Crafting Successful Relationships with the IRB.

BACKGROUND: Medical educational researchers face frustration with IRBs for activities that formerly were exempt from review or were not treated as biomedical research with patients. The authors sought to identify methods for improving relationships between IRBs and medical education researchers. METHOD: The authors conducted interviews with medical school representatives about factors leading to relationships in which all parties feel that their concerns are being met, subjects are appropriately protected, and that the progress of evaluation or research activities is not unnecessarily inhibited. RESULTS: Successful relationships require efforts at education of the IRB and the researchers. All institutions acknowledged the need to establish and maintain good communication. Some schools developed structures or procedures that resulted in more rapid review and increased satisfaction that interests of all parties were protected. CONCLUSIONS: A relationship must be crafted between medical education researchers and the IRB. The authors found key elements to successful approaches.

Using families as faculty in teaching medical students family-centered care: what are students learning?

BACKGROUND: Teaching family-centered health care is an important facet of medical education. Families are increasingly being used as faculty to teach first-person family-centered care. PURPOSE: To elucidate what medical students are learning from their family visits. METHODS: Fifty-eight pediatric clerkship students at the University of Vermont College of Medicine completed a home visit with a family with a child with chronic disabilities. After the home visit, students were asked to complete a reflection paper. The content of these papers was analyzed for repeated themes. Two themes emerged: discussions of family issues (e.g., normalcy, challenges, community support) and physician issues (e.g., listening, parent support, knowledge of disease.) RESULTS: Sixty-six percent of the students noted that family challenges, such as divorce or job hardships, were talked about by the families. The 2nd and 3rd most noted reflection themes were the strengths within family relationships and the normalcy of the family. Physician issues most often discussed included how physicians did or did not collaborate, listen, support, or communicate clearly with families. CONCLUSIONS: Students are learning valuable lessons while talking with and learning from families. Families as faculty are educators for the conveyance of family-centered medical care.

Implementing a community education program on stroke for health care providers and consumers.

Stroke remains a leading killer and cause of disability in the United States. The incidence of stroke appears to be increasing while new advances in the management of stroke continue to emerge. These realities emphasize the need to communicate advances to health care providers and consumers. However, educating health care providers and consumers in rural states is often difficult due to dispersed geographic distribution and lack of resources. This project, utilizing teleconferencing technology, brought an educational program on stroke management for providers and consumers into rural communities. Community hospitals, with teleconferencing capability, were identified throughout Vermont. Community providers and consumers were invited to participate in educational sessions using a variety of marketing methodologies. A multidisciplinary team designed two curricula (one for providers and one for health care consumers) on the management of stroke. A total of 211 health care professionals and 122 consumers participated in the program. Education session evaluations suggested that the program either met or exceeded participants' expectations for the majority of programs. This project demonstrated that academic centers can provide quality continuing medical education for their rural communities using teleconferencing technology. Experience with this program suggests that there are three key elements for success: adequate planning time, communication on multiple levels, and strong marketing strategies.