Personality characteristics of entering women medical students, as determined by their responses to the Omnibus Personality Inventory and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, were studied and found to be similar over the past decade. Reasons for the difficulties that women students express in finding role models are suggested.…

Factors that help determine physicians' practice locations and specialties were listed by students and medical school faculty at the University of Alabama School of Medicine. Students, while acknowledging the importance of clinical experiences, said faculty members had little influence on their specialty choices. (Author/MLW)

A family medicine preceptorship program is outlined and students' reactions to it are discussed. The reactions of the preceptors to the program components and to the student participants are described. (MLW)

An investigation into the perceptions of students and instructors of the relative importance of the various teaching, advisory, and patient care functions of instructors is described. Conclusions imply that the role of teachers in a medical course should be more closely defined and the functions made more explicit. (MLW)

In a survey of 192 women medical students, first- and second-year students were acutely aware of an identity crisis as a woman and desired a fourth-year elective with a woman physician. Third- and fourth-year students had little interest in working with a woman physician, but were concerned only with the physician's competence. (Editor/LBH)

A study of the influence of clinical experiences on one medical school's students' choice of specialty found that neither early exposure to role models in family medicine nor the order in which specialty clerkships were taken significantly affected students' choice of family medicine. (MSE)

The social and economic changes of Medicare and Medicaid broadened the patient base for teaching, universalized student involvement in the teaching hospital, and improved the care of both the poor and the well-to-do. (MLW)

Contending that many health care shortcomings derive from instructional programs, Jason Hilliare advocates reform in the student selection process, the human models available for emulation, the evaluation/reward system, and the instructional experiences available. J. D. Myers holds that quality insures stable and self-renewing undergraduate and…

It was found that women in medical schools support the option of careers for women generally, although not necessarily at the expense of the maternal role. This pattern was stronger among students than faculty members. (Editor)

An innovative program, the Office for Women in Medicine, (OWM), at Yale University School of Medicine, aids professional women in overcoming some of the barriers that they face in the traditionally male-dominated medical profession. (Author/LBH)

Discusses historical background of the primary health care team and key questions about team delivery, reviews past experiences in interdisciplinary education for primary care, lists guidelines for future educational experiences, and presents a model for the realistic implementation of these concepts in any health science center. (Author/JT)

A study of factors affecting specialty choice before residency shows clerkship and role models to be most beneficial. Student experiences in the first three years of medical school were most detrimental, although most students select specialties in the third and fourth years. Implications for medical school policy are discussed. (MSE)

The perceptions of medical students and faculty mentors, called docents, regarding the docents' role was examined. Activities were rated on the basis of how often they would be carried out ideally by a docent and on the basis of how often they were actually carried out. (Author/MLW)

A methodology to analyze the cognitive content and the focus of residents' thoughts during conversations between faculty members and residents is discussed. Results suggest that effective supervision may relate to the ability of faculty members to display their reasoning as they present information. (Author/MLW)