Effective communication skills are considered essential to a physician's professional competence. Thus, Finnish medical schools include communication skills training in their curricula. Today it is essential to ensure that students graduate with the interpersonal communication competence (ICC) necessary to succeed in their profession. Experiential…

Objective: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires a sufficient medical knowledge base as one of the six core competencies in residency training. The authors judged that an annual "short-course" review of medical knowledge would be a useful adjunct to standard seminar and rotation teaching, and that a…

Objective: The training objectives for postgraduate education in the United States and Canada both state that teaching skills should be formally developed during training. This article reviews the development of the Teaching-to-Teach program at the University of Toronto Department of Psychiatry, the current curriculum, evaluation, and future…

Objective: The specialty training program for psychiatry in Singapore is transitioning to a seamless 5-year training program. It is timely to assess the perceived adequacy of current psychiatric specialty training. Methods: An anonymous survey was sent to all psychiatry trainees and psychiatrists in the public sector to assess the current adequacy…

The development of universities as independent scientific centers determines their mission to incorporate the most modern achievements of science into the students' practical training. This research on the attitudes of the participants in this process towards the use of modern practices encompasses both trainers and students, and it consists of…

The importance of teaching communication skills in any undergraduate medical curriculum cannot be overstated. Effective doctor-patient communication is widely recognised as an essential aspect of quality patient care. A communication skills module developed for first year medical students at the University of Western Australia (UWA) is described…

Sexual history-taking is a basic medical skill that is traditionally taught poorly in medical school. Practising medical professionals have frequently reported feeling inadequately trained at taking these histories or discussing sexual risk. In order to promote and enhance the learning of this basic skill, those who teach sexual history-taking…

Objective: This article discusses the importance of research training in psychiatric residency programs and makes recommendations for enhancement. Methods: The authors examine the literature detailing the shortage of psychiatrist-researchers and the limitations of research training during residency. The authors then describe the Psychiatrists…

Introduction: Evaluations from the health care team can provide feedback useful in guiding residents' professional growth. We describe the significance of 360-degree evaluation of residents by the nursing staff. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 1642 nurses' anonymous evaluations on 26 residents from 2004 to 2007 was performed. Nurses'…

Managing a whole body donor program is necessary for facilitating a traditional dissection-based anatomy curriculum in medicine and health sciences. Factors which influence body donations to medical science can therefore affect dissection-based anatomy teaching. In order to determine whether age influences the attitudes of medical students to…

The Medical Specialty Preference Inventory (MSPI; Zimny, G.H. (1979). Manual for the Medical Specialty Preference Inventory. St. Louis, MO: St. Louis University School of Medicine), a measure of medical students' interests, was substantively and empirically examined to identify an underlying factor structure. A factor model for the original MSPI…

Objective: The authors discuss journal writing in learning emergency psychiatry. Methods: The journal of a psychiatry intern rotating through an emergency department is used as sample material for analysis that could take place in supervision or a resident support group. A range of articles are reviewed that illuminate the relevance of journal…

Objective: The author studies medical students' perception of the educational value of weekly psychiatric grand rounds and attempts to clarify whether their specific needs should be considered in planning the program. Methods: Student and non-student responses to four relevant items on a 16-item questionnaire were compared to identify differences…

Objectives: The authors aim to identify the most important factors for Israeli residents in determining their satisfaction with psychiatric training programs and to compare the findings with similar U.S. data. Methods: One hundred sixty Israeli psychiatric residents were asked to complete a 40-item questionnaire indicating the relative importance…

In recent years, the School of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico has been largely engaged in the global medical education trend, through the implementation of curriculum changes which include new methods of teaching and learning. These "new" methods seek to change from the use of teacher-centered strategies or…