Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

The Institute for the Medical Humanities of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) was established in June 1973 to ensure that humanities teaching and research became an integral part of the education of future scientists and health-care professionals at UTMB. The multidisciplinary faculty of the Institute-who currently represent the disciplines of art, drama, history, law, literature, philosophy, and religious studies-teach in all four years of the undergraduate medical curriculum as well as in various residency programs. In addition to its focus on students and residents in the School of Medicine, the Institute has a vibrant graduate program in medical humanities with several joint degree options, including an MD/MA and an MD/PhD program, and the Institute has always included the School of Nursing, the School of Allied Health Sciences, and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in its activities. After 30 years, the Institute's commitment to health-professional education remains strong and enduring. Challenged by major curriculum reform in the School of Medicine and increasingly tight state budgets, Institute faculty members look forward to continued collaboration with their basic science and clinical colleagues to improve our evolving curriculum and to seek research funding from external sources.     

Development and initial psychometric properties of the University of Texas at San Antonio Future Disposition Inventory

We describe the development and initial psychometric properties of a 24‐item self‐report measure, the University of Texas at San Antonio Future Disposition Inventory (UTSA FDI). This instrument is designed to evaluate future related thoughts and feelings that are associated with suicide‐related risk behaviors: positive focus, suicide orientation, and negative focus. The items were generated by clinical and nonclinical samples. The structure of the instrument was defined in a sample of 350 university undergraduate students (Study 1). Using CFA, we confirmed the fit of the 3‐factor solution in an independent sample of college age students (n=452; Study 2). Scale reliability estimates were good (all ρ's≥.80) in both studies. Known‐groups validation analyses showed that scores on each scale were useful in differentiating the responses of the study groups. Correlates for the scales were identified when scores on measures of suicide‐related risk and general psychological symptoms were included as validation self‐report instruments. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 66: 1–20, 2010.     

The InterCon network: a program for education partnerships at the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center.

The University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center (UT-Houston) has created programs and activities to address the state's pressing needs in minority education. Through InterCon, a network of universities and K-12 schools, UT-Houston works with its partners to identify competitive candidates in the current pool of minority graduates with bachelor's degrees and to help them--along with their non-minority counterparts--progress in their education. Another objective is to expand the pool of minorities underrepresented in medicine who complete high school and go to college. In 1994 UT-Houston and Prairie View A&M University created a collaborative venture to provide new educational opportunities at UT-Houston for Prairie View's predominantly African American students. A three-track summer internship program--a result of that collaboration--has since been expanded to partnerships with other minority and majority universities throughout Texas. In 1998, for example, 108 undergraduate students from these universities (and 40 other universities nationwide) participated in research, professional, and administrative summer internships at UT-Houston. The InterCon network also has partnerships with K-12 schools. UT-Houston works with inner-city, suburban, and rural school districts to develop education models that can be transferred throughout the state. The partnerships deal with helping to teach basic academic skills and computer literacy, improve science-related instruction, meet demands for health promotion materials and information for school-initiated health and wellness programs, and develop distance-learning paradigms. UT-Houston views InterCon as a program helping Texas institutions to engage and adapt to the socioeconomic factors, demographic changes, and technology explosion that currently challenge public education.     

The post-baccalaureate premedical certification program at the University of North Texas Health Science Center strengthens admission qualifications for entrance into medical school.

The Post-Baccalaureate (postbac) Premedical Certification Program at the University of North Texas Health Science Center provides an opportunity for individuals to enhance their credentials for entry into medical school by offering a challenging biomedical science core curriculum in graduate biochemistry, cell biology, physiology, and pharmacology. In addition, students (called postbacs) receive instruction in human gross anatomy, histology, and embryology with first-year medical students. More than 90% of the students accepted into the postbac program have applied to medical school previously but have been rejected by admission committees at least once, primarily because of low cognitive scores. In spring 2001, seven postbacs completed the program, of which only one was admitted into the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM), the medical school affiliated with the University of North Texas Health Science Center. Three postbacs went to other medical schools. Thirty-one completed the program by spring 2006, of whom 13 were admitted to TCOM, and eight to other medical schools. After six years, 101 postbacs have completed the program, and 70 have been accepted into medical schools. Postbacs admitted into TCOM have performed well compared with their medical school classmates. Overall, average scores for postbacs are above those of their medical school classmates. In addition, postbacs have taken class leadership positions, served as tutors and mentors, and have served as school ambassadors for new applicants. The postbac premedical program has proven to be very successful in preparing students for the rigors of a medical school curriculum by allowing these students to develop the skills and confidence necessary to compete.     

Curriculum reform at the University of Otago Medical School.

The University of Otago Medical School, the older of the two medical schools in New Zealand, identified during the 1980s many of the same problems with its undergraduate curriculum as were reported in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. An early, overly ambitious attempt to introduce a full problem-based learning curriculum at Otago failed; however, many piecemeal changes that embodied some of the principles of problem-based learning were successfully implemented. Subsequently, as desire for more coordinated and substantive change grew, Otago's faculty used what they had learned from their first effort to successfully introduce a modular systems-based preclinical curriculum in 1997. The authors describe the features of the new curriculum and discuss two components (a systems-integration course and a large-scale program of computerized in-course testing) that are particularly innovative. The new curriculum is already achieving one of its main goals (increasing the perceived relevance of preclinical teaching) and other outcomes are being evaluated.     

坚持物理基础增加现代内容结合医学应用--北京大学医学部物理实验的教学改革实践

为适应21世纪医学人才培养的需要,急需对医学院校的物理实验进行现代化改革.我们根据医学院校的特点,淘汰了落后、过时的实验内容,增加了具有近代物理内容和近代物理实验技术的新实验.为医学院校物理实验的现代化改革作了有益的尝试.     

Focus on: SUNY Health Center at Brooklyn Scientific & Medical Instrumentation Center.

The Scientific and Medical Instrumentation Center (SMIC) is the clinical engineering program serving the State University of New York's Health Science Center at Brooklyn. SMIC is a separate department within the center's 354-bed University Hospital, and provides many instrumentation support services for the hospital and the center's Basic Sciences Division. Now in its 24th year, SMIC developed the nation's first mandatory initial checkout program for patient care equipment, and in 1973 published the results of a funded pilot preventive maintenance program; this served as a model for the start-up of other PM programs in hospitals across the country and overseas. Today, this 35-person department is primarily responsible for some 7,000 units used in over 60 University Hospital departments and clinics. With its interdisciplinary expertise, SMIC also provides the hospital with many other instrumentation services, including prepurchase evaluation and review, and on-site emergency instrumentation service. SMIC also develops unique devices and instruments for the center's researchers, from the prototype stage through to final construction, and may modify instruments for increased safety and efficacy.     

山东某医学院校大学生毕业选择方向及其对心理健康的影响

目的:了解当代大学毕业生面对就业及考研时的心理状况以及可能存在的心理健康问题,为在校大学生心理健康教育及心理咨询提供必要的科学根据。方法:通过自己设计的调查表及焦虑、抑郁自评量表,对山东某医学院校2013届毕业生进行调查(包括临床、预防、检验、护理等专业)。结果:1该校大学毕业生在择业、考研的选择上存在统计学差异(χ2=22.660,P<0.05);临床、预防、检验专业考研率较高。2不同特征毕业生的焦虑、抑郁程度有统计学差异,女性高于男性(t=-11.740,-9.100;P<0.01);护理和临床专业抑郁倾向较高(F=2.807,P<0.05)。3毕业选择方向与焦虑、抑郁情绪的发生有一定影响,差异有统计学意义(F=3.785,3.091;P<0.05),考研者焦虑、抑郁情绪均高于非考研者。结论:受不同专业、不同性别毕业生的就业前景影响,大学毕业生较易出现焦虑、抑郁情绪。应针对相关原因,及时、科学的进行心理疏导。     

The Program in Medical Humanities at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine.

The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine opened officially in 1971, offering a combined BA/MD in a six-year program. The program has a defined goal of offering humanities courses throughout the curriculum. The Sirridge Office of Medical Humanities was established in 1992, and it assumed the responsibility of developing conveniently scheduled courses in medical humanities, making more specific requirements for such courses in the medical curriculum. The goal of these courses has been to provide students a different way of looking at things by giving them insight into the ways that reading literature and writing stories helps medical students better read patient experiences. A course entitled "Literature: A Healing Art" was first offered in 1992. In 1994, The Body Image in Medicine and the Arts course was added. With the help of a Culpeper grant in 1995, five interdisciplinary undergraduate courses were created. In 1999 Medicine, Literature, and Law was developed from two previous courses. Bioethics is offered as part of a series called Correlative Medicine and in a required course, Behavioral Science. The present director of the Office of Medical Humanities has resigned and at present there is a search for a replacement. A new director may decide to change some of the offerings and add new activities. The medical school remains committed to supporting the office and its programs in keeping with the goals of the original academic plan to educate safe and caring physicians.     

Becoming an Independent Community Mental Health Center: Perils of the Process

Over the past 12 years, since the inception of the Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) movement, there has been increasing concern that local communities have more input; in fact, that they actually have the opportunity to operate the mental health programs that they deem necessary for their communities.¹     

The Medical Humanities Program at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

The current Medical Humanities Program at the University of Manitoba has evolved from a series of voluntary sessions into an integral element of the curriculum since its inception as the Human Values Program in 1986. With strong academic and financial support, the Medical Humanities Program has greatly benefited from dedicated leadership and a commitment to ongoing curricular review and redevelopment. The current Medical Humanities Program comprises six distinct components: Clinical Ethics; History of Medicine; Law; Complementary and Alternative Medicine; Palliative Care; and Human Values. Each of these components is compulsory and the first five are tested through examinations and assignments. Human Values sessions are designed to be experiential and to explore the human side of medicine as well as the intersections between medicine and the arts, literature, social psychology, and spirituality. The authors outline the origins and evolution of this successful program and describe its current components, student and faculty opinions, funding, advantages, disadvantages, and anticipated growth.     

A new course in age-based medicine at the University Medical Center of Nijmegen.

In 1995 the Medical Faculty of the University Medical Center of Nijmegen revised its curriculum to be more problem-oriented and student-centered. Each of the first four years now consists of ten four-week courses constructed around specific learning objectives. For the new curriculum the authors developed a fourth-year course on age-related health problems in which selected issues of pediatrics, general practice, and geriatrics are integrated. The primary objective of this course is to enable students to understand the differences and similarities in approaches to health problems in different age groups. Moreover, by the end of the course students should be able to analyze the physical, psychological, and social aspects of age-specific medical problems and understand their consequences for prevention and treatment. The course covers age-specific health concerns (e.g., neonatal jaundice, growth problems, sudden infant death syndrome, anorexia nervosa, dementia, multiple pathology, frailty) as well as important age-related differences in pathophysiology, etiology, diagnosis, and treatment (e.g., acute abdomen, constipation, maltreatment, urinary incontinence, pharmacokinetics). Based on assessments and evaluations after the first three implementations, the authors conclude that the enthusiastically received course is an effective introduction to age-specific health problems.