Participation and experience of third-year medical students in handoffs: time to sign out?

Background: Although interns are expected to be competent in handoff communication, it is currently unclear what level of exposure, participation, and comfort medical students have with handoffs prior to graduation.

Objective: The aim of this study is to characterize passive and active involvement of third-year medical students in the major components of the handoff process.

Design: An anonymous voluntary retrospective cross-sectional survey administered in 2010.

Clinico-histologic conferences: histology and disease.

Providing a context for learning information and requiring learners to teach specific content has been demonstrated to enhance knowledge retention. To enhance students' appreciation of the role of science and specifically histology in clinical reasoning, disease diagnosis, and treatment, a new teaching format was created to provide clinical context, promote integration and application of science knowledge, and to foster peer teaching and learning: the Clinico-Histologic Conference (CHC) for the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Histology course. Teams of six students were each assigned specific disease processes and were charged with creating oral presentations and handouts that taught their classmates about the clinical manifestations, etiopathogeneses, diagnoses, and treatments of the assigned processes, along with comparisons of normal histology to the pathology of the disease.

Living AnatoME: Teaching and learning musculoskeletal anatomy through yoga and pilates.

Living AnatoME, a program designed in 2004 by two medical students in conjunction with the Director of Anatomy, teaches musculoskeletal anatomy through yoga and Pilates. Previously offered as an adjunct to the Gross Anatomy course in 2007, Living AnatoME became an official part of the curriculum. Previous research conducted on the program demonstrated its efficacy in providing relaxation and well-being to students who attended.