Medical education online
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Medical education online · Oct 2010
Development and evaluation of a Health Record Online Submission Tool (HOST).
Health records (HRs) are crucial to quality patient care. The Michigan State University College of Human Medicine begins teaching health record (HR) writing during the second-year clinical skills courses. Prior to this project, we used a cumbersome paper system to allow graduate assistants to grade and give feedback on students' HRs. This study discusses the development and evaluates the effectiveness of the new Health Record Online Submission Tool (HOST). ⋯ HOST is the first published online method of in-depth HR training for preclinical students using information gathered in clinical encounters. With it we were able to maintain effective instruction, streamline course management, and significantly decrease staff time. HOST did not improve student perception of grading consistency and did not prepare students for specific EHR use. Within the context of our class size expansion and our community-based educational program, HOST bridges geography and can support future improvements in HR instruction and faculty development. Medical educators at other institutions could use a similar system to accomplish these goals.
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Medical education online · Aug 2010
Ready or not? Expectations of faculty and medical students for clinical skills preparation for clerkships.
Preclerkship clinical-skills training has received increasing attention as a foundational preparation for clerkships. Expectations among medical students and faculty regarding the clinical skills and level of skill mastery needed for starting clerkships are unknown. Medical students, faculty teaching in the preclinical setting, and clinical clerkship faculty may have differing expectations of students entering clerkships. If students' expectations differ from faculty expectations, students may experience anxiety. Alternately, congruent expectations among students and faculty may facilitate integrated and seamless student transitions to clerkships. ⋯ Preclinical faculty, clerkship faculty, and medical students appear to have different expectations of clinical-skills training needed for clerkships. As American medical schools increasingly introduce clinical-skills training prior to clerkships, more attention to alignment, communication, and integration between preclinical and clerkship faculty will be important to establish common curricular agendas and increase integration of student learning. Clarification of skills expectations may also alleviate student anxiety about clerkships and enhance their learning.
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Medical education online · Jan 2010
Working with interpreters: how student behavior affects quality of patient interaction when using interpreters.
Despite the prevalence of medical interpreting in the clinical environment, few medical professionals receive training in best practices when using an interpreter. We designed and implemented an educational workshop on using interpreters as part of the cultural competency curriculum for second year medical students (MSIIs) at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The purpose of this study is two-fold: first, to evaluate the effectiveness of the workshop and second, if deficiencies are found, to investigate whether the deficiencies affected the quality of the patient encounter when using an interpreter. ⋯ Instructing the interpreter to sit behind the patient helps sustain eye contact between clinician and patient, while assuring confidentiality is a tenet of quality clinical encounters. Teaching students and faculty to emphasize both is warranted to improve cross-language clinical encounters.
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Research training is essential in a modern undergraduate medical curriculum. Our evaluation aimed to (a) gauge students' awareness of research activities, (b) compare students' perceptions of their transferable and research-specific skills competencies, (c) determine students' motivation for research and (d) obtain students' personal views on doing research. ⋯ Students have a narrow definition of research and what it entails. An explanation for why research competence does not align more closely with research motivation is derived from students' lack of understanding of the concept of translational research, as well as a lack of awareness of the research activity being undertaken by their teachers and mentors. We plan to address this with specific research awareness initiatives.
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Today's medical students are learning in a social media era in which patient confidentiality is at risk yet schools' social media policies have not been elucidated. The purpose of this study is to describe the presence of medical schools on top social media sites and to identify whether student policies for these schools explicitly address social media use. ⋯ Medical schools and their students are using social media. Almost all US medical schools have a Facebook presence, yet most do not have policies addressing student online social networking behavior. While social media use rises, policy informing appropriate conduct in medical schools lags behind. Established policies at some medical schools can provide a blueprint for others to adopt and adapt.