Carol J. Lancaster

Detached concern and death anxiety of first‐year medical students: Before and after the gross anatomy course

The purpose of this study was to gather data from first‐year medical students prior to their taking gross anatomy and again at the end of the course to determine if changes occur regarding death anxiety and detached concern toward patients. Chi‐square and t‐tests were used to assess statistical significance. From the 84 students for whom we had data both prior to and after gross anatomy, only the sociodemographic variable of sex was consistently related to the two dependent variables. Women reported more death anxiety prior to and after the gross anatomy course and were more likely to disagree with the need for detached concern. Clin. Anat. 10:201–207, 1997.

U.K. PHYSICIANS'ATTITUDES TOWARD ACTIVE VOLUNTARY EUTHANASIA AND PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE

A comparison of the views of geriatric medicine physicians and intensive care physicians in the United Kingdom on the topics of active voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide revealed rather different attitudes. Eighty percent of geriatricians, but only 52% of intensive care physicians, considered active voluntary euthanasia as never justified ethically. Gender and age did not play a major part in attitudinal differences of the respondents. If the variability of attitudes of these two medical specialties are anywhere near illustrative of other physicians in the United Kingdom, it would be difficult to formulate and implement laws and policies concerning euthanasia and assisted suicide. In addition, ample safeguards would be required to receive support from physicians regarding legalization.

The Current Status of Undergraduate Urological Teaching

At the request of the Society of University Urologists a survey of urological teaching at 113 United States medical schools was done. The most distressing finding was that more than two-thirds (68 per cent) of the schools do not require any clinical exposure to urology before graduation. In view of the fact that urology is rarely, if ever, taught in any of the primary care disciplines after graduation, it is suggested that patient care may well suffer for this shortcoming in our medical education curriculum.

How we changed from paper to online education: Teaching Immunization Delivery and Evaluation

This article discusses meeting the challenges encountered in changing a paper-based, interactive immunization delivery curriculum into an online, self-paced format. The program, TIDE (Teaching Immunization Delivery and Evaluation), was developed through collaborative efforts of medical educators and content experts with initial funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Ambulatory Pediatric Association and the Medical University of South Carolina. We summarize the efforts of the development team to create interactive case scenarios, provide ready access to resource materials and an audit tool for assessing the immunization rate of the learners clinic or practice, and meet the rigorous requirements of awarding continuing education credit. Data based on more than 100 doctors’ and nurses’ evaluations indicate a trend toward higher overall ratings of the online version than the paper version (88% online vs. 76% paper reported module as very good or excellent). As the TIDE program is evaluated, the teams goal is to incorporate instructional methods to increase relevance and learners’ opportunities for ‘learning by doing.’ Future plans include extending online office assessment tools to encourage use for continuous quality improvement, and providing a mechanism for learners to share their techniques for obtaining and maintaining high immunization rates.

Differences in curriculum emphasis in US undergraduate and generalist residency education programmes

Little attention has been paid to the differential emphasis undergraduate and graduate medical education programmes place on the broad competencies that will be needed for practice in an increasingly managed health care environment. The purpose of this study was to determine differences in emphasis that undergraduate and primary care graduate medical education programmes are currently placing on 33 broad practice competencies, compared with the emphasis they ideally would like to give them, and the barriers they perceive to curriculum change.

The relationship between medical students' locus of control and promotion of breast self-examination.

Summary: Summary. There is general agreement that medical school curricula should involve the teaching of preventive health behaviours. Locus of control is a personality variable that has been associated with health practices and may be associated with tendencies to promote health practices. Few significant relationships have been found correlating health locus of control beliefs with preventive health behaviours. This study investigated the health locus of control of medical students and their tendencies to talk about and teach breast self‐examination to women patients. Women students’ health locus of control and breast self‐examination practices were also investigated. The authors conclude that health locus of control has little influence on the tendency of medical students to promote breast self‐examination. Other factors apparently have more effect on the student doctors tendencies to promote health practices.