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A study was conducted by the authors that examined the validity of the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), undergraduate grade-point average (GPA), and "competitiveness" of undergraduate college in predicting the performance of students at a predominantly black college of medicine. The performance measures used in the analysis consisted of course grades in all four years of medical school and scores on both Part I and Part II of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) examinations. The predictive validities of the MCAT scores and undergraduate GPAs were found to be similar to those revealed in earlier studies conducted at predominantly white schools. Two exceptions to these similarities were found. First, the MCAT scores at the black school had a somewhat lower validity in predicting NBME examination scores than was the case at the other schools. Second, of the six MCAT subtest scores, Skills Analysis: Reading had the highest correlation with first-year grades, in contrast to results at the other schools. No differences between men and women were found in the validity of MCAT scores and the GPA. The competitiveness of the undergraduate college attended was found to contribute significantly to the prediction of all measures of medical school performance.

The relationship of life experience prior to the admission to medical school to clinical performance was studied. Age, prior military experience, and educational background were found to be related to clinical performance. Students with recent military experience, former military officers, and those with a science background were found to perform in a way superior to younger and older students, non-officers, and nonscience majors, respectively. While the current study was performed in Israel and under a community-oriented curriculum, its findings tend to support those of research in the United States and were seen as enhancing the understanding of the role of nonintellectual factors in the selection of medical students. The presence of an interest/motivational factor was presented and discussed.

This study examines the influence of factual knowledge of the aged, general attitudes toward the aged, and personal contact with the aged on first-year medical students' attitudes toward geriatric patients and geriatric medicine. Entering medical students indicated a preference for working with younger patients rather than aged patients. Students' attitudes toward the aged were associated positively with their knowledge of the aged, but their interest in geriatric medicine did not appear to be affected significantly by knowledge of, attitudes toward, or personal contact with the aged. The results suggest that factors beyond those considered in this study may need to be examined if there is to be an increase in the number of physicians wishing to care for the elderly.

Medical student response to a required sex education course at the University of Texas Medical School is reported. The results suggest that the students have an objective awareness of sexuality as an integral part of medicine, but are reluctant to admit interest and are uncertain where their knowledge will be utilized., http://pdfs.journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/1980/04000/Student_evaluations_of_a_required_sex_education.11.pdf?token=method|ExpireAbsolute;source|Journals;ttl|1497472458716;payload|mY8D3u1TCCsNvP5E421JYK6N6XICDamxByyYpaNzk7FKjTaa1Yz22MivkHZqjGP4kdS2v0J76WGAnHACH69s21Csk0OpQi3YbjEMdSoz2UhVybFqQxA7lKwSUlA502zQZr96TQRwhVlocEp/sJ586aVbcBFlltKNKo+tbuMfL73hiPqJliudqs17cHeLcLbV/CqjlP3IO0jGHlHQtJWcICDdAyGJMnpi6RlbEJaRheGeh5z5uvqz3FLHgPKVXJzd++Xw1xrBvVGm3URNugOVtWImEkPbl5gkLHBUR5bo/OhpvKX4Aximp722BJmjKd+g;hash|Jue7fN/qPPsb3Y8/ZCZWOg==

The Clinical Oncology Assistantship Program has been offered to approximately 16 sophomore medical students each year at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences since 1975. This is an elective, 10-week program given during the summer recess. In the first week of the program, core lectures are given by a multidisciplinary team of cancer educators affiliated with the University of Arkansas. Following this, students spend nine weeks rotating through medical, surgical, and pediatric oncology services of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. In addition, they spend several hours during the program participating in self-directed learning activities at the university's Cancer Teaching Center. The program has been well received by the students, and each year all of the available positions have been filled. Responses on a follow-up questionnaire sent in July 1983 to past participants showed that they continued to rate the program highly. Moreover, 78 percent of the respondents felt the program had influenced positively their attitude toward cancer patients.

A questionnaire was developed to assess medical students and faculty with respect to several dimensions of their role expectations and perceived role enactments with each other. For faculty respondents the nine dimensions which emerged from cluster analysis of expectation-perception discrepancy scores were: Psychosocial Emphases, Ideal Student Role Enactment, Low Versus High Excellence, Faculty Considerateness to Patients, Division of Influence, Participation, Faculty Socioemotional Role Enactment, Student Appreciation, and Student Initiative. A comparison of mean scores on each of these dimensions for faculty members from five departments in one medical school revealed significant differences on six dimensions. Some implications of the findings are discussed.

In 1982 the Division of Community Pediatrics of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill began a new training program for all first-year pediatrics residents and fourth-year medical students taking an ambulatory pediatrics elective. The program was designed to introduce the trainees to community resources for children and increase their knowledge of the factors affecting children's development. During their regular hospital clinic rotations, the trainees spend approximately one-third of their time in program activities that involve 25 community agencies. Educational packets (consisting of books, journal articles, films, slides, videotapes, self-instruction materials, manuals for developmental tests, and/or agency materials) are provided for each program component. At the end of each one-month rotation of program activities, the trainees meet individually with the program director and coordinator to discuss the trainee's experiences and reactions and to identify strengths and weaknesses of the program components.

The Independent Study Program (ISP) at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry is described and its objectives are specified. Experimental (ISP) students and two matched (non-ISP students from the same class) groups were studied in two successive second-year medical school classes. Data were gathered only post-ISP for the first class and both pre- and post-ISP for the second. The data included measures of achievement, personality characteristics, and academic-professional experience. Experimental and control groups were not significantly different on achievement and academic-professional measures but did differ on certain measures of personality and values. The groups also differed on their evaluations of curriculum and reports of study habits. Fache ISP program was considered, and it was found that the ISP is less expensive of faculty time than is the regular curriculum but involves higher nonfaculty costs.

"Phase I" describes the initial 11 weeks of study in the M.D. training program offered by the Faculty of Medicine of McMaster University. This three-year program stresses the responsibility of students for their own education, encourages self-directed learning using realistic biomedical problems, and offers little didactic instruction. Students are assigned to tutorial groups, and much of the educational thrust of the program is built upon interactions within these groups. Phase I is designed to allow students to adapt to a less structured environment, and intensive faculty support is available. The successes and failures of Phase I of the program were examined using a combined questionnaire and interview at various stages during the 11-week period. Not all program goals were satisfactorily measured, but those that could be assessed appeared to have been attained by most students.

An evaluation of a case-based, problem-oriented, modular curriculum in geriatrics for medical students was designed by the authors to investigate (a) whether students would demonstrate cognitive knowledge gain in geriatrics, (b) whether students' attitudes toward the elderly would change favorably, (c) whether suggested learning activities in geriatrics would positively influence students' ratings of these activities in geriatrics, and (d) which institutional characteristics facilitate implementation of the new curriculum. The results indicated that using the modules did produce statistically significant gains in students' cognitive knowledge of geriatrics. Using the modules did not, however, influence the students' attitudes toward the elderly. Clinical or related learning activities involving elderly persons were rated positively by students; however, only two of the participating medical schools in the evaluation provided such experiences. Data from questionnaires and site visits identified several factors which may be helpful in the implementation of geriatrics or other new curricular material into existing curricular structures.

The purpose of the study reported in this article was to examine first-year medical students' attitudes toward their free time and how these attitudes relate to self-reported stress levels. Members of the entering class of 1982-83 at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine were asked to complete surveys designed to measure perceived stress and leisure attitudes. The results indicated a significant negative correlation between the total leisure scale and the stress scale. This correlation supported the hypothesis that students who perceived that they had high stress levels scored low on the leisure attitude scale. These findings suggest a need for educating students about the benefits of well spent leisure time as a stress management mechanism that is important in coping with daily pressures and anxieties.

Two successive classes of entering medical students at the University of Colorado participated in a longitudinal study on the development of medical specialty choice. Students indicated specialty choices and their degree of certainty about them in the freshman, sophomore, and senior years. Results indicated that students were highly uncertain of their choices at the beginning of medical school but became very certain by graduation. Nearly three-fourths switched specialties between freshman and senior years. In general, there was no relationship between degree of certainty and switching. The exception occurred in family practice. The least specialty switching occurred with internal medicine and the most with psychiatry. Increasing numbers of students chose internal medicine over the four years.

The deans of student affairs at 114 medical schools were surveyed about the availability of counseling services for medical students. There were 85 respondents (75 percent), all of whom indicated that some counseling services were available at their schools. One-third felt the services were not adequate. In addition, student representatives at these 114 schools were surveyed on the same topic, 53 responded (46 percent), and most said there was underutilization due to poor communication, problems resulting from initial contacts through the administration, and concern about confidentiality. Recommendations are made to help increase the utilization of counseling resources.

Graduates of the Medical College of Pennsylvania during 1970-1977 were studied to determine the impact of three types of preclinical training on prelicensure clinical performance. The 586 students who comprised these groups consisted of 471 students admitted to the first year, 53 students admitted with advanced standing from U.S. medical or graduate programs, and 62 students admitted with advanced standing from foreign medical schools. Academic performances among the groups differed as measured by scores on the examinations of the National Board of Medical Examiners. However, perceived clinical performances of both transfer groups, as measured by honors awarded in year four and by first-year residency evaluation, were on a par with that of the original matriculants.

Poor patient compliance is common in clinical practice but difficult to demonstrate to medical students in a convincing manner. To accomplish this, the authors asked medical students who preregistered for a conference on patient compliance to adopt the role of "patient" and to take "medication" (Vitamin C) for one week, to observe certain dietary restrictions, and to complete an attitude and health beliefs questionnaire. The educational impact was intensified by making prior predictions about outcome which were almost exactly confirmed. The predictions concerned failure to fill the prescription, extent and type of noncompliance, and significant differences in attitudes between compliant and noncompliant students. The attitudes of the students resembled those of noncompliant patients asked to take medication for nonsymptomatic disorders (such as hypertension). Those students who participated in the drug-taking experience rated the educational impact of the conference more highly than did those students who attended the conference but did not take part in the drug project.

The author studied both the amount and cognitive level of teacher questions and student discussion in 62 small clinical discussion groups comprising 119 third-year medical students. After analyzing the transcripts from over 75 hours in small clinical discussion groups, the investigator examined in detail how much the "process" of the small group interaction related to certain outcomes, such as the students' critical thinking and their performance on the examinations of the National Board of Medical Examiners. The instrument used for analysis was a modified version of the Flanders System of Interaction Analysis that incorporated Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain. The cognitive level of the teachers' questions had a significant positive correlation with the cognitive level of the students' responses. While there were significant relationships between some aspects of verbal participation and outcome measures, the multiple regression analyses showed that the major contributions to outcomes were the aptitude and previous knowledge that the students already possessed.