[Information retrieval and reading routines of young doctors].

We performed a survey on information management and reading routines in a random sample of Finnish doctors graduated during the last 2-10 years. The mean time spent on reading medical data sources and literature was three hours per week. The most appreciated sources of information were Current Care and other guidelines written in Finnish, especially among female doctors.

[Information retrieval and reading routines in medical students].

For a physician working as an expert continuous following of scientific literature is required. We elucidated the competence of 5th and 6th year students for the development of expertise. The mean time spent on reading medical literature was seven hours a week.

[Systematic teaching of differential diagnostics and information retrieval in medical education--a controlled study].

Teaching of differential diagnostic skills in medical education is often nonsystematic and touched only in a disease-based manner in the context of patient cases. We conducted a controlled study, in which a portion of fifth year students received systematic teaching of differential diagnostics and information retrieval for a period of ten weeks, whereas another portion continued in conventional basic training. We tested the students' problem-solving skills in both groups with a computer-assisted test.

Screening infants with social and emotional problems: a pilot study of the brief infant toddler social and emotional assessment (BITSEA) in Northern Finland.

Objectives: To compare 3 questionnaires used to evaluate early developmental problems, emotional disturbances and competence in 18-month-old infants.

Study Design: A follow-up study with parents of infants 8 to 36 months of age who responded to a developmental questionnaire.

Methods: Fifty infants (18 months of age) were evaluated through 3 questionnaires: (1) the Brief Infant and Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA), (2) the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and (3) the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (MCDI).

Experiences of using an interactive audience response system in lectures.

Background: Lectures are good for presenting information and providing explanations, but because they lack active participation they have been neglected.

Methods: Students' experiences were evaluated after exposing them to the use of voting during lectures in their paediatrics course. Questions were delivered to the students taking paediatrics course.

Peer consultation as a method for promoting problem-based learning during a paediatrics course.

In problem-based learning (PBL) there are problems during tutorial group sessions, for example lack of participation, interaction and cohesion, and withdrawing. The authors evaluated whether these problems could be avoided with a peer consultation model. Peer consultation takes advantage of cooperation between students by encouraging them to accept more responsibility for learning from their peers.