Integrating Interprofessional Trainees into a Complex Care Program for Veterans Experiencing Homelessness: Effects on Health Services Utilization.

Purpose: High-quality, comprehensive care of vulnerable populations requires interprofessional ambulatory care teams skilled in addressing complex social, medical, and psychological needs. Training health professionals in interprofessional settings is crucial for building a competent future workforce. The impacts on care utilization of adding continuity trainees to ambulatory teams serving vulnerable populations have not been described.

Well-being for trainees caring for homeless veterans.

Background: Health care trainees caring for homeless patients may experience stress and burnout. Reasons for this include high rates of medical and psychiatric illness and complex social needs within this patient population. This can lead to feelings of inadequacy and exhaustion among health care trainees.

A medical student leadership course led to teamwork, advocacy, and mindfulness.

Background And Objectives: Many medical trainees seek work among underserved communities but may be unprepared to cope with the challenges. Relationship-centered qualities have been shown to promote physician resilience and prevent burnout. The UCLA-PRIME program aims to prepare medical students to work among vulnerable groups and begins with a 3-week leadership course.

Part-time careers in academic internal medicine: a report from the association of specialty professors part-time careers task force on behalf of the alliance for academic internal medicine.

To establish guidelines for more effectively incorporating part-time faculty into departments of internal medicine, a task force was convened in early 2007 by the Association of Specialty Professors. The task force used informal surveys, current literature, and consensus building among members of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine to produce a consensus statement and a series of recommendations. The task force agreed that part-time faculty could enrich a department of medicine, enhance workforce flexibility, and provide high-quality research, patient care, and education in a cost-effective manner.

Innovative web-based multimedia curriculum improves cardiac examination competency of residents.

Background: Proper diagnosis of cardiac disorders is a core competency of internists. Yet numerous studies have documented that the cardiac examination (CE) skills of physicians have declined compared with those of previous generations of physicians, attributed variously to inadequate exposure to cardiac patients and lack of skilled bedside teaching. With growing concerns about ensuring patient safety and quality of care, public and professional organizations are calling for a renewed emphasis on the teaching and evaluation of clinical skills in residency training.

Faculty training in evidence-based medicine: improving evidence acquisition and critical appraisal.

Introduction: Evidence-based medicine (EBM) integrates published clinical evidence with patient values and clinical expertise, the output of which is informed medical decision making. Key skills for evidence-based practice include acquisition and appraisal of clinical information. Faculty clinicians often lack expertise in these skills and are therefore unable to demonstrate this process for students and residents.

Competency in cardiac examination skills in medical students, trainees, physicians, and faculty: a multicenter study.

Background: Cardiac examination is an essential aspect of the physical examination. Previous studies have shown poor diagnostic accuracy, but most used audio recordings, precluding correlation with visible observations. The training spectrum from medical students (MSs) to faculty has not been tested, to our knowledge.