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It is unclear whether geriatrics-specific educational interventions lead to improvement in students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes and whether successful interventions possess any consistent features. This review examines the effect of educational interventions on undergraduate knowledge, skills, and attitudes in geriatric medicine and concludes that a wide range of innovative designs have the potential to improve each of these parameters, although evidence of interventions that improve student skills is lacking, and further research is necessary to confirm the efficacy of specific teaching strategies in geriatrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To explore the contribution patients can make to medical education from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, to describe a framework for reviewing and monitoring patient involvement in specific educational situations and to generate suggestions for further research. Methods: Literature review. Results: Direct contact with patients can be seen to play a crucial role in the development of clinical reasoning, communication skills, professional attitudes and empathy. It also motivates through promoting relevance and providing context. Few studies have explored this area, including effects on the patients themselves, although there are examples of good practice in promoting more active participation. Conclusion: The Cambridge framework is a tool for evaluating the involvement of patients in the educational process, which could be used by curriculum planners and teachers to review and monitor the extent to which patients are actively involved. Areas for further research include looking at the 'added value' of using real, as opposed to simulated, patients; more work on outcomes for patients (other than satisfaction); the role of real patients in assessment; and the strengths and weaknesses of different models of patient involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the development of a consensus statement that was based on a patient-centered clinical approach. It states that the statement is a core requirement for the effective and safe practice of medicine and covers a wide range of clinical tasks and skills. It concludes that the important factor in successful collaborative working is a shared commitment to improving the teaching of medical students.

Discusses key issues relevant to medical education. Relationship between intimidation and humiliation; Survey of medical students completing an internal medicine clerkship in West Virginia; Delivery of quality surgical training in a conducive and supportive learning environment.

The article presents the author's views on student health and help-seeking behavior. The author feels that practical measures such as developing systems to detect student self-investigation and treatment in teaching hospitals and encouraging general practitioners with medical student populations to explore such behavior when registering or when detected may help them. Emerging curricular strands on personal and professional development and professionalism provide an ideal opportunity to address issues of self care.

Editorial. Focuses on effects of medical education on attitudes of medical students toward homeless people. Emphasis on the inclusion of learning about homeless people in the curriculum of medical education; Information on a study conducted by the General Medical Council on attitudes of medical students toward homeless people in Great Britain.; Need to involve communities in medical education.

Presents an article on teaching medical students. Medical developments that influence the way medicine is practiced; Trends in medical education; Themes that underpin the trends in medical education.

The article offers world news briefs related to medicine. Kevin Eva of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario discussed the significance of diagnostic error in improving learning and medical practice during the inaugural conference on Diagnostic Error in Medicine. Students from the U.S. have written essays that talked about the relationship between pharmaceutical industry and medical students. Forty people have participated in a communication skill course piloted by researchers in Michigan.

The article introduces various reports published within the issue, including one that discusses mental health problems of medical students and another one that reflects the growing interest in health care education.

Comments on the education benefits of junior students in medicine and surgery having contact with patients. Advantages of learning in context; Discussion of the patient's role in medical education; Suggestion that patients benefit from involvement in education; How patients can be more actively involved in the educational process; Problems and challenges with real patient contact; Topic of informed choice.

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT • A large proportion of medical graduates do not feel prepared for practice. • Prescribing is one of the biggest steps up from being a student to practising as a doctor. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS • The lack of preparedness of graduates for practice is related to a lack of exposure and preparation for clinical practice. Preparedness may be improved by increasing the number of opportunities to develop the skill-based, applied aspects of prescribing in a controlled, 'real' environment. Simulated activity could provide this experience to undergraduates, or writing prescriptions and drug charts to be checked and signed by a doctor on clinical placements. AIM This aim of this paper was to explore new doctors' preparedness for prescribing. METHODS This was a multiple methods study including face-to-face and telephone interviews, questionnaires and secondary data from a safe prescribing assessment ( n= 284). Three medical schools with differing curricula and cohorts were included: Newcastle (systems-based, integrated curriculum); Warwick (graduate entry) and Glasgow [problem-based learning (PBL)], with graduates entering F1 in their local deanery. The primary sample consisted of final year medical students, stratified by academic quartile ( n= 65) from each of the three UK medical schools. In addition an anonymous cohort questionnaire was distributed at each site ( n= 480), triangulating interviews were conducted with 92 clinicians and questionnaire data were collected from 80 clinicians who had worked with F1s. RESULTS Data from the primary sample and cohort data highlighted that graduates entering F1 felt under-prepared for prescribing. However there was improvement over the F1 year through practical experience and support. Triangulating data reinforced the primary sample findings. Participants reported that learning in an applied setting would be helpful and increase confidence in prescribing. No clear differences were found in preparedness to prescribe between graduates of the three medical schools. CONCLUSION The results form part of a larger study 'Are medical graduates fully prepared for practice?'. Prescribing was found to be the weakest area of practice in all sources of data. There is a need for more applied learning to develop skill-based, applied aspects of prescribing which would help to improve preparedness for prescribing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We previously reviewed evidence published from 1992 to 2001 concerning early experience for healthcare undergraduates (Dornan T, Littlewood S, Margolis S, Scherpbier A, Spencer J, Ypinazar V. 2006. How can experience in clinical and community settings contribute to early medical education? A BEME systematic review. Med Teach 28:3–18). This subsequent study reviews evidence published from 2002 to 2008. Aims: Identify changes in the evidence base; determine the value of re-reviewing; set a future research agenda. Methods: The same search strategy as in the original review was repeated. Newly identified publications were critically appraised against the same benchmarks of strength and educational importance. Results: Twenty-four new empirical studies of early authentic experience in education of health professionals met our inclusion criteria, yielding 96 outcomes. Sixty five outcomes (from 22 studies) were both educationally important and based on strong evidence. A new significant theme was found: the use of early experience to help students understand and align themselves with patient and community perspectives on illness and healthcare. More publications were now from outside Europe and North America. Conclusions: In addition to supporting the findings of our original review, this update shows an expansion in research sources, and a shift in research content focus. There are still questions, however, about how early authentic experience leads to particular learning outcomes and what will make it most educationally effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a systematic review of available evidence to determine how early practical experience in clinical and community settings affects medical education. Data sources from the decade 1992-2001; Benefits from early experience including the development of appropriate attitudes in medical students toward their studies and future practice, as well as directing curriculum toward societal needs. INSET: Best Evidence Medical Education (BEME) coding scheme for....

Introduction This paper reviews the literature on self-evaluation and discusses the findings of a small-scale qualitative study which explored the terms ‘confidence’ and ‘competence’ as useful measures in a self-evaluation scale. Four pre-registration house officers took part in interviews and completed a provisional instrument to assess their perceived competence. Findings Competence and confidence are useful terms for house officers expressing beliefs about their ability to perform their job but the terms should not be used synonymously. In our study, ‘competent’ represented what individuals knew about their ability and was based on the individual’s previous experience of the task. ‘Confident’ described a judgement which influenced whether an individual was willing or not to undertake an activity. Confidence was not necessarily based on known levels of competence and therefore performance of tasks which were unfamiliar to the house officer also involved the assessment of risk. The authors give examples of task and skill scales which may be useful in the process of self-evaluation by pre-registration house officers. Conclusions The authors suggest that the process of assessing oneself is complicated, and by its very nature can never be objective or free from the beliefs and values individuals hold about themselves. Therefore self-evaluation instruments are best used to help individuals analyse their work practices and to promote reflection on performance. They should not be used to judge the ‘accuracy’ of the individual’s evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an overview of the challenges of teaching in an ambulatory care setting, which is a setting such as a medical clinic where medical students go to develop their examination and history taking skills. A discussion of the things that should be taught in such a setting and of the challenges that teachers face when teaching in such a setting is presented. Barriers to effective teaching in an ambulatory care setting are discussed. Ideas for effective teaching in an ambulatory care setting are offered.

Editorial. Comments on the state of assessment of clinical students in Great Britain. Investigation of undergraduate system; Issue of competence versus performance; Assessment of problem-solving ability.

Presents study examining the extent to which cultural diversity is being taught in medical schools in the UK and Ireland. Participants, methods and results; Teaching and assessment methods; Findings that there is uncertainty as to what constitutes cultural diversity teaching and that efforts are fragmented; Limitations of the study.