Tertiary institutions are migrating away from didactic and teacher-centred approaches, and instead, pivoting to lesson designs that encourage hands-on learning and student engagement. However, this practice is often "try and see", with few frameworks providing evidence-based approaches for practical application that demonstrates how…

This essay recounts efforts to teach liberal arts to engineering, nursing, pharmacy, and pre-medicine majors. Showing how various forms of public media reinforce harmful ideologies about social identities in the United States serves as a convergence between preprofessional disciplines and the liberal arts. At the same time, City as Text™ offers…

This study aimed to provide evidence to guide decisions on the type and timing of assessments in a graduate medical programme, by identifying whether students from particular degree backgrounds face greater difficulty in satisfying the current assessment requirements. We examined the performance rank of students in three types of assessments and…

Examined impact of Medical Education Preparatory Program, structured career planning program, on career maturity scores of 61 African-American premedical students as measured by Medical Career Development Inventory (MCDI). Results revealed significant increases in career development levels, as measured by MCDI, of African-American students after…

Premedical students evaluating a peer-evaluation grid indicated that they preferred it not be anonymous, but formative. Most recognized their behavior changed as a result of peer assessment; most had more positive attitudes toward health care. (SK)

Notes that most future medical students major in biology and chemistry despite evidence that non-science majors perform equally well in medical school. Traces the history of the liberal arts tradition, discusses its importance for medicine, and urges medical faculties to take the lead in reshaping the premedical as well as the medical education of…

The paper considers the current health care crisis in rural and inner city areas and proposes changes in physician education including changes in premedical education and medical school admissions criteria. Changed criteria could encourage more broadly educated students to enter the medical profession thus maintaining high standards while meeting…

This study attempted to determine if test anxiety is manifested in pre-medical students as a result of the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and if Beta-endorphin similarly responds to that type of situational stress. Seventeen participants completed the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) by Spielberger et al. (1980) and donated 30 ml of blood for…

Explains the organization, structure, and assessment of the undergraduate course entitled Clinical Anatomy and Anatomical Skills. The course aims to refocus, vertically integrate, and revise the subject using problem-solving methods plus testing of various clinically relevant skills recorded in a logbook. This report re-emphasizes the importance…

Asserting that college advisers have the opportunity to enrich prehealth students' growth by becoming mentors, discusses issues mentors will encounter when supporting students, including career selection; roles for the mentor; curriculum, classes, and grades; application; moving beyond the medical school option; innovative opportunities for…

Students' perceptions of actual and idealized qualities of practicing physicians were studied longitudinally at three points in students' medical education. Questionnaire data were collected to assess stability and change in students' images of qualities of "most" physicians and of "effective" physicians. Male and female students' images of…

A study examined the relationship between undergraduate and medical school achievement, as indicated by a variety of measures, and competence in 18 medical care tasks during early residency. (MSE)

Foreign study can broaden the undergraduate experience for premedical students and help remedy the problem of on-campus tunnel vision, characterized by too little independent learning and critical thinking, premature specialization, avoidance of social sciences and humanities, and lack of appreciation of cultural heritage. (MSE)

Describes development of a senior undergraduate level medical research class. The purpose of the class is to help health professionals critically analyze medical research and thus decide whether or not to use the results to change their professional practices. (CH)

Many students planning to apply to medical school take undergraduate courses covering concepts that are taught within the medical school curriculum. A study to determine whether these students perform better in similar courses in medical school than students without prior exposure is discussed. (Author/MLW)