Do we pay our community preceptors? Results from a CERA clerkship directors' survey.

Background And Objectives: Family medicine clerkships depend heavily on community-based family physician preceptors to teach medical students. These preceptors have traditionally been unpaid, but in recent years some clerkships have started to pay preceptors. This study determines trends in the number and geographic region of programs that pay their community preceptors, identifies reasons programs pay or do not pay, and investigates perceived advantages and disadvantages of payment.

Effect of Spanish language immersion rotations on medical student Spanish fluency.

Background And Objectives: The study's objective was to determine whether participation in an international health rotation in a Spanish-speaking country (immersion) is associated with improved Spanish fluency compared to participation in domestic medical Spanish coursework alone.

Methods: Participants matriculated at one US medical school in the years 2004--2008. At matriculation (baseline), all had intermediate to advanced Spanish fluency based on a standardized, oral fluency test.

Creating a multi-institutional family medicine clerkship examination: lessons learned.

Background And Objectives: Multiple choice examinations assess learners' attainment of medical knowledge. Developing multiple choice examinations that discriminate among learners is difficult and time-consuming. Many institutions avoid this effort by using the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) subject examinations, which can also provide comparisons to a national norm.

Accuracy of self-assessed Spanish fluency in medical students.

Background: Non-English language fluency is increasingly important in patient care. Fluency self-assessment is easily obtained, but its accuracy is unknown.

Purposes: The purpose is to determine accuracy of medical students' self-assessed Spanish fluency.

Teaching Advanced Leadership Skills in Community Service (ALSCS) to medical students.

Inadequate access to health care, lack of health insurance, and significant health disparities reflect crises in health care affecting all of society. Training U.S.

A longitudinal medical Spanish program at one US medical school.

Introduction: Policymakers have recommended recruiting or training (or both) more US physicians who can provide care in Spanish. Few longitudinal medical Spanish programs have been described and evaluated.

Objective: This study aims to describe development and evaluation of the preclinical phase of a 4-y program designed to graduate physicians who can provide language-concordant care in Spanish.

Sexually transmitted infections and increased risk of co-infection with human immunodeficiency virus.

The incidence of trichomoniasis (Trichomonas vaginalis) in the United States is estimated at 5 million cases annually; chlamydia (Chlamydia trachomatis) at 3 million; gonorrhea (Neisseria gonorrhoeae), 650,000; and syphilis (Treponema pallidum), 70,000. However, most sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are asymptomatic-contributing to underdiagnosis estimated at 50% or more. Diagnosis of an STI signals sexual health risk because an STI facilitates the transmission and acquisition of other STIs, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Prevention practices of family medicine clerkship preceptors in North Carolina.

Purpose: Before implementing a new prevention curriculum, the authors assessed the prevention practices and attitudes of community family physicians in North Carolina who precepted third-year family medicine clerkship students.

Method: An 18-item questionnaire was mailed to 165 preceptors during the 1995-96 academic year. The questionnaire explored the preceptors' levels of preparation to counsel patients, the types of prevention services they offered, and their levels of success in modifying patients' behaviors.

Using the stages of change model to counsel victims of intimate partner violence.

Medical expenses from intimate partner violence (IPV) total between $3 and $5 billion annually. Many abuse victims are exposed to serious injuries, and are likely to see their physicians more frequently than other patients. Practitioners must have a reliable and realistic approach to counseling patients who are victims of IPV.

Focus groups: a useful tool for curriculum evaluation.

Focus group interviews have been used extensively in health services program planning, health education, and curriculum planning. However, with the exception of a few reports describing the use of focus groups for a basic science course evaluation and a clerkship's impact on medical students, the potential of focus groups as a tool for curriculum evaluation has not been explored. Focus groups are a valid stand-alone evaluation process, but they are most often used in combination with other quantitative and qualitative methods.

Community preceptors' views of a required third-year family medicine clerkship.

Background: Previous studies documented the importance of family medicine clerkships to medical student education and to the potential costs of precepting students borne by community physicians. But what are the physicians' views of their experience, their perceived needs for teaching, and sources of satisfaction from the preceptor role?

Objectives: To explore preceptors' views of a required, third-year family medicine clerkship, focusing on satisfaction with the teaching experience, effect of having students in the practice, and concerns about continuing as a preceptor.

Methods: Preceptors from 38 private practices were asked to participate in a 15-minute telephone survey, using a semistructured interview format.

Monitoring students' clinical experiences during a third-year family medicine clerkship.

Purpose: To demonstrate the importance of monitoring the clinical experiences and types of supervision that students receive in physicians' offices, in order to ensure quality control during a required clerkship.

Method: In a documentation system introduced in 1991-92, third-year students in the family medicine clerkship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine were asked to complete an optical scan card for every patient they saw. The card information consisted of demographic data, patient continuity, medical problems, types of histories and physical examinations, patient education issues, primary care procedures, and type of supervision.

Exploring the roles of men. Caring for demented relatives.

1. Men are under-represented among family members providing care to a demented relative. 2.

Validating audiovisual reviews as a strategy for teaching behavioral medicine to primary care residents.

A study examining the usefulness of audiovisual reviews (AVR's) as a method of teaching behavioral medicine was done with family medicine residents and faculty at the UNC School of Medicine. A set of educational goals for family medicine residency training was established. In a survey faculty and residents were asked to rate the importance of teaching each goal during residency and the appropriateness of AVR's for teaching it.

Identifying the content of family medicine for educational purposes: an empirical approach.

In this article, the authors present a method to assist in curriculum planning and report an application of the method at one institution. Through interviews of 40 selected subjects, the authors identified 27 content elements appropriate for inclusion in a family medicine curriculum for medical students. These elements were organized into four areas portraying family medicine as "a synthesis of content and process," "a field of inquiry," "a career and peer group," and "a value system.