Amount of Sleep, Daytime Sleepiness, Hazardous Driving, and Quality of Life of Second Year Medical Students.

Objective: The authors describe the sleep habits of second year medical students and look for associations between reported sleep duration and depression, burnout, overall quality of life, self-reported academic success, and falling asleep while driving.

Methods: The authors conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study of two consecutive cohorts of second year medical students at a large public university in the USA. Participants completed an anonymous survey about their sleep habits, daytime sleepiness (Epworth sleepiness scale), burnout (Maslach burnout inventory), depression (PRIME MD), and perceived stress (perceived stress scale).

Interprofessional initiatives at the University of Washington.

Pharmacists must collaborate with other health professionals to promote the optimal use of medications, relying on coordinated, interprofessional communication and care to do so. In 2003, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended "all health professionals should be educated to deliver patient-centered care as members of an interdisciplinary team, emphasizing evidence-based practice, quality improvement approaches, and informatics." At the University of Washington, the Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education (CHSIE) was established in 1997 to promote interprofessional curricular and clinical innovation in education, faculty development, and student activities, and to conduct evaluative research regarding the impact of interprofessional innovations.

Impact of a pre-clinical clinical skills curriculum on student performance in third-year clerkships.

Background: Research on the outcomes of pre-clinical curricula for clinical skills development is needed to assess their influence on medical student performance in clerkships.

Objective: To better understand the impact of a clinical-skills curriculum in the pre-clinical setting on student performance.

Design: We conducted a non-randomized, retrospective, pre-post review of student performance evaluations from 3rd-year clerkships, before and after implementation of a clinical-skills curriculum, the Colleges (2001-2007).

A new oral health elective for medical students at the University of Washington.

Background: Oral health is an important but inadequately addressed area in medical school curricula. Primary care practitioners are in an ideal position to help prevent oral disease but lack the knowledge to do so.

Purposes: We developed an oral health elective that targeted 1st- and 2nd-year medical students as part of a previously described oral health initiative and oral health curriculum.

An oral health curriculum for medical students at the University of Washington.

Oral health disparities are a major public health problem, according to the U.S. Surgeon General.

Development and evaluation of public health informatics at University of Washington.

Public Health Informatics (PHI) education began at the University of Washington (UW) with a Summer Institute in 1995. The Biomedical and Health Informatics graduate program, which is housed in the School of Medicine, is an interdisciplinary, multi-school program. It demonstrates the UW's cooperative efforts in advancing informatics, encompassing the schools of public health, medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, information and graduate schools in computer science.

Student providers aspiring to rural and underserved experiences at the University of Washington: promoting team practice among the health care professions.

In the United States there are shortages of health care providers for both rural and underserved populations. There are also shortages of interprofessional or team-based training programs. To address these problems, the University of Washington's Area Health Education Center program and School of Medicine offer a voluntary extracurricular program for students in the university's six health science schools.

Preparing graduates for the first year of residency: are medical schools meeting the need?

Purpose: Changes in graduate medical education associated with full implementation of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 have required medical schools to review and revise their curricula. As limited funding increases pressures to streamline training, residencies will potentially expect an entry level of skill and competence that is greater than that which schools are currently providing. To determine whether medical school curricular requirements correlate with residency needs, this multidisciplinary pilot study investigated expectations and prerequisites for postgraduate specialty training.