Predicting Performance on Clerkship Examinations and USMLE Step 1: What Is the Value of Open-Ended Question Examination?

Purpose: Despite advances in learning sciences that highlight the efficacy of elaborative interrogation, in which students explain and elaborate on concepts in their own words, assessment techniques in medical education have commonly employed multiple-choice questions (MCQs). Educators' reluctance to consider alternatives such as open-ended questions (OEQs) stems from practical advantages of MCQs and the lack of empirical data on the predictability of OEQs for performance on other high-stakes assessments. In this study, the authors compared the predictive value of preclerkship assessments using OEQs for the outcomes of clerkship examinations and United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1.

Team Retreats for Interprofessional Trainees and Clinic Staff: Accelerating the Development of High-Functioning Teams.

Introduction: Teams are critical to managing the health care needs of patients with part-time trainee providers. High-functioning teams require trusting relationships among trainees and staff and opportunities to learn and practice skills together. Irregular trainee schedules, time-limited training programs, and lack of protected time for team development during clinic can hinder development of high-functioning teams.

Twelve tips for delivering successful interprofessional case conferences.

Interprofessional case conferences (ICCs) offer an interactive, practical way to engage members of two or more health professions in discussions that involve learning and working together to improve patient care. Well-orchestrated ICCs provide opportunities to integrate interprofessional (IP) education into routine clinical practice. The authors provide 12 tips to support the conceptualization, planning, implementation, facilitation, evaluation, and sustainability of ICCs.

The new ANSI nail gun standard: A lost opportunity for safety.

Pneumatic nail guns have been shown in published studies to cause injury and death to both workers and consumers, but those equipped with sequential trigger mechanisms provide much greater safety protection against unintentional discharge than those equipped with contact triggers. In 2015 the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approved a revision to its 2002 nail gun standard, but failed to require sequential triggers. Substantive and procedural deficiencies in the ANSI standard's development process resulted in a scientifically unsound nail gun safety standard, detracting from its use as the basis for a mandatory national safety standard and ultimately from its ability to protect worker and consumer users.