The integrated curriculum and student empathy: a longitudinal multi-cohort analysis.

Research has demonstrated erosion of empathy in students during medical education. Particularly, U.S.

Point-of-Encounter Assessment: Using Health Belief Model Constructs to Change Grading Behaviors.

Objective: Fourth-year medical students need feedback to improve. Even during 1-month rotations, there needs to be a formal mid-clerkship feedback session. Better feedback involves multiple surgical evaluators at multiple levels.

Are prior pregnancy outcomes relevant for models of fertility-specific distress or infertility helpseeking?

Women with prior pregnancy but no live birth are inconsistently termed as either 'primary infertile' or 'secondary infertile' in psychosocial studies of infertile women. The goal of this study was to discover whether infertile women who had experienced pregnancies but no live births were more similar in attitudes and behaviour to infertile women who had not experienced pregnancies or to those who had live births. We used the National Survey of Fertility Barriers (NSFB), which contains self-reported data from a probability-based sample of US women aged between 25 and 45, to accomplish our goal.

Odds of having a regular physician and perceptions of care: ethnic patterns for women ages 25-45.

Background And Objectives: This study's purpose was to simultaneously investigate demographic, socioeconomic status, health status, and access-to-care factors to see if they could explain racial/ethnic differences in the odds of reproductive-aged women having a regular physician and perceptions of those women about their care.

Methods: Data come from a nationally representative sample of 4,520 women ages 25--45. We used logistic regression models to ascertain the odds of having a regular doctor and feeling cared for among black, Hispanic, and Asian women as compared to non-Hispanic white women.

Evidence-based and patient-centered care: results from an STFM group project.

Objectives: This study's purpose was to identify the elements of a definition of evidence-based patient-centered care (EBPCC), the barriers to using EBPCC, and strategies for overcoming these barriers.

Methods: This research project used focus group methodology with participants drawn from Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) members who attend STFM meetings and are interested in the integration of evidence-based medicine and patient-centered care. Forty-five self-selected STFM members-participants attended one of five total focus groups between September 2004 and May 2005.

Preceptorship rurality does not affect medical students' shelf exam scores.

Objective: This study's objective was to determine whether junior medical students' end-of-rotation shelf exam scores varied by the preceptorship county's rurality.

Methods: Student learning during rural preceptorship experiences, 1999 to 2005, was assessed using the students' scores on the National Board of Medical Examiners family medicine subject examination. Rurality was measured using both population density and the rural-urban continuum (RUC) codes.

The effect of preceptorship rurality on students' self-perceived clinical competency.

Objective: This study's objective was to determine whether students' learning experiences, as measured by the improvement in students' perceived competence in several clinical areas, varied by the preceptorship county's rurality.

Methods: Rural preceptorship experiences from 1990 to 2003 were assessed using pre- and post-preceptorship questionnaires regarding students' perceived levels of competence. Questionnaires addressed basic clinical skills, common diagnoses, and advanced clinical skills.

Why we don't come: patient perceptions on no-shows.

Purpose: Patients who schedule clinic appointments and fail to keep them have a negative impact on the workflow of a clinic in many ways. This study was conducted to identify the reasons patients in an urban family practice setting give for not keeping scheduled appointments.

Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 34 adult patients coming to the clinic for outpatient care.

From library to discharge: a managing care student project.

Background And Objectives: The Patient Care Project (PCP) was a central component of the Undergraduate Medical Education for the 21st Century (UME-21) grant project at the University of Nebraska. With the primary goal of improving students' critical thinking skills, the PCP was directed more toward an understanding of managing care than the business aspects of managed care and emphasized written communication skills, clinical hypothesis testing, and exploring ways to solve medical and ethical questions.

Methods: All 239 students graduating in 2000 and 2001 were required to analyze the medical care received by one of their hospitalized patients.

Primary care for elderly people: why do doctors find it so hard?

Purpose: Many primary care physicians find caring for elderly patients difficult. The goal of this study was to develop a detailed understanding of why physicians find primary care with elderly patients difficult.

Design And Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 primary care physicians.

Learning preferences, computer attitudes, and student evaluation of computerised instruction.

Objective: To explore the relationship between learning preferences, attitudes towards computers, and student evaluation of a computer-assisted instructional (CAI) program.

Context: A third year required clerkship in surgery at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Methods: A mixed-methods design combining attitudinal measures and qualitative interviews was employed to assess student reactions to a CAI program on angiography completed during a required surgical clerkship.

Physician attitudes and the use of office-based activities for tobacco control.

Objectives: This study explored family physicians' attitudes about smoking cessation counseling-its importance, their confidence in their ability to counsel, outcome expectations of counseling, perception of their influence on patient behavior types of counseling skills used, and the extent to which office-based activities are used to support their counseling.

Methods: A cross-sectional design using qualitative and quantitative analyses was used. Data, including information from participant observation of the environment, medical chart reviews, and in-depth interviews, were collected from 89 physicians, drawn randomly from a list of family physicians in Nebraska.