Stress and value: the student perspective on utilizing real vs. actor patients in objective structured clinical examinations.

Background: Studies have shown objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) to be one of the most reliable tools in assessing clinical performance; however in Pediatrics they primarily use manikins, simulators or parent actors which limits the comprehensiveness of the assessment. In our Pediatric Clerkship, medical students are evaluated using a standardized rubric during a clinical evaluation exercise (CEX) with real patients. This study assessed medical students' perceived stress levels and the educational value of the CEX compared an OSCE.

Improving Medical Student Inpatient Documentation Through Feedback Using a Note Assessment Tool.

Introduction Documentation within the Electronic Health Record (EHR) is an essential skill for medical students to succeed in residency and post-residency training. The increased use of medical student progress notes for billable services raises the need for the education and assessment of quality note writing. We hypothesized that structured note feedback using a note assessment tool would improve the quality of medical student inpatient progress notes.

Teaching Medical Students to Reflect More Deeply.

Problem: Although many studies have examined the importance of reflective writing in medical education, there is a scarcity of evidence for any particular intervention to improve the quality of reflection among medical students. Historically, students on our Internal Medicine clerkship were given a written reflection assignment without explanation of critical reflection. To facilitate the development of deeper reflection, a new curriculum was introduced.