Search

Introduction: As a physician, it is important to develop time management and task prioritization skills early to promote future career success. In medical education, there is minimal structured time to teach these skills prior to residency. Stephen Covey's Time Management Matrix Technique (TMMT) is one strategy that can be used to develop these skills. This technique categorizes tasks into a four-quadrant table based on importance and urgency. Using this technique as a model, the authors developed a workshop for medical students on an inpatient pediatric or internal medicine subinternship., Methods: Prior to the workshop, students read an article and completed a survey and two self-directed exercises. The exercises asked students to create a list of tasks, develop an individualized TMMT model, and review specialty-specific patient cases. The workshop consisted of discussions on the presession work and group exercises on prioritizing tasks and responding to patient-related pages. Students evaluated the curriculum after the workshop with a survey., Results: Most participants (82%) strongly agreed or agreed that the workshop improved their ability to manage time effectively and prioritize tasks on a clinical rotation. There was a statistically significant increase in both median time management and task prioritization confidence scores after completion of the workshop ( p < .05)., Discussion: This workshop provides one strategy that can be implemented within undergraduate medical education to enhance time management skills prior to residency. Future studies should be aimed at evaluating these skills within the clinical setting., (© 2022 Murphy et al.)

Purpose: Research suggests that medical students are not accurate in self-assessment, but it is not clear whether students over- or underestimate their skills or how certain characteristics correlate with accuracy in self-assessment. The goal of this study was to determine the effect of gender and anxiety on accuracy of students' self-assessment and on actual performance in the context of a high-stakes assessment., Method: Prior to their fourth year of medical school, two classes of medical students at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine completed a required clinical skills exam in fall 2010 and 2011, respectively. Two hundred two students rated their anxiety in anticipation of the exam and predicted their overall scores in the history taking and physical examination performance domains. A self-assessment deviation score was calculated by subtracting each student's predicted score from his or her score as rated by standardized patients., Results: When students self-assessed their data gathering performance, there was a weak negative correlation between their predicted scores and their actual scores on the examination. Additionally, there was an interaction effect of anxiety and gender on both self-assessment deviation scores and actual performance. Specifically, females with high anxiety were more accurate in self-assessment and achieved higher actual scores compared with males with high anxiety. No differences by gender emerged for students with moderate or low anxiety., Conclusions: Educators should take into account not only gender but also the role of emotion, in this case anxiety, when planning interventions to help improve accuracy of students' self-assessment.

Objective: To determine whether exposing junior doctors to Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) improves their telephone referrals. SBAR is a standardised minimum information communication tool., Methods: A randomised controlled trial with participants and rating clinicians both blinded to group allocation. Hospital interns from a 2-year period (2006-2007) participated in two simulated clinical scenarios which required them to make telephone referrals. The intervention group was educated in SBAR between scenarios. Pre and post intervention telephone referrals were recorded, scored and compared. Six-month follow-up and year group comparisons were also made. An objective rating score measured the presence of specific 'critical data' communication elements on a scale of 1-12. Qualitative measures of global rating scores and participant self-rated scoring of performance were recorded. Time to 'first pitch' (the intern's initial speech) was also recorded., Results: Data were available for 66 interns out of 91 eligible. SBAR exposure did not increase the number of communication elements presented; objective rating scores were 8.5 (IQ 7.0-9.0) for SBAR and 8.0 (IQ 6.5-8.0) for the control group (p=0.051). Median global rating scores, designed to measure 'call impact', were higher following SBAR exposure (SBAR: 3.0 (IQR 2.0-4.0); control: 2.0 (IQ 1.0-3.0); p=0.003)). Global rating scores improved as time to 'first pitch' duration decreased (p=0.001). SBAR exposure did not improve time to 'first pitch' duration., Conclusion: In this simulated setting exposure to SBAR did not improve telephone referral performance by increasing the amount of critical information presented, despite the fact that it is a minimum data element tool. SBAR did improve the 'call impact' of the telephone referral as measured by qualitative global rating scores.