Screening mammography utilization in Tennessee women: the association with residence.

Context: Approximately 70% of US women over age 40 report mammography screening within 2 years. However, rates are likely to vary by age, income, educational level, and residence.

Purpose: To describe the prevalence of screening mammography and associated factors in women living in rural and urban areas of Tennessee.

To the point: reviews in medical education--the Objective Structured Clinical Examination.

This article, the eighth in the To the Point Series prepared by the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics Undergraduate Medical Education Committee, discusses the effectiveness of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) for assessment of learners' knowledge, skills, and behaviors. The OSCE has also been used for the appraisal of residents and physicians undergoing licensure examinations; herein we focus on its application to undergraduate medical education. We review evidence for best practices and recommendations on effective use of the OSCE and requirements for and challenges to its implementation, including creative ways to design an OSCE program with a limited budget.

To the point: medical education review of the role of simulators in surgical training.

Simulation-based training (SBT) is becoming widely used in medical education to help residents and medical students develop good technical skills before they practice on real patients. SBT seems ideal because it provides a nonthreatening controlled environment for practice with immediate feedback and can include objective performance assessment. However, various forms of SBT and assessment often are being used with limited evidence-based data to support their validity and reliability.

A comprehensive review to establish priority learning objectives for medical students in the obstetrics and gynecology clerkship.

Objective: This study was undertaken to describe the process used to identify, externally validate, and establish the priority learning objectives for medical students on the obstetrics and gynecology clerkship.

Study Design: We conducted a review of the APGO Medical Student Objectives in Obstetrics and Gynecology to establish which of these objectives should be given first priority. We used recommendations from external references to assess the validity of these selected objectives.

To the point: Medical education review of the RIME method for the evaluation of medical student clinical performance.

This article, the sixth in the ongoing To The Point Series produced by the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics Undergraduate Medical Education Committee, reviews the Reporter-Interpreter-Manager-Educator (RIME) method for the evaluation of student clinical performance on the obstetrics and gynecology rotation. This article discusses the inherent challenges of descriptive narrative evaluation and the superiority of the RIME method in producing meaningful evaluation of and feedback for students. The use of the method to fulfill Liaison Committee on Medical Education standards and implementation of the method are described.

To the point: medical education reviews--dealing with student difficulties in the clinical setting.

Learners with cognitive and behavioral difficulties are particularly challenging in the clinical setting. Cognitive difficulties in the clinical realm may relate to knowledge deficits and/or weak problem solving skills. Behavioral difficulties resulting from attitudinal or motivational problems may manifest themselves as specific unprofessional acts either committed or omitted in the course of caring for patients as well as in unprofessional behavior.

To the point: medical education reviews evaluation in context: assessing learners, teachers, and training programs.

Learners, teachers, and programs need to be evaluated. This article reviews the purpose and the current methods for evaluating all 3. Clinical impressions of the learner are yielding increasingly to direct observation and skill assessment.