A humanities seminar for health care students was designed to facilitate the synthesis of knowledge acquired by students in various humanities courses. An evaluation of the course suggested that a new format was needed. (JKS)

A procedure derived from classical test theory analyzes course grades and report results to assess third-year clerkships at a midwestern medical school. The procedure is sensitive to a large range of characteristics of the courses and is a promising supplement to student course evaluations in studying curriculum change. (SLD)

One aspect of the validity of medical students' clinical performance ratings are studied. It is demonstrated that there are higher correlations between house officer ratings of student knowledge and cognitive ability scores than between attending staff evaluations and student ability scores. (Author/GK)

Studied the effects of the location (community-based or hospital-based) and the structure of an ambulatory clerkship for medical students on cognitive knowledge and clinical performance. Results from 176 students suggest that something about the rotational structure of the multidisciplinary ambulatory clerkship does affect clinical ratings of…

Examined the psychometric properties of an assessment tool for measuring attitudes toward physician/nurse collaboration. Survey results from 208 medical students and 86 nursing students support the construct validity and reliability of the scale, which can be used to evaluate programs designed to foster physician/nurse collaboration. (SLD)

Whether student ratings, of course effectiveness, given immediately after the final, would be biased by the presence of unfair questions on that examination was investigated. Data indicate that ratings of course and instructor characteristics, unrelated to testing, remain unbiased by an examination designed to be and recognized as unfair.…

The relationship of three medical college policies on the results of the National Board of Medical Examiners test was examined. Only the policy recommending a review course for the test had a significant effect on test results. (Author/PN)

Surveyed 196 medical college seniors about changes in the health-care system. Of the respondents, 79% believed that cost reduction rather than quality of care is the primary consideration behind recent changes, and 78% thought that managed-care organizations hamper physician ability in rendering optimal care. Discusses implications for curricular…

A professional program's influence on student ratings of instruction was examined over 3 years of a multi-instructor anatomy course for nursing, dental hygiene, pharmacy, and physical education students (N=743). The students were relatively consistent in their differential evaluations of instructors and instruction. Student achievement and…

Medical schools' academic factors (full-time teaching and research components) have more influence on students' career choice than clinical factors (residency programs), but the internship year and first few years of practice are also important determinants. This raises questions about the desired objectives of a medical school. (Author/GDC)

Five studies involving medical students over a four-year period were conducted to examine the reliability and validity of the Medical Helping Relationship Inventory (MHRI)--an instrument for evaluating medical communication skills. Evidence of the MHRI's construct validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity is discussed. (SLD)

Results of the fall 1993 administration of part two of the Medical Council of Canada's Evaluating Examination for 744 candidates provided evidence of the consistency of the pass/fail and cutting score definitions for the objective- structured clinical examination stations used across examiners. These results support the validity of this…

Multiple regression processes are employed to assess the effect of student age on preclinical medical school achievement in the context of eight other predictor variables. Results indicate that student age fails to contribute to the explanation of preclinical achievement after the influence of the other variables is taken into account. (Author/CM)

Early admission students performed as well as first-year medical students in the preclinical sciences. They integrated, rather than alternated, undergraduate and medical coursework. Double or inter-departmental majors were common; few general education or non-major courses were chosen. (CP)

Standardized patient case problems were administered to approximately 280 final year medical students. Results indicate that performance on a given component of clinical competence shows less consistency when measured on different cases than does performance on different components measured on the same case. (TJH)