12 tips for developing Physician Education.

The education of a physician is a life-long process. Healthcare is a dynamic field characterized by continuous advancements in medicine, evolving treatment options, changing regulations, care models, and technology. Physicians must keep up-to-date with new practices, procedures, medications, and diseases and fulfill the educational requirements to maintain their medical licensure. Continuing education for physicians serves the essential purpose of nurturing lifelong learning, ensuring that medical practices align with the latest standards, and ultimately enhancing the quality of patient care and outcomes. In a broader context, physician education encompasses all activities designed to enhance skills, professional performance, and relationships that physicians employ to provide services to patients and the public and to improve collaborations within the field. This paper outlines a step-by-step plan for designing high-quality education programs for physicians. It aims to assist in ongoing education, aligning their practices with the latest medical care standards, and optimizing their clinical performance to improve patient and community health.

Educating the Educator: Evaluation and Review of the ADMSEP Education Scholars Program.

OBJECTIVE: This report examines the first 8 years of the Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry (ADMSEP) Education Scholars Program (ESP) to determine the impact of the program on alumni careers and scholarship and their reception of the ESP. The 2-year longitudinal professional development program, launched in 2012, provides foundational knowledge to improve scholarship skills for faculty in psychiatry medical student education. The program is unique among national faculty development programs for psychiatry medical educators in its focus on scholarship and its requirement of completion of a research project in medical education.. METHODS: All 19 graduates of the program were sent a 30-question survey that explored alumni perceptions of the impact of the program on their confidence to engage in educational scholarship and on their careers. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were used to examine responses to the multiple choice and open-ended questions. A PubMed search was used to ascertain papers published by alumni since completion of the program. RESULTS: Graduate survey responses indicated a high level of satisfaction with the key elements of the program. Alumni respondents reported positive perceptions of participation in the program on their careers as well as on their interest, confidence, knowledge, and skills to engage in scholarship. Nine alumni have had scholarly work published since completion of the program. CONCLUSIONS: The ADMSEP ESP was highly valued by participants. It fills an important need for faculty in psychiatry medical student education by providing a national professional development program focused on scholarship.

Elements of an Excellent Psychiatry Clerkship Experience: A Survey Study of Graduating Medical Students.

OBJECTIVE: One possible factor associated with choosing psychiatry as a career is students rating their psychiatry clerkship as excellent. Although this suggests that an excellent clerkship may improve recruitment into psychiatry, to our knowledge there has never been a multi-site survey study of graduating medical students that identify what factors lead to an excellent clerkship rating. The purpose of this study was to determine factors that medical student find important for an excellent psychiatry clerkship experience. METHODS: A total of 1457 graduating medical students at eight institutions were sent a 22-item Likert-type survey about what clinical and administrative factors they considered when rating their psychiatry clerkship via email in the fall of their last year. 357 (24.5%) responded and Z-test, t-tests, and multiple regression analyses were carried out. RESULTS: The factors which students rated higher than the mean included planned application to psychiatry residency, clear expectations, a transparent grading process, feeling part of a team, timely feedback by faculty, and a competent clerkship coordinator and director. Lectures, active learning, and self-study were rated as less pertinent, and the overall clerkship rating did differ between students going into psychiatry versus other specialties. CONCLUSIONS: Although the low response undermines the validity of findings, by improving the administration of the clerkship with clear expectations, grading, feedback, and by encouraging clinical teams to fully integrate students clerkship ratings might improve which could potentially improve recruitment. Future research could further quantify and qualify these parameters and compare psychiatric clerkships to other clerkships.

Use of alcoholics anonymous as part of medical school education: students' and educators' perspectives.

The objective of this study was to discover the utility, barriers, and experiences with the use of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) as a learning resource in the medical school curriculum. A third-year medical student cohort and a psychiatric educator group were queried about learned experiential lessons, attendance requirements, attitudes, and obstacles encountered. Forty-three educators, whose familiarity with AA varied widely, responded to the survey. Forty-seven percent required AA attendance and reported it was a positive experience for their students. Eighty-four percent felt students should attend AA and identified obstacles to its implementation. Separately, descriptive impressions of students (N = 95) who attended AA meetings were collected. Their responses were positive 46%, neutral 43%, or negative 11%. Respondents found AA meeting experiences generally positive, and although impediments to implementation of this experience still exist, they may be overcome with concerted efforts of psychiatric educators.

Psychiatry clerkship students' preparation, reflection, and results on the NBME Psychiatry Subject Exam.

OBJECTIVE: Psychiatry clerkship training involves many learning components, one of which is acquisition of scholarly knowledge. The authors investigate the reading materials and learning methods used by clinical clerks in their preparation for the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Psychiatry Subject Exam (PSE). METHODS: Clerkship students from six U.S. medical schools who had recently completed their psychiatry clerkship and PSE were surveyed regarding reading material use, teaching methods encountered, and other relevant resources which may have influenced their PSE scores. RESULTS: The most frequently used PSE preparation material was a "step-or-prep" book, followed by practice questions, handouts, and assigned texts. No single preparation material type or combination proved significantly different in influencing PSE scores. The didactic methods used in clerkships did differ significantly in their influence on PSE scores. Students in the top quartile used slightly more books and different combinations of books than students in the bottom quartile. CONCLUSION: Students exhibited several trends in their preparation for the PSE. The most striking findings were the heavy student reliance on step-or-prep books over other learning resources and that step-or-prep books did not demonstrate significance as a superior preparation resource for the PSE. These trends in third-year psychiatric rotations have important implications for medical student education.

Students' and residents' perceptions regarding technology in medical training.

OBJECTIVE: This pilot study provides firsthand feedback from medical students and residents in training regarding their perceptions of technology in medicine. METHOD: The authors distributed an e-mail invitation to an anonymous Web-based survey to medical students and residents in two different U.S. training institutions. RESULTS: Respondents unanimously expressed that technology skills were important in medical training and felt it most important to learn about electronic medical records and accessing scientific information on the Internet. At the point of patient care, trainees' preferred reference sources were the Internet and PDA, in that order. Most clinical trainees felt PDAs were critical in patient care and met their clinical needs, and they were most likely to use them for medication reference. The majority of trainees preferred printed media over digital media for initial learning, but the converse for referencing. Instructor-led small groups were viewed as the best environment in which to receive instruction. CONCLUSIONS: Trainees in medical education are technologically savvy and provide invaluable feedback regarding initiation, development and refinement of technological systems in medical training.

Clinical grading in psychiatric clerkships.

OBJECTIVE: The clinical grade assessment is the most frequently used and heavily weighted component in the overall assessment of U.S. psychiatry clerkship students, yet the topic is understudied. The authors aimed to learn more about the nature, perceived virtues, and deficiencies of the clinical grade evaluation. METHODS: A 26-item questionnaire regarding the psychiatry clerkship clinical grading form was distributed to the clerkship directors of 129 medical schools in the U.S. and U.S. territories. The design of the document, its strengths, its weaknesses, grading outcomes, and utilization were assessed. RESULTS: Trends regarding clinical grading in psychiatry clerkships were detected. The clerkship grade form similarities, differences, desirable features, and utilization were ascertained, as were areas for improvement. CONCLUSIONS: The search for an optimal clinical grading process for the thousands of third-year medical students rotating annually is formidable. However, collaboration among psychiatry clerkship directors on development and improvement of clinical evaluation forms can clarify learning objectives and lead to better clinical evaluation tools.