Gaming the System? A Qualitative Exploration of Physician Assistant Learner Perceptions of Virtual Patient Education.

Introduction: Virtual patients (VPs) are increasingly used in health professions education. How learners engage with VPs and the relationship between engagement and authenticity is not well understood. We explored learners' perceptions of VP education to gain an understanding of the characteristics promoting meaningful engagement in learning, including perceived authenticity.

A qualitative investigation of the decision to return to sport after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: to play or not to play.

Background: Primary anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is known to have excellent outcomes, but many patients do not return to their preinjury level of sport participation. Previous studies have used subjective outcome scores to evaluate this discrepancy, but none to date has used qualitative, in-depth patient interviews.

Purpose: To understand the factors influencing a patient's decision to return to his or her preinjury level of sport after ACL reconstruction.

Influences on medical student career choice: gender or generation?

Hypothesis: We hypothesized that increased enrollment of female medical students and different priorities of the current generation of students would be important influences on the declining interest in surgical careers.

Design: Students scored statements on surgical careers on 5-point Likert scales regarding agreement and whether these statements encouraged them to pursue a career in surgery. Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test.