Rights and responsibilities for evaluating student cognitive and noncognitive abilities rest with the medical faculty. If faculty conscientiously exercise professional judgment and schools use appropriate due process, medical schools will be protected from adverse court decisions and high academic standards will be maintained. (Author/MSE)

Reports on a joint training program by communication and psychiatry departments to (1) strengthen instruction in interpersonal skills for medical students; (2) offer graduate students in communication the opportunity to develop skills as instructors and researchers; and (3) emphasize the usefulness of communication specialists to faculty and…

A course to introduce medical students to formal models of medical diagnostic reasoning at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is described. The students are encouraged to integrate facts and concepts from the basic sciences into strategies of diagnostic reasoning. (MLW)

A course in therapeutic decision-making, designed by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences is described. Goals were to introduce the student to a rational method of making therapeutic decisions and to give the student experience in formulating therapeutic plans. (MLW)

Relationships among prior achievement, academic anxiety, locus of control, and performance in the first year of medical school were examined. Academic anxiety was found to be significantly related to first-year performance and when combined with a measure of prior achievement, resulted in a significant increase in prediction. (Author/MLW)

With increased tuition at medical schools, concern has grown over a decline in the socioeconomic diversity and the academic qualifications of applicants. A study of Georgetown University School of Medicine, with the highest tuition in the United States, indicates that academic and nonacademic characteristics of entering classes have remained…

The Nebraska Psychiatric Institute at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine has developed a program for teaching ethics in the psychiatric clerkship. Educational objectives for the program are defined and the program content is described. Student response has been enthusiastic. (JMD)

The implications of a Supreme Court case involving dismissal of a medical school student for nonacademic reasons is examined for private and public dental schools. Suggestions are given for development of sound dismissal policies. (MSE)

Twenty-five years after the Brown decision, the pool of qualified Black applicants to medical schools is inadequate in both numbers and quality, in spite of high expectations about the consequences of desegregation. (Author/MC)

Reviews the "Horowitz" case and offers a version of the traditional due process formula that would emphasize the fundamental nature of the claim to procedural due process when significant interests are adversely affected by government action. Available from University of Iowa College of Law, Iowa City, IA 52242. (Author/IRT)

The ability of the new Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) to predict performance of first-year medical students at the University of North Carolina was studied. Its incremental validity, determined by computing the additional variance in performance explainable by the MCAT after the effects of other admissions variables were taken into account,…

A study of third-year medical students, using disproportionate sampling fractions to oversample among women and racial and ethnic minorities, suggests a considerable interest in part-time or shared-schedule residency programs, particularly among married women students. Interest in such programs is also related to specialty choice. (JMD)

The result of court litigation on the expulsion of a medical student is questioned, and a modified version of the traditional due process test is recommended. The test would be for "substantial deprivation of a significant interest." Available from State University of Iowa, College of Law, Iowa City, IA 52240. (MSE)

The use of remote broadcasting equipment in the training of interview skills to third-year medical students is described. Equipment consists of a radio transmitter used by the instructor, and a small hearing-aid-like device worn by the interviewer. This technique allows immediate feedback to the student. (MLW)

The results of a study designed to determine the relationship between time students on preceptorships spend in the emergency room and their self-judged anxiety while working there is reported. As a result of this study, program administrators have encouraged preceptors to expand emergency room experience. (Author/MLW)