Engaged at the extremes: residents' perspectives on clinical teaching assessment.

Purpose: Although academic centers rely on assessments from medical trainees regarding the effectiveness of their faculty as teachers, little is known about how trainees conceptualize and approach their role as assessors of their clinical supervisors.

Method: In 2010, using a constructivist grounded theory approach, five focus group interviews were conducted with 19 residents from an internal medicine residency program. A constant comparative analysis of emergent themes was conducted.

A mixed-methods analysis of residents' written comments regarding their clinical supervisors.

Background: Clinical faculty require feedback to guide their development. Although written comments submitted by residents on clinical teaching assessments (CTAs) are potentially a rich source of feedback, little is known about their information quality.

Method: Naturalistic study involving thematic content analyses and concordancing of comments submitted in a sample of 1,601 CTAs.

Relying on others' reliability: challenges in clinical teaching assessment.

Background: The quality of the data generated from internally created faculty teaching instruments often draws skepticism. Strategies aimed at improving the reliability and validity of faculty teaching assessments tend to revolve around literature searches for a replacement instrument(s).

Purpose: The purpose was to test this "search-and-apply" method and discuss our experiences with it within the context of observational assessment practice.

The sum of the parts detracts from the intended whole: competencies and in-training assessments.

Objectives: Despite the fact that Canadian residency programmes are required to assess trainees' performance within the context of the CanMEDS Roles Framework, there has been no inquiry into the potential relationship between residents' perceptions of the framework and their in-training assessments (ITA). Using data collected during the study of ITA, we explored residents' perceptions of these competencies.

Methods: From May 2006-07, a purposive sample of 20 resident doctors from internal medicine, paediatrics, and surgery were interviewed about their ITA experiences.

Rules of engagement: residents' perceptions of the in-training evaluation process.

Background: In-training evaluation reports (ITERs) often fall short of their goals of promoting resident learning and development. Efforts to address this problem through faculty development and assessment-instrument modification have been disappointing. The authors explored residents' experiences and perceptions of the ITER process to gain insight into why the process succeeds or fails.

'I don't have time': issues of fragmentation, prioritisation and motivation for education scholarship among medical faculty.

Objectives: Although lack of time has been frequently cited as a barrier to scholarship, there has been little inquiry into what specific factors medical faculty staff perceive as contributing to this dilemma. The purpose of the present study was to explore, in greater detail, lack of time as a barrier for faculty interested in pursuing education scholarship.

Methods: In 2004, as part of a cross-sectional, mixed-methods needs assessment, 73 (67.

Measuring resident well-being: impostorism and burnout syndrome in residency.

Background: Assessing resident well-being is becoming increasingly important from a programmatic standpoint. Two measures that have been used to assess this are the Clance Impostor Scale (CIS) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS). However, little is known about the relationship between the two phenomena.

Education scholarship: it's not just a question of 'degree'.

Background: Although medical faculty are frequently encouraged to participate in education scholarship, there is a paucity of literature addressing how to support those who wish to do so.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to explore faculty involvement in and support needs for pursuing education scholarship.

Methods: A purposive sample of 108 medical faculty with an interest in medical education were invited to participate in a two-phase, mixed-methods study (survey and focus groups).

Does exposure to a procedural video enhance preclinical dental student performance in fixed prosthodontics?

To try to alleviate the issue of dental students having an inadequate field of view during live demonstrations of fixed prosthodontic preparations, an instructional video depicting the step-by-step procedures involved in an all-ceramic tooth preparation and provisional crown fabrication (practical exam 1, PE1) was created. Fifty-five second-year dental students were given a personal copy of the video after a lecture and an in-class viewing of the material. Throughout the course, students watched live demonstrations of tooth preparations and then practiced individually on mannequins.

Olfactory sensitivity in medical laboratory workers occupationally exposed to organic solvent mixtures.

Background: Published epidemiological information relating the effects of occupational exposure to organic solvents (OS) to olfaction is limited.

Aims: The objectives of this pilot study were to measure the chemosensory abilities of medical laboratory employees occupationally exposed to OS mixtures, to compare these with control workers employed within the same occupational setting and to correlate chemosensory performance with OS exposure history and with employees' hedonic (pleasantness) perceptions about workplace OS odors.

Methods: Twenty-four medical laboratory employees (OS-exposed technicians plus control workers minimally exposed to OS) completed a health-related questionnaire, a test of pyridine odor detection threshold, along with a gustatory detection threshold test involving aqueous quinine solutions.