A quality assurance initiative on improving cefazolin perioperative redose compliance.

Objective: Compliance with perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis is crucial for preventing surgical site infection. Anesthesiologists can play a significant role in reducing surgical site infections by following clinical practice guidelines for antibiotic prophylaxis and redosing during surgery. A quality assurance initiative was implemented at a tertiary hospital with the goal of improving cefazolin perioperative antibiotic compliance.

Can Individualized Learning Plans in an advanced clinical experience course for fourth year medical students foster Self-Directed Learning?

Background: Residency programs have utilized Individualized Learning Plans (ILPs) to customize resident education while undergraduate medical education has not done so in a meaningful way. We discuss the use of ILPs within a fourth year medical school course to facilitate self-directed learning (SDL).

Methods: At Stony Brook University School of Medicine, an ILP component was added to the Advanced Clinical Experience (ACE) course for fourth year students.

Effect of bedside physical diagnosis training on third-year medical students' physical exam skills.

Background: Graduating medical students, when surveyed, noted a deficit in training in physical examination skills.

Purposes: In an attempt to remedy this deficit we implemented a pilot program for 3rd-year medical students consisting of twice-weekly bedside diagnosis rounds as part of their 8-week medicine clerkship.

Methods: To assess the success of this program we reviewed students' objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) scores at the completion of the clerkship compared with prior years' students who did not have the bedside physical diagnosis training.