Psychiatry student interest groups: what they are and what they could be.

Objective: Medical student interest groups across all specialties help students explore various specialties. There are no published reports on psychiatry student interest group (PSIG) curricula. The aim was to develop elements of a curriculum for such groups, based on data elicited from medical students and faculty members through a multi-institutional online survey.

Academic development: a survey of academic difficulties experienced by medical students and support services provided.

Background: The Academic Development Special Interest Group (ADSIG) of CGEA was formed to act as a resource for those assisting at-risk students. It is not uncommon for medical students to have varying degrees of learning and coping skills. Thus, it is important to assist students in determining their source of difficulty and provide them with resources to be successful.

An effective curriculum for teaching third-year medical students about medical errors and disclosure.

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) requires disclosure of medical errors related to sentinel events. At the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, we have developed an effective curriculum for teaching third-year medical students this content. The instructional program lasts a half day and consists of large group lectures combined with small group exercises.

Is that your pager or mine: a survey of women academic family physicians in dual physician families.

Objective: This study explored the unique challenges and strategies of women in academic family medicine who are in dual physician families.

Methods: An e-mail survey was sent to all female physician members of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) who were listed in the on-line database. The survey collected demographic information, details of job descriptions and family life, and included 3 open-ended questions about the experiences of dual physician families.

Distorted perceptions of competence and incompetence are more than regression effects.

Students inaccurately assess their own skills, especially high- or low-performers on exams. This study assessed whether regression effects account for this observation. After completing the Infection and Immunity course final exam (IIF), second year medical students (N = 143) estimated their performance on the IIF in terms of percent correct and percentile rank.