Coming of age as communicators: differences in the implementation of common communications skills training in four residency programmes.

Objectives: To determine thematic similarities and differences in the implementation of common-content communications skills training (CST) in medicine, surgery, paediatrics, and obstetrics and gynaecology residency programmes.

Methods: Communications skills training based upon the Kalamazoo consensus statement of communication skills in the clinical encounter was implemented in 4 residency programmes. Field notes of the CST sessions in each programme were analysed and coded for themes, considering the domains of Context, Input, Process and Product ('CIPP' methodology).

Learning while evaluating: the use of an electronic evaluation portfolio in a geriatric medicine clerkship.

Background: Electronic evaluation portfolios may play a role in learning and evaluation in clinical settings and may complement other traditional evaluation methods (bedside evaluations, written exams and tutor-led evaluations).

Methods: 133 third-year medical students used the McGill Electronic Evaluation Portfolio (MEEP) during their one-month clerkship rotation in Geriatric Medicine between September 2002 and September 2003. Students were divided into two groups, one who received an introductory hands-on session about the electronic evaluation portfolio and one who did not.