Publications by authors named "Susan V Barrett"
Objective: To describe the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare's (AACH) Faculty Development Course on Teaching the Medical Interview and report a single year's outcomes.
Design: We delivered a Faculty Development course on Teaching the Medical Interview whose theme was relationship-centered care to a national and international audience in 1999. Participants completed a retrospective pre-post assessment of their perceived confidence in performing interview, clinical, teaching, and self-awareness skills.
Article Synopsis
- Professionalism is crucial in medicine, and this study explored how different raters evaluate medical students' professionalism during OSCE encounters.
- Different types of raters (standardized patients, doctor preceptors, and laypeople) showed variability in what behaviors they focused on and how they rated those behaviors, indicating subjective interpretation.
- The findings suggest that understanding and defining professional behaviors is complex and requires input from various stakeholders to improve the assessment process in medical education.
Purpose: To determine whether some of the fundamental assumptions that frequently underlie interpretation of course evaluation results are justified by investigating what medical students are thinking as they complete a typical basic science course evaluation.
Methods: A total of 24 students participated in thinkaloud cognitive interviews, voicing their thoughts while completing a typical evaluation instrument that included items on overall course design, educational materials and methods, and faculty teaching. Students' responses were organised to consider how they interpreted questions, formed judgements and selected response options.
Purpose: This study assesses the relationship between students' confidence and competency in breast screening practices, compares different measurement approaches to these competencies, and assesses the effect on clinical breast examination (CBE) performance of an additional training session with a standardized patient.
Method: In the spring of 1998, 96 third-year medical students (47 men and 49 women) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School completed knowledge items on breast cancer epidemiology and on perceived confidence in their counseling and CBE skills. The students were also rated on their performances of counseling and CBE skills.
Purpose: To examine the immediate and delayed impact of an intensive one- or two-day interclerkship on substance abuse (SA) for third-year medical students. The program is a response to the problem of inadequacy of substance abuse education in the standard curriculum.
Method: Each year since 1997-98 all third-year students at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have participated in a one- or two-day SA interclerkship to enhance their knowledge and competence with SA assessment and brief intervention.