Research skills for medical students: a summer assistantship in family medicine.

This report presents a description of a summer research assistantship program for first- and second-year medical students. The program's goals are to develop and enhance students' research capabilities and to familiarize students with clinical research in family practice. The program provides sponsorship of a student by a faculty member, with a $1,120 stipend for students, as well as seminars on research skills.

Teaching the informed consent process to residents.

We believe the focus and emphasis of this committee on informed consent is unique, and that the development of an informed consent teaching process for residents will focus on the moral and ethical issues regarding informed consent. Even more important, we believe we will emphasize the patient care aspects of informed consent and also teach residents their responsibilities for long-term patient care with regard to patients' satisfaction and understanding of their disease process.

Influence of stereotypes in the diagnosis of depression by family practice residents.

The focus of this study was on the diagnosis of depression by family practice residents. The sensitivity and specificity of the residents for depression were determined by comparing their diagnoses with the results of an objective assessment of depression for a group of 222 ambulatory patients from a family practice center. The objective assessment involved the administration of the Beck Depression Index to the patients, whereas charts were audited for resident diagnoses.