Through the looking glass: how reflective learning influences the development of young faculty members.

Background: Faculty development is needed that will influence clinical teachers to better enable them to transmit humanistic values to their learners and colleagues.

Purpose: We sought to understand the processes whereby reflective learning influenced professional growth in a convenience sample of young faculty members.

Methods: We analyzed appreciative inquiry narratives written over 4 years using the constant comparative method to identify major underlying themes and develop hypotheses concerning how reflective learning influenced participants in the faculty development program.

Use of handheld computers in medical education. A systematic review.

Background: Over the past decade, handheld computers (or personal digital assistants [PDAs]) have become a popular tool among medical trainees and physicians. Few comprehensive reviews of PDA use in medicine have been published.

Objective: We systematically reviewed the literature to (1) describe medical trainees' use of PDAs for education or patient care, (2) catalog popular software applications, and (3) evaluate the impact of PDA use on patient care.