Transitioning between clerkship directors.

OBJECTIVE: The authors report on succession-planning for mid-level academic positions. METHOD: The authors describe the process of succession-planning between clerkship directors and the smooth transition resulting in one case. RESULTS: Gradually transitioning allowed a new faculty person to assume the clerkship-director position with minimal disruption of the clerkship. The respectful treatment of the exiting clerkship director encouraged other faculty to discuss future plans with the Chair, facilitating strategic planning. CONCLUSION: The authors stress the need to study quantitatively the effect of transitions on training.

Determining, monitoring, and verifying patient-student involvement (ED-2) in a psychiatry clerkship: preliminary findings.

OBJECTIVE: This article describes the process and preliminary findings that a department of psychiatry developed to meet a new Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) educational standard known as ED-2. METHOD: At an educational retreat, 92% of faculty and 56% of residents who attended developed the types of patient symptoms all students should see and document during a 6-week psychiatry rotation. Data from the first three rotations were collected, including the opinions of faculty and students. RESULTS: Both faculty and students found the system easy to use. Almost half (46%) of the encounters were met through observation with a range of 12% to 81%. There was a significant inverse correlation between students who met encounters through observation and Shelf examination scores. DISCUSSION: The Required Patient Encounter card tracks the patients whom students are seeing, thus enabling the clerkship to meet new LCME educational standards. Future directions will include evaluating whether the categories of symptoms need revision and whether there should be a maximum number of encounters that can be met through observation.