Shock-induced amnesia received considerable attention after Cerletti popularized electroconvulsive shock therapy in the late 1930s. Yet, often overlooked is the fact that Benjamin Franklin recognized that passing electricity through the head could affect memory for the traumatic event. Franklin described his findings on himself and others in…

An analysis of human errors in complex work settings can lead to important insights into the workspace design. This type of analysis is particularly relevant to safety-critical, socio-technical systems that are highly dynamic, stressful and time-constrained, and where failures can result in catastrophic societal, economic or environmental…

Introduction: Diplomates in the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program satisfy the self-evaluation of medical knowledge requirement by completing open-book multiple-choice exams. However, this method remains unlikely to affect practice change and often covers content areas not relevant to diplomates'…

Introduction: Deficiencies in physician competence play an important role in medical errors and poor-quality health care. National trends toward implementation of continuous assessment of physicians hold potential for significant impact on patient care because minor deficiencies can be identified before patient safety is threatened. However, the…

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to develop measures of end-of-life (EOL) care processes in nursing homes and to validate the instrument for measuring them. Design and Methods: A survey of directors of nursing was conducted in 608 eligible nursing homes in New York State. Responses were obtained from 313 (51.5% response rate) facilities.…

An educational program was developed to train practitioners to provide care for patients and families that are responsive to cultural concerns. The aim was to increase knowledge and improve attitudes toward providing culturally proficient and culturally sensitive care for patients and families facing life-threatening illnesses. The program…

The increasing prevalence of diabetes and obesity, growing health disparities, and shortage of bilingual and culturally trained health care professionals underscore the role of trained community health workers (CHWs) to provide economically sustainable and culturally relevant services. This prospective randomized design evaluated the relative…

Sickle cell disease (SCD) complications place patients at risk for poor psychosocial adaptation, including depression and anxiety symptoms. This study aimed to test a mediator model based on the Risk and Resistance model to explore the role of intrapersonal characteristics and stress processing variables in psychosocial functioning. Participants…

The prevalence of Internet applications nowadays has led many medical schools and centers to incorporate computerized Problem-Based Learning (PBL) methods into their training curricula. However, many of these PBL systems do not truly reflect the situations which practitioners may actually encounter in a real medical environment, and hence their…

This paper reports our implementation and evaluation of a wireless handheld learning environment used to support a clinical nursing practicum course. The learning environment was designed so that nursing students could use handhelds for recording information, organizing ideas, assessing patients, and also for interaction and collaboration with…

Perceptions of the quality of medical care and the attitudes of medical personnel experienced by people infected with the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) virus were studied using subjects known to be infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. Ten infected subjects participated in the study. Their interview…

Predicated on the knowledge that effective communication among medical personnel and patients is fundamental to the achievement of successful health care delivery, this paper addresses the practice of chaplain intervention on behalf of the patient in primary care to enhance physician-patient interaction. First the paper defines culture (in the…

On the premise that success in medical practice must depend to a large extent on physician attitudes as viewed by the patient, a pilot study was conducted to compare the opinion of patients assigned to students with the formal evaluation of these students by their instructors. Findings showed a complete absence of correlation between scores. (JT)

A UCLA-San Fernando Valley Medical Program for training residents and interns in interpersonal skills is reported and evaluated. Using a modification of interpersonal process recall (IPR), the teaching technique uses both a structured course format and ongoing videotaping and reviewing of house officer-patient interactions with a faculty member.…

The authors state that allied health personnel need to function in the role of patient counselor to help patients adhere to medical treatment regimens and to change their behavior as an adjunct to treatment. Suggestions are given for patient education and for allied health personnel techniques in handling patients. (MF)