Santa Ana, California has the highest teenage birth rate in Orange County, USA, at 28.2 per 1,000 women aged 15-19 as compared to 12.0 per 1000 women of similar age elsewhere in the county. In the light of this disparity, University of California Irvine medical students surveyed a convenience sample of 9th grade students (aged 14-15 years) in…

This study examines the effects of a longitudinal patient experience on the enhancement of empathy in first and second year students attending Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC). The Longitudinal Educational Experience Advancing Patient Partnerships (LEAP) is a new required program at WCMC. Entering Medical students are matched with chronically…

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival rates have been shown to be lower than cardiac arrest survival rates occurring in the hospital setting. Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can significantly improve survival. PumpStart, a community service-learning program developed by medical students, was formed to increase education on…

Some physiological concepts, such as physiology of filtration and absorption in the different nephron segments, are so detailed that they can be a challenge to be memorized. This article describes an exercise that solidifies learning as students manipulate, using paper models, "transporters" and "electrolytes" in the…

Purpose: The Department of Pediatrics at SUNY Upstate Medical University in collaboration with the Instructional Design, Development, and Evaluation Department in Syracuse University's School of Education recently undertook a curricular reform effort that included translation of the residency program's annual core didactic lecture series to an…

This paper describes a tutorial programme developed at the University of Western Australia (UWA) to enhance medical students' learning processes within problem-based learning contexts. The programme encourages students to use more effective learning approaches by scaffolding the development of effective problem-solving strategies, and by reducing…

Objective: The authors describe how one child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship program responded to emerging trends in clinical practice which increasingly demand that child and adolescent psychiatrists lead their colleagues through instruction and supervision. Methods: Data from surveys of recent graduates of child and adolescent training…

Context: Changes in health care and new theories of learning have prompted significant changes in medical education. Some US medical schools employ immersion learning in rural communities to increase the number of physicians who choose to practice in these areas. Founded in 1971, the rural physician associate program (RPAP) is a longitudinal…

Context: Founded in 1971 with state funding to increase the number of primary care physicians in rural Minnesota, the Rural Physician Associate Program (RPAP) has graduated 1,175 students. Third-year medical students are assigned to primary care physicians in rural communities for 9 months where they experience the realities of rural practice with…

A gross anatomy program was evaluated that shortened the dissection time on the extremities by having half the class dissect either the upper or lower extremity and then study the opposite extremity already dissected by other classmates. Analysis of covariance showed that the program efficiently utilized laboratory time. (MLW)

A UCLA-San Fernando Valley Medical Program for training residents and interns in interpersonal skills is reported and evaluated. Using a modification of interpersonal process recall (IPR), the teaching technique uses both a structured course format and ongoing videotaping and reviewing of house officer-patient interactions with a faculty member.…

The use of efficient organization of knowledge and of problem-solving strategies to enhance medical students' clinical problem-solving skills were assessed. Information for the experimental group emphasized disease groupings, symptom-disease associations, and clinical problem-solving heuristics. The experimental group acquired higher ratio of…

The primary objective of a training program based within an internal medicine department at the University of Texas Medical Branch was to increase the interviewing skills of medicine residents, especially regarding the psychosocial aspects of patients. The program, evaluation methods, and results are described. (JMD)

The Parallel Curriculum, a problem-based curriculum at Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is described through each year of study. The curriculum increases learning enjoyment by making medical students responsible for scholarly exploration and integration of knowledge and skills with faculty support. (Author/GLR)

Two charting strategies to help students organize patients' data are Weed's problem-oriented medical record and Russell's condition diagram. Students at the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio were divided into study groups. The condition diagram group format may be helpful for students with lower academic achievement. (Author/MLW)