Found that experience-based educational intervention in which medical students interview volunteer nursing home residents significantly changed medical students' responses to two geriatric patient vignettes. Concluded that use of elderly volunteers in practice interviews helped to sensitize students to problems of aging and taught them empathic…

A national sample of medical students was surveyed to identify the ways the students obtained informed consent from their patients and to learn the students' views of certain issues concerning informed consent. All the students were less forthright about their status when given the opportunity to perform invasive procedures. (Author/MLW)

Explores relationship, if any, between level of regulatory intensity upon, and subsequent service delivery within, the hospital industry. Some service retrenchment may be desirable, particularly if fewer iatrogenic events occur. A look at prior efforts may prove beneficial before the United States initiates overall health care reform. (61…

Computer-based clinical simulations used in medical education are designed according to decisions about which elements of reality to explicitly include, which to leave to imagination, and when to intervene for educational purposes. Programs offer many options for structuring the simulations, such as varying levels of volunteered information about…

Measurement fidelity (reliability, factor structure, and validity) of Aschenbach's Youth Self-Report scale was studied with 226 adolescents at a psychiatric hospital. Findings confirm convergent validity and reliability of four of the measure's seven narrowband syndromes, and seven meaningful subdimensions were extracted from the other three…

Reports a study that examined the current HIV and AIDS knowledge and attitudes of 63 preclinical medical students. Survey data indicated that a significant portion of the subjects had poor knowledge and had attitudes that might have an adverse impact on their care of AIDS patients. (SM)

Clinical experience and recent research challenge the current standards of exercise duration and intensity for pregnant women. By carefully assessing patients' self-monitoring techniques, physicians can work with active women to create safe exercise programs during pregnancy. Safety guidelines for developing home exercise programs are included.…

Surveys of first- and fourth-year Johns Hopkins University (Maryland) medical students found little change in attitudes about abortion over four years. Attitudes correlated most strongly with personal beliefs about when a fetus is considered human life and somewhat with student gender. Results are used in a medical ethics course to illuminate…

A dental school clinic study investigated the relationship between dental students' grades, clinical skills, previous experience with patients, and gender and the proportion of the students' appointments broken by students. Results indicate female students used the clinic more, and all students used the clinic more as their education progressed.…

The strategy used by one health maintenance organization (HMO) for balancing residents' training needs and patient health problems, often limited and routine in an HMO, is to allocate patients to residents by matching them with curriculum content. A process for handling patient resistance to such an arrangement was also instituted. (MSE)

Boston University (Massachusetts) developed and marketed a dental care plan to three colleges and universities in the Boston area. After 5 academic years of operation, the dental program has 16 institutional affiliates, increased its patient pool by almost 1,500, generated substantial revenue, and exposed dental students to an alternative dental…

The validity of vignettes used to elicit subject responses in social science research is examined in a study of the validity of a group of patient assault vignettes seen by 12 persons with experience in patient care. A model for establishing the validity of vignettes is proposed. (SLD)

Compared psychological variables of 30 patients with inoperable breast cancer to matched group of 30 operable breast cancer patients. Found that women with inoperable breast cancer had higher scores in denial, exhaustion, hopelessness, worthlessness, depression, somatization, hostility, and psychoticism. Profile of inoperable cancer patients did…

Large scale studies of the psychometric characteristics of standardized-patient clinical examinations are reviewed, and recommendations for test improvement are offered, including (1) assessment of history taking, physical examination, and communication skills separately from diagnostic and management skills; (2) a mastery-testing framework for…

A review (HE 528 450) of large-scale studies of the psychometric characteristics of standardized-patient clinical examinations is commended for its clarity, thoroughness, and relevance. Issues of reliability, validity, scoring, reporting, and use of the tests are discussed further. (MSE)