Three years of a required geriatrics module for third-year medical students

The Parker Jewish Geriatric Institute, a teaching nursing home at which an accredited internal medicine geriatrics fellowship is based, co-developed with the Department of Family Practice of the medical school at the State University of New York at Stony Brook a mandatory geriatrics module for third-year medical students. The module's implementation over a three-year period (1985-1987) with 278 medical students is described. The authors conclude that if time and effort are given to the development of a geriatrics curriculum, and if appropriate instructors are chosen, then learning geriatrics in long-term-care settings can be as rewarding and exciting an experience for medical students as their experiences in other clinical settings, even when that learning is required.     

Teaching third-year medical students how to care for terminally ill patients

Most medical schools in the United States introduce students to the care of dying patients. In most cases, there is no immediate practical application of the material, and many medical students find it very difficult to interact with a terminally ill person in a clinical situation. The authors describe a successful seven-day course offered annually since 1979 to third-year medical students. The course is an integrated program for teaching the students an effective way to deal with terminal illness, using lectures, audiovisual aids, and group and individual sessions to enhance self-awareness and a practical application of the material in a clinical setting.     

加强医学生的人文教育

医学生是未来医学科研和临床工作的主力军，社会的进步要求医学生不仅需要精湛的专业技能还应从医学、社会、道德和伦理等不同角度去思考问题，树立以人为本以病人为中心的高尚医德，具备良好的与人沟通的能力，深入的了解服务对象的需求，以帮助患者走出身心困境。要达到这一目标，单纯的专业教育是远远不够的，必须同时加强人文教育，这是社会发     

浅谈医学生的医学文化素质教育

随着时代的进步,教育思想发生着深刻的变革。加强医学生的素质教育,努力提高医学生的综合素质,为社会培养高素质的应用型医学人才,成为医学教育界的共识。医学文化素质是医学生的综合素质之一,由医学科学素质与医学人文素质综合构成[1],努力提高医学生的医学文化素质在医学教育中尤显必然。1医学科学素质随着科学技术的飞速发展,医学已发展为多学科、多专业互相综合与交叉的学科,这就要求医学生不仅要具备扎实的医学理论,而且应具备精湛的临床技能。只有牢固掌握了全面扎实的专业理论知识和娴熟的专业操作技能,才能沉着冷静地面对复杂多变的…     

Depression among medical students

304 first- and second-year medical students were prospectively assessed for depression with a monthly Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Students scoring above nine on the BDI and a control group were then interviewed with the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule. The incidence of major depression or probable major depression by DSM-III criteria during the first two years of medical school was 12%. The lifetime prevalence was 15%, three times greater than the rate in the general population. An episode of depression prior to medical school was much more common among the depressed students (69 vs. 8%, P less than 0.001) as was a family history of treated depression (46 vs. 21%, P less than 0.025). The elevated rate of depression during medical school does not appear to be a result of the medical school experience alone. Rather, it suggests a positive bias of unknown nature in the selection of students predisposed to depression.     

Evaluating knowledge retention of third-year medical students taught with an innovative pharmacology program.

PURPOSE: To explore the degree of retention of pharmacologic knowledge of third-year medical students taught in a new pharmacology teaching program. METHOD: In 1997, the authors administered a retention test consisting of 100 multiple-choice questions, each with only one correct answer, to 457 third-year medical students at the National University of Mexico. Students were not told in advance about this diagnostic evaluation, which was given eight months after they completed the second-year pharmacology course. As a comparison, the authors also analyzed the results obtained by the same students in the three partial examinations taken during the second-year pharmacology course. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov procedure and Wilcoxon and chi-square tests were used to analyze data. RESULTS: The distribution of scores obtained in the partial exams well approximated a symmetrical bell-shaped curve, and the mean score was 59.9%. In contrast, in the retention test the distribution was negatively skewed, the mean score (69.8%) was significantly higher (p <.001), and the curve was clearly displaced to the right of that corresponding to the partial exams. The percentage of students obtaining at least a passing score (60%) was considerably higher for the retention test (82.5 versus 51.9). CONCLUSION: These findings, indicating that medical students taught in a new pharmacology program developed adequate basic pharmacologic knowledge, should encourage other medical schools to formally evaluate their teaching programs and continue efforts to improve pharmacologic education of medical students.     

Changing attitudes about end-of-life decision making of medical students during third-year clinical clerkships.

To better define the learning objectives of ethics curricula and evaluate changes in medical students' attitudes about end-of-life decision making, enrolled students (N = 96) of a pilot medical ethics program were surveyed at the beginning and end of their third-year clinical clerkship about their experiences and attitudes about end-of-life decision making. At the end of their clinical clerkship year, the majority of students had participated in end-of-life decisions, prioritized patient autonomy and quality-of-life issues, were concerned about legal liability, were polarized over issues such as physician-assisted suicide, and gained confidence in their ethical decision-making ability. To train future physicians such that clinical practice is consistent with ethical guidelines and legislation on end-of-life care, medical ethics curricula should focus on symptom relief, clarification of legal issues, and resolution of conflicts between personal beliefs and public opinion about such issues as physician-assisted suicide. Appropriate role-modeling and mentoring by residents and attending physicians should also be emphasized.     

Knowledge and attitudes towards complementary and alternative medicine among medical students in Turkey

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine knowledge and attitudes towards Complementary and Alternative Medicine among medical students in Turkey, and find out whether they want to be trained in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). METHOD: S: A cross-sectional study was carried out between October and December 2010 among medical students. Data were collected from a total of seven medical schools. FINDINGS: The study included 943 medical students. The most well known methods among the students were herbal treatment (81.2%), acupuncture (80.8%), hypnosis (78.8%), body-based practices including massage (77%) and meditation (65.2%), respectively. Acupuncture, aromatherapy, herbal treatment and meditation were better known among female participants compared to males (p<0.05). Females and first year students, generally had more positive attitudes. A larger proportion of female students compared to male students reported that a doctor should be knowledgeable about CAM (p=0.001), and this knowledge would be helpful in their future professional lives (p=0.015). Positive attitudes towards and willingness to receive training declined as the number of years spent in the faculty of medicine increased. CONCLUSION: Majority of the medical students were familiar with the CAM methods widely used in Turkey, while most of them had positive attitudes towards CAM as well as willingness to receive training on the subject, and they were likely to recommend CAM methods to their patients in their future professional lives. With its gradual scientific development and increasing popularity, there appears a need for a coordinated policy in integrating CAM into the medical curriculum, by taking expectations of and feedback from medical students into consideration in setting educational standards.     

Teaching clinical informatics to third-year medical students: negative results from two controlled trials

Background  

Prior educational interventions to increase seeking evidence by medical students have been unsuccessful.