Effectiveness of a supervisor training on quality of feedback to internal medicine residents: a controlled longitudinal multicentre study.

Objectives: High-quality feedback on different dimensions of competence is important for resident learning. Supervisors may need additional training and information to fulfil this demanding task. This study aimed to evaluate whether a short and simple training improves the quality of feedback residents receive from their clinical supervisors in daily practice.

Training medical students for the twenty-first century: Rationale and development of the Utrecht curriculum "CRU+".

Aim: The aim of this report, written for the 40th anniversary issue of Medical Teacher, is to document 20 years of development of the Utrecht undergraduate medical curriculum, as both to exhibit accountability and to inform the community of the process and choices that can be made in long-term curriculum development.

Methods: We used the SPICES model, created by Medical Teacher's Editor Ronald Harden and colleagues in 1984.

Results: The Utrecht six-year program, now called "CRU+", has many distinct features that were introduced, most of which are well documented.

Physician job satisfaction related to actual and preferred job size.

Background: Job satisfaction is essential for physicians' well-being and patient care. The work ethic of long days and hard work that has been advocated for decades is acknowledged as a threat for physicians' job satisfaction, well-being, and patient safety. Our aim was to determine the actual and preferred job size of physicians and to investigate how these and the differences between them influence physicians' job satisfaction.

Integrated and implicit: how residents learn CanMEDS roles by participating in practice.

Context: Learning outcomes for residency training are defined in competency frameworks such as the CanMEDS framework, which ultimately aim to better prepare residents for their future tasks. Although residents' training relies heavily on learning through participation in the workplace under the supervision of a specialist, it remains unclear how the CanMEDS framework informs practice-based learning and daily interactions between residents and supervisors.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore how the CanMEDS framework informs residents' practice-based training and interactions with supervisors.

Participation and selection effects of a voluntary selection process.

Many different medical school selection processes are used worldwide. In this paper, we examine the effect of (1) participation, and (2) selection in a voluntary selection process on study performance. We included data from two cohorts of medical students admitted to Erasmus MC, Rotterdam and VUmc, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and compared them to previously published data from Groningen medical school, The Netherlands.

Impact of vocational interests, previous academic experience, gender and age on Situational Judgement Test performance.

Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) are increasingly implemented in medical school admissions. In this paper, we investigate the effects of vocational interests, previous academic experience, gender and age on SJT performance. The SJT was part of the selection process for the Bachelor's degree programme in Medicine at University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

[CanMEDS 2015: better doctors?].

Recently, the CanMEDS model, which forms the basis for competency-based learning in both undergraduate and postgraduate training, has been renewed by the introduction of CanMEDS 2015. The most prominent change is the emphasis on leadership skills, which is also reflected by the name change for the role of 'manager' to 'leader'. The addition of milestones provides clearly defined targets for learning and assessment, which facilitates the monitoring of the progression in competence.

Vertically integrated medical education and the readiness for practice of graduates.

Background: Medical curricula become more and more vertically integrated (VI) to prepare graduates better for clinical practice. VI curricula show early clinical education, integration of biomedical sciences and focus on increasing clinical responsibility levels for trainees. Results of earlier questionnaire-based studies indicate that the type of the curriculum can affect the perceived preparedness for work as perceived by students or supervisors.

A feedback system in residency to evaluate CanMEDS roles and provide high-quality feedback: Exploring its application.

Introduction: Residents benefit from regular, high quality feedback on all CanMEDS roles during their training. However, feedback mostly concerns Medical Expert, leaving the other roles behind. A feedback system was developed to guide supervisors in providing feedback on CanMEDS roles.

What supervisors say in their feedback: construction of CanMEDS roles in workplace settings.

The CanMEDS framework has been widely adopted in residency education and feedback processes are guided by it. It is, however, only one of many influences on what is actually discussed in feedback. The sociohistorical culture of medicine and individual supervisors' contexts, experiences and beliefs are also influential.

The transferability of Western concepts to other cultures: validation of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire in a Saudi Arabic context.

Background: The importance of medical education research in Saudi Arabia has been acknowledged increasingly and a lot of concepts used have been derived from the Western world. The question arises, however, whether Western concepts and questionnaires are transferable to societies with different cultures. The aim of this study was to investigate the instrument structure and the reliability of the Arabic version of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire-medium (ZKPQ-m).

Selection and study performance: comparing three admission processes within one medical school.

Objectives: This study was conducted to: (i) analyse whether students admitted to one medical school based on top pre-university grades, a voluntary multifaceted selection process, or lottery, respectively, differed in study performance; (ii) examine whether students who were accepted in the multifaceted selection process outperformed their rejected peers, and (iii) analyse whether participation in the multifaceted selection procedure was related to performance.

Methods: We examined knowledge test and professionalism scores, study progress and dropout in three cohorts of medical students admitted to the University of Groningen, the Netherlands in 2009, 2010 and 2011 (n = 1055). We divided the lottery-admitted group into, respectively, students who had not participated and students who had been rejected in the multifaceted selection process.

The influence of achievement before, during and after medical school on physician job satisfaction.

In this longitudinal study, we investigated the relationship between physicians' prior achievements (before, during and after medical school) and job satisfaction, and tested the two lines of reasoning that prior achievements influence job satisfaction positively or negatively, respectively. The participants were graduates who started their medical training in 1982 (n = 147), 1983 (n = 154), 1992 (n = 143) and 1993 (n = 153). We operationalised job satisfaction as satisfaction (on a 10-point scale) with 13 cognitive, affective and instrumental aspects of the participants' jobs.

Newly qualified doctors' views on the significance and accessibility of career advice during medical training in Saudi Arabia.

Background: Career advice is an important instrument to help students with the proper specialty selection. The study aims (1) to explore the views of newly graduated doctors in Saudi Arabia about their experience with the current status of career support system during medical training and (2) to identify cross-cultural similarities and differences.

Methods: A cross-sectional design study was conducted using a questionnaire to elicit the responses of participants from newly qualified doctors concerning the availability and significance of career advice.

Faculty and student perceptions of the feasibility of individual student-faculty meetings.

The extent to which students feel involved in their education positively influences academic achievement. Individual student-faculty meetings can foster student involvement. To be effective, faculty acknowledgement of the benefit of these meetings is a prerequisite.

Personality types and specialist choices in medical students.

Background: Research on the correlation between personality and students' specialty choice is helpful in their career counselling process and in predicting the future distribution of the specialties in a country.

Aims: This study is the first of its kind in the Arab world. The research questions were: (1) What is the influence of gender on the personality profiles of medical students? (2) What are the personality profiles of students categorized according to their preferred specialist choices? (3) What are the preferred career choices of students categorized according to the stage of their medical education?

Method: A cross-sectional study was performed at King Khalid University Medical School including 590 students during the academic year 2010-2011.

What are we preparing them for? Development of an inventory of tasks for medical, surgical and supportive specialties.

Background: Internationally, postgraduate medical education (PGME) has shifted to competency-based training. To evaluate the effects of this shift on the outcomes of PGME appropriate instruments are needed.

Aim: To provide an inventory of tasks specialists perform in practice, which can be used as an instrument to evaluate the outcomes of PGME across disciplines.

Specialty preferences: trends and perceptions among Saudi undergraduate medical students.

Background: The exploration of specialty choices by medical students is a hot debate as it affects several important determinants of health care delivery. This study was carried out to determine variation in specialty preferences during medical school training and the perceptions that affect students' specialty choice.

Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was performed on 590 students with a 93.

Alternating skills training and clerkships to ease the transition from preclinical to clinical training.

Background: The transition from preclinical to clinical training is perceived as stressful with a high workload being the main difficulty. To ease this transition, we implemented a dual learning year, where just-in-time skills training and clerkships alternated.

Aims: To examine the effect of the dual learning year on students' stress and perceptions of workload and skills level, and to compare these data with a baseline measurement from a curriculum in which skills training was provided in advance of clerkships.

The digital pen as a novel device to facilitate the feedback process.

Background: To improve clinical performance assessment, checklist data should be immediately available to students to offer them detailed feedback and be stored in a database for quality assurance purposes.

Aim: To introduce the digital pen as clinical performance assessment tool, report examiner satisfaction and explore the utility of generated checklist data for quality assurance purposes.

Methods: The digital pen technology transmits examiners' handwritten assessments to a database and exports PDF-files to students' mailboxes.