Medical Communication Training: The Effect of Gender and Experience and Goals of Care Discussions.

Objectives: Communication skills are increasingly recognized as a crucial component of medical training; however, little is known about the efficacy of various training methods when considering diverse student backgrounds, such as gender and prior training experience (ie, year of residency). This study explores medical learners' perceptions of effective communication in conducting goals of care (GOC) discussions with patients after receiving communication training as well as assessing for differences in preparedness for GOC discussions by gender and prior training experience.

Methods: This study included a sample of 114 residents in either their first, second, or third year of Internal Medicine residency.

Social and Emotional Learning and Ninth-Grade Students' Academic Achievement.

A central component of adolescents' social and emotional learning (SEL) consists of their ability to foster positive relationship skills through connectedness with their school community. This study focuses on the assessment of student's SEL competencies in relation to their socio-demographic characteristics, formal and informal socialization behaviors, and academic outcomes in both public and private schools. The research is based on the secondary analysis of large-scale nationally representative data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:2009) and focuses on ninth graders experiencing the transition to secondary education.

Association of Medical Student Characteristics and Empathy After a Communication Workshop.

Medical education values patient-centered communication skills of responding to patient's emotions, however, guidance is limited on how to provide a well-rounded curriculum. This study examines the effect of a 90-minute communication workshop on the level of empathy of the 116 medical students who participated in the workshop. We used three psychometric categories from the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) as dependent variables.

Ethnicity and Effectively Maintained Inequality in BC Universities.

As Canadian postsecondary systems have expanded they have become more institutionally differentiated. In British Columbia, distinctions are made between research-intensive universities (RIUs) and teaching-intensive universities with respect to resources, programming, and perceived prestige value. We employ an effectively maintained inequality framework to examine the role played by ethnicity in the competition for admission to RIUs.