The economics of standardized patient education materials with veteran patients.

With an increasing number of veterans seeking care, it becomes imperative that the resources within the system are used efficiently and effectively and in a manner that maintains access, safety, and quality of care. Veterans who are able to manage their own care may utilize provider services less frequently, thereby increasing access for others who require more care. The objective of this quality improvement study was to determine the effectiveness of providing a standardized self-management textbook of health information with the intent that it would decrease demand on primary care providers' time for minor health care issues.

A qualitative study of resident learning in ambulatory clinic. The importance of exposure to 'breakdown' in settings that support effective response.

Qualitative analysis of a large ethnographic database from observations of a resident teaching clinic revealed three important findings. The first finding was that breakdown, a situation where an 'actor' (such as a person or the group) is not achieving expected effectiveness, was the most important category because of its frequency and explanatory power. The next finding was that exposure to breakdown was a necessary ingredient for reflective learning.

A Broader Theoretical Model for Feedback in Ambulatory Care.

Ask faculty if they provide feedback and they will likely reply "Sure, it's important, I do it all the time". Ask medical students if they receive feedback and they may say, "We hardly ever get it". Ask most residents if they receive feedback and you get "Rarely, but it's not that helpful anyway".

Implications of the situated learning model for teaching and learning nursing research.

Situated learning theory is gaining increased attention in the fields of human cognition and learning. The authors discuss the key researchers and basic assumptions of situated learning, and outline implications for the design and development of instruction. The authors describe how they applied the situated model to teaching and learning nursing research, an area identified as problematic for staff, administrators, and educators.

Pilot test of an organizational culture model in a medical setting.

The authors conducted a pilot test of the organizational culture model in a health care setting. The study was based on a questionnaire with mixed quantitative and qualitative analysis. Quantitative analysis confirmed the expected distribution of responses among the subcultures for all three questions, with significant differences in two of the three.