Developing the careers of clinician-educators in psychiatry.

Objective: This article describes initial efforts by the newly developed Clinician-Educator Section (CES) of the Association for Academic Psychiatry (AAP) to support the career advancement of academic faculty within psychiatry. The CES provided its first workshop at the 2005 AAP annual meeting, focusing on early career development and academic promotion.

Method: The CES obtained input from members regarding their vision for how this newly developed section could support their career development.

Utilization of a formative evaluation card in a psychiatry clerkship.

Objective: This article discusses how formative feedback to medical students during their clinical rotations facilitates their successfully meeting the rotation's educational objectives. To help students initiate mid-rotation feedback and to help preceptors structure that feedback, the authors designed the Instant Feedback Card (IFc). The goal of this study was to examine the degree to which the IFc facilitated the formative feedback process from the perspectives of both students and faculty.

Use of standardized patients during a psychiatry clerkship.

Objective: Standardized patients are used in teaching medical students and evaluating their clinical skills during the psychiatric clerkship. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the addition of a Psychiatry Clinical Standardized Patient Examination (PCX) during the third-year clerkship improved students' performances on the psychiatry component of the Clinical Competency Examination (CCX) that is used at our institution to prepare fourth-year students for the National Board of Medical Examiners Step 2 Clinical Skills Exam (Step 2 CSA).

Method: Scores on the CCX were analyzed by two-by-two tables (yes/no response to each clinical competency item versus took/did not take PCX) using Fisher's exact test.

Professionalism deficits among medical students: models of identification and intervention.

Objective: This study compares the instruments and interventions utilized to identify and remediate unprofessional behaviors in medical students across U.S. psychiatry clerkships.

Use of a computerized evaluation system in a psychiatry clerkship.

Objective: Paper-based evaluations of medical students on clerkships are inefficient and time consuming to compile and analyze. To improve the evaluation process, the authors developed a web-based program.

Methods: A secure web-based system was designed to collect evaluations of students and their feedback about the clerkship.

A placebo-controlled, randomized trial of fluoxetine in the treatment of binge-eating disorder.

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of fluoxetine in the treatment of binge-eating disorder.

Method: Sixty outpatients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of binge-eating disorder were randomly assigned to receive either fluoxetine, 20 to 80 mg/day (N = 30), or placebo (N = 30) in a 6-week, double-blind, flexible-dose study. The primary measure of efficacy was frequency of binge eating.