Monthly Archives: January 2016

Reflective Writing Ability Linked To Professionalism

Posted on January 28, 2016 by scheinla

Professionalism:  This retrospective study, from Indiana University School of Medicine, provides statistically significant evidence for a relationship between reflective writing ability and professionalism.  The study compares the quality of reflective writing works of students who received professionalism citations verses the writings … Continue reading →

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Residents Continue To Be (Even More) Depressed

Posted on January 22, 2016 by DR MERL Reviews

Residency: In a systematic review of studies published from the 1980s to the 2010s, the prevalence of depression or depressive symptoms among residents was found to be 28.8%. Specialty, post-graduate year, country, median age, and percentage male were not predictors … Continue reading →

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Reflective Writing As A Tool Of Academic Success?

Posted on January 12, 2016 by scheinla

Reflective Writing The correlation is not so clear.  Within undergraduate medical education there is growing interest in using reflective writing, thought to encourage students to improve their critical thinking, enhance patient care and cultivate attitudes and behaviors needed for clinical … Continue reading →

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Is It Live Or Is It Podcast?

Posted on January 12, 2016 by scheinla

Lectures Don’t stop lecturing yet.  Although this study shows that podcasts are as effective a teaching method as live lectures, the majority of students preferred live interaction with faculty.  Medical education has been increasingly incorporating various types of technologies into … Continue reading →

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About Half Of MSPEs (“Dean’s Letters”) Don’t Meet Minimal Guidelines

Posted on January 4, 2016 by DR MERL Reviews

MSPE Researchers analyzed one medical student performance evaluation (MSPE) from 117 out of the 131 accredited North American MD schools.  Current voluntary guidelines suggest that the letter include a summative keyword (e.g. “excellent”) along with distribution data for the school’s … Continue reading →

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How Can We Measure Inter-Professional Teamwork?

Posted on January 4, 2016 by DR MERL Reviews

Teamwork In this timely systematic review, 64 different teamwork assessment tools were reviewed for validity, generalizability, outcomes, and feasibility, and compared to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)’s 4 inter-professional collaboration competencies.  The authors make a practical recommendation of 4 … Continue reading →

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How To Implement An EPA-Based Residency Evaluation System

Posted on January 4, 2016 by DR MERL Reviews

EPA In this practical innovation report, Canadian family medicine residency directors describe how they implemented a robust system of direct observation of their residents in support of a competency-based evaluation system charting their residents’ progress in the entrustable professional activities (EPAs) … Continue reading →

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How May We Meaningfully Engage Community Stakeholders In Research?

Posted on January 4, 2016 by DR MERL Reviews

Community Engagement: The claim that engaging community stakeholders in research has numerous benefits (e.g. increasing researchers’ understanding of study populations and their needs, informing recruitment and dissemination strategies, improving quality, etc.) is widely accepted; however, logistical and financial barriers often … Continue reading →

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