departments flexibility in conducting peer review. The results of two studies indicate that the evaluation system described here has had a positive impact both on the improvement of teaching and on academic promotions.
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The study on which this article is based evaluated the effect of a clerkship in anesthesiology on medical students' attitudes toward anesthesiology as a specialty, the role of anesthesiologists as physicians, career choice, and the usefulness of this experience in their learning. Eighty-four participating students filled out questionnaires on the first and the last day of a four-week clerkship. Responses to common questions in the questionnaires administered before and after the clerkship were compared by paired t-test to determine statistical significance. The results suggest that the clerkship (a) significantly improved graduating students' attitudes toward anesthesiologists as physicians and (b) provided a worthwhile clinical experience.
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Two parallel studies were conducted with junior medical students to determine what influence the forms of lecture notes would have on learning. The three types of notes given to the students were: a comprehensive manuscript of the lecture containing text, tables, and figures; a partial handout which included some illustrations but required substantial annotation by the students; and a skeleton outline containing no data from the lecture. The students' knowledge about the subject was measured before the lecture, immediately after the lecture, two to four weeks later, and approximately three months later. ⋯ By contract, the students' performances on tests generally were better for those who had received the partial or skeleton handout formats. This was particularly true for information presented during the last quarter of each lecture, when learning efficiency of the skeleton handout group increased while the other two handout groups exhibited learning fatigue. It was concluded that learning by medical students was improved when they recorded notes in class.
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The People's Republic of China is in the process of developing a comprehensive system of health care for one-quarter of the world's population. A continually evolving system of medical education that presently operates on three levels for the education and training of (a) "barefoot" or worker doctors, (b) "assistant" doctors, midwives, and nurses, and (c) both traditional and Western-style physicians has been a key factor in the process. Three aspects of Chinese medical education are noteworthy for the contrast they provide to medical education in the United States. ⋯ Second, Chinese medical colleges are independent of their universities, and all education for the health professions is integrated under a single college. A common curriculum and faculty are used for a considerable portion of each educational program. Finally, the entire medical curriculum is five to six years in duration, and postgraduate education is not required for the practice of medicine in China; nor is it available to the majority of graduates.