A six-week University of Virginia residential summer program exposing minority college students to the rigors of medical school has been highly successful in increasing recruitment and retention of minorities. Cooperation with a consortium that includes historically black colleges and universities has been a key program element. Lack of minority…

A survey of 249 students at the State University of New York at Buffalo identified medical ethics issues arising during clinical training in professional norms, limits of intervention, defensive shielding of professional colleagues, respect toward patients, communication, and student boundaries. Concerns differed by student year, supporting…

A study of a new University of Toronto medical school problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum found that students (n=207) and faculty (n=15) had more favorable attitudes toward PBL after direct experience with it than before. Recommendations are made for other schools and programs wishing to implement PBL curricula. (Author/MSE)

A Medical University of South Carolina study assessed the appropriateness of care provided by medical residents by comparing written protocols with student compliance. Results show moonlighting residents were considerably less consistent than staff physicians in compliance. Intervention improved resident performance. (MSE)

Seventeen medical students in a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum reported that on average they spent twice as much time preparing for step 1 of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination as did 52 students in the traditional lecture-based curriculum at the same school. Different learning approaches were also employed. (SLD)

The use of a performance-based assessment of senior medical students' clinical skills utilizing standardized patients was evaluated, with 6,804 student-patient encounters involving 405 students over 6 years. Results provide evidence for test security, content validity, construct validity, reliability, and test ability to discriminate a wide range…

Results of a survey of both men and women medical students, housestaff, postdoctoral students, and junior faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, indicated that women at all levels were less interested in academic careers than were male colleagues. Women also reported fewer mentor relationships and role models. (DB)

The presence and extent of overlap between checklist and written scores using data for over 400 medical students in 6 classes on an examination including clinical encounter stations with standardized patients were studied. Eighty-three cases used both measures. Written scores provide information in addition to that of the checklists. (SLD)

A study evaluated the feasibility of an objective structured clinical examination to assess the competence of foreign medical school graduates, clinical clerks, and interns to address clinical ethical situations. The University of Toronto's experience with the measure found it useful but in need of improvement. (MSE)

Analysis of responses of 63 medical faculty involved in formal ethics teaching programs for medical residents indicated such perceived problems as time constraints resulting from residents' heavy schedules; attitudes of residents; logistical problems; time demands on faculty; lack of reinforcement for teaching ethics; and deficiencies in faculty…

Three systems of class ranking (grades, test scores, and clinical performance evaluations) are compared, using 124 residents graduated from medical school. All three systems showed modest correlations with performance in residency, but clinical performance measures were most predictive. Reliable and valid deans' letters of recommendation could be…

A study investigated whether medical residents' compliance with guidelines for health promotion and disease prevention improved after exposure to a revised curriculum over three years. Chart audits indicate that, although compliance increased during the first year, activities returned to baseline levels thereafter, despite continued exposure to…

A survey of 636 pharmacy students examined their attitudes about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and compared these with those of 113 medical and 118 nursing students. Among pharmacy students, several factors were associated with AIDS attitudes, particularly attitudes about homosexuality. Further AIDS education and sensitization to…

The Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (New York City) program of preemployment urine toxicology examinations for beginning housestaff physicians has resulted in treatment for two physicians testing positive for illegal drugs. The program's primary purpose is to focus on substance abuse issues in graduate medical education. (Author/MSE)

A study investigated the relationship of students' age, race, gender, father's occupation, anxiety, and field independence with grade point averages, first-term grades, and standardized test scores in 85 freshman medical students in a variety of courses. Implications of the findings for different fields are discussed. (MSE)