Quality improvement "201": context-relevant quality improvement leadership training for the busy clinician-educator.

Development of quality improvement (QI) skills and leadership for busy clinician-educators in academic medical centers is increasingly necessary, although it is challenging given limited resources. In response, the authors developed the Quality Scholars program for primary care teaching faculty. They conducted a needs assessment, evaluated existing internal and national resources, and developed a 9-month, 20-session project-based curriculum that combines didactic and hands-on techniques with facilitated project discussion.

Commentary: Medical malpractice and patient safety: tear down that wall!

Although medical malpractice influences the way that physicians learn to practice medicine, information related to malpractice cases is among the most closely guarded data in the hospital and is rarely available to training programs. In this issue, Hochberg and colleagues describe an intervention in which they used data from their hospital's closed malpractice cases as part of a training seminar for surgical residents on malpractice. The authors of this commentary believe that there is very low risk and great potential value to more openly sharing this type of information.

Procedural and interpretive skills of medical students: experiences and attitudes of fourth-year students.

Background: Recent data do not exist regarding fourth-year medical students' performance of and attitudes toward procedural and interpretive skills, and how these differ from third-year students'.

Method: Cross-sectional survey conducted in February 2006 of 122 fourth-year students from seven U.S.

Disagreement between students and preceptors regarding the value of teaching behaviors for ambulatory care settings.

Background: Medical students and preceptors commonly disagree on methods of clinical instruction in ambulatory care, although the extent of the problem is not documented.

Purpose: The purpose is to identify disagreement and concordance between students and preceptors for teaching behaviors in ambulatory care.

Methods: We surveyed students and preceptors at 4 U.

Assessing professionalism in the context of an objective structured clinical examination: an in-depth study of the rating process.

Introduction: Professionalism is fundamental to the practice of medicine. Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) have been proposed as appropriate for assessing some aspects of professionalism. This study investigated how raters assign professionalism ratings to medical students' performances in OSCE encounters.

Procedural and interpretive skills of medical students: experiences and attitudes of third-year students.

Background: Recent data do not exist on medical students' performance of and attitudes toward procedural and interpretive skills deemed important by medical educators.

Method: A total of 171 medical students at seven medical schools were surveyed regarding frequency of performance, self-confidence, and perceived importance of 21 procedural and interpretive skills.

Results: Of the 122 responding students (71% response rate), a majority had never performed lumbar puncture, thoracentesis, paracentesis, or blood culture, and students reported lowest self-confidence in these skills.

Participation of internal medicine department chairs in the internal medicine clerkship--results of a national survey.

Purpose: To characterize the involvement of internal medicine department chairs in the core third-year internal medicine clinical clerkship.

Method: In 2003, the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM) surveyed its membership. Along with demographics, clerkship directors were asked if the department's chair participated in the clerkship, the number of hours per month the clerkship director and chair discussed clerkship issues, and if published job expectations were discussed.