This paper describes an Elder Specialist Program developed by one school of medicine to sensitize medical students to geriatric psychosocial issues. Elder Specialists participate in panel discussions as part of each geriatric session. As an alternative to traditional senior mentoring programs, the Elder Specialist Program provides all students a…

Though mobile technologies have been studied, their specific value in supporting work-based learning has not yet been investigated. This paper describes a small exploratory study in health care education in which medical students work in clinical practice. The study investigates both the perceived potential as well as the actual role of PDAs in…

Project CREATE was an initiative to strengthen undergraduate medical education in addictions. As part of a needs assessment, forty-six medical students at Ontario's five medical schools completed a bi-weekly, interactive web-based survey about addiction-related learning events. In all, 704 unique events were recorded, for an average of 16.7…

As part of a 6-week mandatory clerkship in psychiatry the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Arizona relieves one student each week of his primary inpatient duties to participate in neuropsychiatric rating examinations at the Tucson Veterans Administration Hospital. Advantages of this clerkship experience are listed. (JT)

Describes the use of behavioral techniques in the teaching of interviewing skills to medical students in one and one-half-hour lecture-demonstrations involving role play and discrimination training. (JT)

Venipuncture is the single most commonly performed procedure that causes pain to the patient, and its mastery is a highly visible milestone both in physical skills and personal manner. A training program at Georgetown University Hospital is described. (MLW)

Programs in emergency medicine are expected to become increasingly organized with the development of emergency medicine teaching faculties. A clerkship design with clinical instruction, classroom instruction, and evaluation is described. (Author/MLW)

A study to determine whether general internal medicine and traditional track medicine residents differed in their outpatient management of essential hypertension is discussed. General internal medicine residents seem to do better in the areas of assessment of drug side effects and patient education. (MLW)

A survey was developed and administered to residency candidates at the University of Massachusetts Coordinated Surgical Residency Program during interviews for residency. The top five decision factors were satisfaction of the current residents, educational philosophy of the program, general reputation of the program, operative work load, and…

A survey revealed that 32 percent of the medical schools in the U. S. and Canada with programs in family medicine provide opportunities for students to visit patients in their homes. Suggestions for improving and designing home visit programs are provided. (Author/MLW)

Describes the development of a hands-on sports medicine training program for residents at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center. Education strategies include clinical teaching, on-the-field education, experiential learning, and didactic instruction. Programs focusing exclusively on sports medicine are needed because the number of…

A clinical clerkship is described that was organized around the goal of teaching information and skills that would be needed by the nonpsychiatrist physician. The setting in an outpatient clinic and the extensive use of videotaped psychiatric interviews were successful program components. Field trips to various mental health facilities were not…

A Clinical Experience Worksheet (CEW) system developed for recording and monitoring overall clinical experience in the psychiatric residency program at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) is described. Methods for using the monthly hand-tallied form are discussed along with its advantages for individual and program evaluation. (JT)

The structure and the development of an internal medicine clerkship designed to promote proficiency in the process of clinical reasoning is described. A "student ward" offers a structured environment where the emphasis is on in-depth clinical exposure and the acquisition of clinical knowledge. (Author/MLW)

Discusses assigning medical students to on-call clergy. The on-call clergy help cope with crises that arise in the hospital. The students gain clinical experience through the tutelage of the clergy. (Author)