To fully develop their diagnostic skills, medical students must recognize the limited reliability of the observations on which diagnoses are based. Study of 36 second-year students shows multiple sources of observer variation in readings of systolic and diastolic blood pressures. (LBH)

Federal support to medical schools has resulted in government coercion to change admissions policies in exchange for financial aid. Federal subsidies for tuition have been meager and accompanied by government legislation requiring the acceptance of an increased number of third year transferring students from generally inferior foreign programs.…

Performances of students from two medical colleges, one allopathic (M.D.) and one osteopathic (D.O.), at Michigan State University in a first course in psychiatry are compared. The M.D. students had scored significantly higher on the MCAT, but there was no difference in psychiatry course performance. (Author/LBH)

Medical and dental residents at the University of Rochester Medical Center were surveyed with a brief symptom inventory to measure stress and its causes. Significantly elevated stress showed for rotations in the emergency room, greater frequency of being on call, and reduced sleep. (Author/MLW)

A questionnaire survey at one medical school indicated that seniors viewed the elderly more positively than did freshmen in such areas as productivity, social significance, and sexuality. Overall results suggest that attitudes toward the elderly are becoming more favorable in society in general and in medical schools in particular. (Author/LB)

The Duke University School of Medicine conducts a health testing and promotion program to increase its students' awareness of their own health. The long-term goal is to prevent them from becoming impaired, as physicians, by emotional problems or addiction to alcohol or other drugs. (Author/MSE)

A workshop that uses videotaped vignettes, discussions, and role-playing exercises has become a required part of the Introduction to Clinical Medicine course for second-year medical students at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. Evaluation of the program compared pretest and posttest questionnaires. (Author/MLW)

A study designed to assess interrater agreement among senior residents who rated junior residents on 25 specific behaviors representing the different categories assessed by the "verification of clinical competence" form used by the American Board of Pediatrics is described. (MLW)

As residency training programs attempt to integrate new educational programs, teachers may find residents less interested in learning about the psychosocial aspects of patient care than in the biomedical aspects. These attitudes may present barriers to implementing a curriculum designed to teach psychosocial skills. (MLW)

A nutrition education program at the University of South Alabama Medical Center that was based on the "co-counseling model" as described by Moore and Larsen is described. Patients with one of three problem areas were selected for evaluation: hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and pregnancy. (MLW)

Future physicians say they view acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) as an unfortunate reality that must be addressed, but with great care. The epidemic has not changed medical students' specialties. Fear of contagion, lack of a cure, unpleasant symptoms, and the youth of many victims are difficult realities for students. (MSE)

Based on expressed interests of medical school residency programs, a two-day workshop for chief residents was sponsored by the University of Utah Medical Center. The 180 residents from 138 programs in 21 specialties learned specific management skills through lectures and small-group exercises. (Author/MSE)

Baylor College of Medicine's system for evaluating the clinical progress of anesthesiology residents, developed in response to problems of standards, staff cooperation, and student dissatisfaction with evaluation, assesses resident progress in terms of performance levels based on case complexity and degree of staff intervention. (Author/MSE)

The changes in existing specialties and the demographic composition of medical school classes suggested that the predictive validity of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator should be reexamined. MBTI scores of students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine were cross-tabulated with their specialty choice. (MLW)

An introduction to medical ethics has been incorporated into the core curriculum by the inclusion of four courses in social and behavioral sciences at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. The ethical dimensions of the subjects being considered are thoroughly explored in the group discussions. (MLW)