A new required clinical clerkship in family medicine at Duke University School of Medicine is described in terms of planning, implementation, and modification in response to students' evaluations. The data demonstrate that family medicine can be taught effectively as a core clinical rotation. (Author/MLW)

A pilot program in respiratory therapeutics that includes a development and implementation model is reported. Its prerotational and postrotational evaluations and significant improvement in competency areas related to clinical skill areas are described. (Author/MLW)

Two surveys show that the use of prepaid health care plans for educational purposes is rising. A review of published studies that have examined the costs of such training is included. (Author/MLW)

Describes the involvement of residents in designing their curriculum, monitoring their work and learning settings, selecting their peers, evaluating their peers and faculty in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Implications for patient care, future physicians, medical departments, and medical…

The University of Utah School of Medicine offers a supplemental undergraduate Seniors Honors Program in Surgery. The goals of the program have been to allow students to make more informed career choices, obtain positions in competitive residency programs, and a head start in postgraduate surgical training. (MLW)

A course at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago provides students with an understanding of the administrative responsibilities inherent in academic management positions. A practicum, thesis project, and seminars cover such topics as legislative trends and effects of health care institutions, manpower planning and recruitment,…

Three parallel studies of teaching skills in clinical medical education, undertaken as the basis for faculty development program planning, are reported. The study's design and methodology allow replication at individual institutions for development of programs focusing on specific teaching skills desired. (MSE)

A preceptorship program design to introduce preclinical students to primary care in both underserved and adequately served communities is described. A preliminary evaluation of the program's first year indicates that it has had an impact on the students' attitudes. (Author/MLW)

A survey is reported that was undertaken by the Association for Medical School Pharmacology to assess the status of developing clinical pharmacology programs in medical schools in the United States and Canada and to determine why some schools have been unable to mount such programs. Survey questions are included. (Author/JMD)

A community-based educational network was established to improve the deployment of physicians's assistants away from the original site of training in California's San Francisco Bay Area. The graduates' practice locations for a 7-year period was compared before and after the decentralization of the program. (Author/MLW)

Evidence is presented to support the development of the nursing home as a required clinical educational site. Analogies and differences between the nursing home and the hospital in medical education are explored as a means of understanding the potential and limits of the nursing home's role in medical education. (Author/MLW)

A geriatric health maintenance program, started as a community medicine elective and now an innovative model in humanistic health care, is described. Junior and senior medical students act as live-in facilitators of comprehensive health care for the elderly tenants in publicly subsidized housing units. (Author/MLW)

Obstacles to developing training programs in geriatric medicine include shortage of faculty members and negative attitudes toward geriatrics on the part of students. For two years, family medicine residents have participated in a required rotation in geriatric medicine at the Duke University Medical Center. (Author/MLW)

A 5-week family medicine clerkship is described that uses several innovative techniques: problem-based learning focusing on patient management tutorials; consultation with specialists; supervised patient care and a nursing home inpatient teaching service; and workshops on topics such as office-surgical techniques, practice management, and…