Measuring student motivation in health professions' colleges.

Active, independent, self-directed learning requires motivation, or a willingness to exert high levels of effort toward educational goals, conditioned by individual need. Motivation may be a function of individual differences or induced by situational constraints. Archer (1994), who used goal orientation to conceptualize university student motivation, theorized that students would exhibit a preference for either mastery orientation (desire to develop competence/increase understanding), performance orientation (desire to demonstrate competence/ability), or academic alienation (no concern for developing competence or demonstrating achievement). The purpose of this study was to identify and validate an instrument that would measure goal orientation preferences of students in health professions programs. The authors administered Archer's survey to a sample of medical, nursing, and pharmacy students to determine if the instrument was appropriate for this population. Results demonstrated that goal orientation preference could be measured in these students and confirmed the instrument's reliability and valid use for these populations.

The impact of a cancer education program on the knowledge base of participating students.

BACKGROUND: Partners in Research is a ten-week summer elective designed to provide cancer-related educational activities. This study was undertaken to evaluate the impact of the program on the general cancer knowledge of medical students, pharmacy students, and undergraduate biology majors. METHODS: The 24 students enrolled in 1999 were evaluated using a pretest and post-test with 75 multiple-choice questions. RESULTS: The mean test score increased significantly from 46.6% to 53.0% (p = 0.001). Improvements were significant for general cancer knowledge and three specific disease categories (breast, gastrointestinal, and skin cancers). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the program does increase the cancer-related knowledge of students.

Differences in medical students' empathy.

Medical students' Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale scores were compared by year, sex, and expressed specialty choice. Scores were lower for students choosing non-core specialties, and for M4 men students compared with M3 men students.

Testing a multimedia module in cancer pain management.

BACKGROUND: The technologies for providing better pain management for cancer patients are widely available, but barriers still exist that prevent their optimal use. One of the most important barriers is a knowledge deficit among primary care physicians in adequate pain assessment, in opioid pharmacology, and in the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the management of pain. METHOD: The authors prepared a CD-ROM multimedia cancer pain management module to overcome the physician knowledge barrier. RESULTS: Tests of the module with primary care physician and primary care resident volunteers indicate that the cancer pain management multimedia module meets its educational objectives.

Visual hallucinations in the elderly associated with the use of levodopa.

Visual hallucinations are a well recognized unwanted effect of treatment with levodopa. Although many individual cases have been reported, there has only been one review previously published about this finding, and this did not discriminate age groups. We present five cases and briefly review the literature. It is important to enquire specifically about visual hallucinations in patients on levodopa therapy at follow up, as this otherwise potentially reversible side effect may be overlooked.