Medical Students' Communication Preferences for the Ideal Surgical Educator.

OBJECTIVE: Medical students have expectations and preferences for how they are taught by clinical surgical educators. The goal of this study was to (a) determine medical students' prioritizations of ideal teaching behaviors and characteristics for surgical educators, and (b) delineate which teaching behaviors and characteristics were considered to be less important for surgical education. DESIGN: Using a necessity (low) and luxury (high) budget allocation methodology to build their ideal surgical educator, MSIII and MSIV students (N = 82) completed a survey to prioritize and invest in 10 effective teaching behaviors and characteristics identified in the instructional communication literature (assertiveness, responsiveness, clarity, relevance, competence, character, caring, immediacy, humor, and disclosure). RESULTS: Repeated-measures ANOVAs indicated MSIII and MSIV students invested significantly more of their teaching budget allocations for their ideal surgical educator into instructor clarity, competence, relevance, responsiveness, and caring, both within a (low) necessity budget (F[5.83, 472.17] = 24.09, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.23) and (high) luxury budget (F(7.65, 619.76) = 67.56, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.46). Using paired t-tests, comparisons of repeated investments in low and high budget allocations revealed that students invested slightly more of a percentage of funds in instructor immediacy (+2.62%; t(81) = 2.90, p = 0.005; d = 0.32) and disclosure (+1.44%; t(81) = 3.26, p = 0.002; d = 0.36), indicating they viewed these teaching behaviors more as luxury components of surgical education rather than necessities, but these behaviors were significantly less important than their ideal prioritizations of instructor clarity, competence, relevance, responsiveness, and caring. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicated that medical students want a surgical educator who is largely a rhetorical educator; that is, a surgical specialist who clearly communicates expertise and relevant content that students can apply to their careers as future surgeons. However, a relational component was viewed as ideal by students as students also preferred surgical educators to be sensitive and sympathetic to their academic needs.

Workplace Bullying and Work Engagement: A Self-Determination Model.

This study modeled motivational mechanisms that explain the negative effects of workplace bullying on work engagement. Guided by self-determination theory, workplace bullying was predicted to decrease worker engagement indirectly, due to the denial of employees' basic psychological needs and their intrinsic motivation to work. From a sample of 243 full-time employees, serial multiple mediation models revealed that the indirect relationships between workplace bullying and work engagement (i.e., vigor, dedication, absorption) were serially mediated by basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation to work. In support of self-determination theory, this study revealed that workplace bullying indirectly disengages employees from their work by denying them of their autonomy and relatedness needs and thwarting their motivation to perform work in a fulfilling way.

Does the rural trauma team development course shorten the interval from trauma patient arrival to decision to transfer?

BACKGROUND: The Rural Trauma Team Development Course (RTTDC) was developed by the ad hoc Rural Trauma Committee of the American College of Surgeons, Committee on Trauma to address the increased mortality of the rural trauma patient. The effectiveness of the RTTDC in shortening the interval from patient arrival to decision to transfer and the effect on the transfer process of communication training emphasizing team building is the focus of this study. METHOD: Rural level III and level IV trauma centers (N=18) were enrolled in a multiinstitutional 3-month longitudinal study of transferred trauma patients. Results were compared with institutions having hosted RTTDC versus those institutions not yet exposed to the course. RESULTS: One-way analysis of variance was conducted. Results indicated that RTTDC training alone and RTTDC including communication training resulted in a statistically significantly shorter (p<0.05) time for decision to transfer. Transferring squad arrival time was also significantly reduced (p<0.01) as was the number of transferring squads contacted (p<0.01). No differences were observed among the trauma facilities and the number of receiving facilities contacted, (p=0.64) or in the time required to find an accepting facility (p=0.72). CONCLUSION: The RTTDC alone and with the embedded communication module significantly reduce delays in the transfer process of the rural trauma patient.

Siblings' motives for talking to each other.

The sibling relationship is an involuntary one that individuals often maintain throughout life (V. G. Cicirelli, 1995; M. A. Fitzpatrick & D. M. Badzinski, 1994; P. Noller & M. A. Fitzpatrick, 1993). The authors investigated interpersonal communication motives in sibling relationships to examine the way in which siblings voluntarily maintain their relationships with one another over time. R. B. Rubin, E. M. Perse, and C. A. Barbato (1988) identified 6 primary motives that people have for communicating: affection, control, escape, inclusion, pleasure, and relaxation. Participants were 323 individuals who reported on why they communicated with 1 of their siblings. The authors found differences between male and females participants and between intact and nonintact families. The number of siblings and the birth order of siblings also appeared to affect motives for communicating. The authors discuss the implications and limitations.

Students' Machiavellianism and motives for communicating with instructors.

This study investigated the relationship between scores of college students (N=210, 114 women, 95 men, 1 unidentified; Mage=19.3 yr., SD=2.8) on Machiavellianism and their motives for communicating with their instructors in the classroom. Students' Machiavellianism scores were positively but weakly related to three motives of Functional (r=.22, p<.01), Excuse-making (r=.16, p<.05), and Sycophancy (r=.17, p<.05).

Verbal aggression and viewing the world as a mean place.

Of 555 college students those rating verbal aggressiveness higher also rated perception of the world as a meaner place.