From the December 2004 issue of Academic Emergency Medicine:

Farrell SE, Digioia NM, Broderick KB, Coates WC. Mentoring for clinician-educators. Acad Emerg Med 2004; 11(12):1346-1350.

Abstract: Mentorship has been shown to have a positive impact on academic faculty members in terms of career advancement. The guidance of a mentor has been shown to increase academic outcome measures such as peer-reviewed publications and grant support for junior academic faculty. In addition, career satisfaction of mentored faculty is greater than those with no mentorship. There is little research on the effects of mentorship on the careers of clinician-educators. This group has also been reported to have a lower scholarly productivity rate than the typical research-based faculty. This article addresses the current stat! e of mentorship as it applies specifically to clinician-educators, offers advice on how a potential protege might seek out a potential mentor, and finally, suggests a possible mentoring system for academic emergency physicians who are focusing on careers in medical education.

PubMed

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This post courtesy of Anne Taylor-Vaisey:

From the December 2004 issue of Academic Emergency Medicine, a really practical article with lots of tips:

Richardson BK. Feedback. Acad Emerg Med 2004; 11(12):e1-e5.

Abstract: The emergency department provides a rich environment for diverse patient encounters, rapid clinical decision making, and opportunities to hone procedural skills. Well-prepared faculty can utilize this environment to teach residents and medical students and gain institutional recognition for their incomparable role and teamwork. Giving effective feedback is an essential skill for all teaching faculty. Feedback is ongoing appraisal of performance based on direct observation aimed at changing or sustaining a behavior. Tips from the literature and the! author’s experience are reviewed to provide formats for feedback, review of objectives, and elements of professionalism and how to deal with poorly performing students. Although the following examples pertain to medical student education, these techniques are applicable to the education of all adult learners, including residents and colleagues. Specific examples of redirection and reflection are offered, and pitfalls are reviewed. Suggestions for streamlining verbal and written feedback and obtaining feedback from others in a fast-paced environment are given. Ideas for further individual and group faculty development are presented.

PubMed

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This post courtesy of Anne Taylor-Vaisey:

Here’s a little light reading from the latest issue of Annals of Family Medicine. Free full text is available.

Borrell-Carrio F, Suchman AL, Epstein RM. The biopsychosocial model 25 years later: principles, practice, and scientific inquiry. Ann Fam Med 2004; 2(6):576-582.

Abstract: The biopsychosocial model is both a philosophy of clinical care and a practical clinical guide. Philosophically, it is a way of understanding how suffering, disease, and illness are affected by multiple levels of organization, from the societal to the molecular. At the practical level, it is a way of understanding the patient’s subjective experience as an essential contributor to accurate diagnosis, health outcomes, and humane care.

This post courtesy of Anne Taylor-Vaisey:

Here is an article of possible interest, from the latest issue of the International Journal of Nursing Studies.

Ellis L, Nolan M. Illuminating continuing professional education: unpacking the black box. Int J Nurs Stud 2005; 42(1):97-106.

Abstract: This paper reports on a longitudinal study of continuing professional education (CPE) in nursing using a case study approach operationalised within an illuminative evaluation model. Using a short focussed programme as an instrumental case study, the project gathered data from three major groups of stakeholders over an 18 month period in order to explore the context within which CPE operates, and to highlight those factors which appear to influence the outcomes of CPE over time. Data were collected using documentary analysis and in-depth semi-structured interviews with educators, students on the programme (the ENB 941), and ! their managers. The latter two groups were interviewed at four points in time (prior to the course, immediately post course, 6 and 12 months post course).

Anne Taylor-Vaisey sent around this link to the table of contents for the new issue of New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education (Volume 2004, Issue 104, 2004), which has the theme, “Embracing and Enhancing the Margins of Adult Education.” Looks like there’s lots of good reading there.

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This article from the Johnson County Sun shows just how interdisciplinary an educational activity can get:

More than 300 physicians, nurses, pharmacists, clinical laboratory scientists, mental health providers, social workers, public health professionals, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians from across northeast Kansas attended the two-day conference at the Overland Park Convention Center.



The overall focus of the conference presentations was on quickly recognizing and identifying a terrorist event or health emergency; meeting the acute needs of patients; altering the public health systems at the community, state and national levels; and effectively collaborating in a multidisciplinary response.

Whether it’s for disaster planning or your run-of-the-mill health crisis, it seems to me that most of the problems occur when people in all involved specialties don’t communicate with each other and don’t see the big picture, which may lie outside the scope of their own piece of the puzzle.

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This post courtesy of Anne Taylor-Vaisey:

From the December 2004 issue of Developing World Bioethics:

Hattab AS. Current trends in teaching ethics of healthcare practices. Developing World Bioeth 2004; 4(2):160-172.

Abstract: The unprecedented progress in bio-medical sciences and technology during the last few decades has resulted in great transformations in the concepts of health and disease, health systems and healthcare organisation and practices. Those changes have been accompan! ied by the emergence of a broad range of ethical dilemmas that confront health professionals more frequently. The classical Hippocratic ethical principles, though still retaining their relevance and validity, have become insufficiently adequate in an increasing range of problems and situations. Healthcare that has been practised for centuries on the basis of a direct doctor-patient relationship has been increasingly transformed into a more complex process integrating the health-team, the patient (healthcare seeker) and the community. Systematic review of the specialised literatures revealed that Healthcare Ethics education has become a basic requirement for any training programme for health professionals, and should cover the different stages of undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education. Both theoretical foundations and practical skills are required for the appropriate ethical reasoning, ethical attitude and decision-making abilities. There is growing evidence that phys! icians’ professional and moral development is not only determined by the formal curriculum of ethics; rather more, it is determined by the moral environment of the professional practice, the ‘hidden curriculum’ which deserves serious consideration by medical education.

PubMed

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I just heard about MedBiquitous the other day, but it sounds like it s an organization on the move. According to its Web site, Oregon Health and Science University and MedBiquitous have received a grant from the National Library of Medicine to design, implement, and test an information technology system that allows physicians to discover CME that fills identified gaps in their knowledge at the point of care. The project team will map content into the MedBiquitous Healthcare Learning Object Metadata model and implement Web services that allows discovery of content based on competencies.

This sounds interesting I look forward to hearing more about it.

Update: My valiant co-blogger Anne Taylor-Vaiseylooked up the details about this on CRISP (Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects), a searchable database of (U.S.) federally funded biomedical research projects conducted at universities, hospitals, and other research institutions.

Here’s the link to the abstract. I particularly like that, after it’s tested and evaluated, “The software will be freely distributed as open-source software and the resulting standards will be promoted for widespread adoption.”

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Note: SACME members can download PowerPoint presentations from the fall meeting in Boston from the SACME Web site. For those who couldn’t attend and/or aren’t members, I’ll be writing up my notes from the sessions and posting them on Capsules. There was a lot of really great stuff!

At the Society for Academic CME fall meeting in Boston last week, Maxine Papadakis, MD, associate dean for student affairs and professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, outlined some interesting results from a study she did in conjunction with the Medical Board of California on the consequences of unprofessional behavior in medical school.

Basically, she said they wanted to see if bad behavior in med school correlates to Medical Board disciplinary actions 20 or 30 years down the road. And in fact, it turns out that unprofessional behavior in med school does correlate with disciplinary actions later on, and is a better predictor than MCAT scores, grades, or other factors. Looks like some zebras don t change their stripes as they mature–or don’t mature, as the case may be.

It’s now official: docs care more about the quality of the data than who the commercial supporter is. From a press release:

In a study of the reading habits of physicians, the most important factors affecting the interpretation of medical literature are the “Quality of Information Presented,” and “How Well Key Concepts are Supported by Data.” The least important factor of those studied was whether or not the research had “Commercial Sponsorship.” The University of Alabama School of Medicine at Birmingham performed the study in conjunction with Astrolabe Analytica, Inc.