Search

The study aimed to verify the prediction of general work performance by a perception of a leader as a security provider (LSP) in tram drivers. Contextual performance (job dedication) was a mediator in the predictive model. The research sample consisted of 196 tram drivers, 62.22% of the organization's tram drivers. All participants shared the same leader, the head of the tram operation. They completed quantitative cross-sectional self-administered surveys. Results showed that job dedication (contextual performance) predicted the general performance. Job dedication as a partial mediator enhanced the percentage of the general performance's explained score from 15.3% to 26.3%--predicted by perceiving the leader as a safe figure. Discussion suggested further analyzing the functions of a leader as an attachment figure in work settings and their connections to the other organizational behavioral variables. Functions of emotionality and separation distress did not relate to the work performance of tram drivers. Secure-based leadership and focus on job dedication fostered the tram drivers' general work performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a kind of job characteristic, feedback often occurs in the organization in order to improve employee performance. Based on leadership identity theory, this study developed a conceptual model involving supervisor developmental feedback, job crafting and job performance. the authors then targeted a large manufacturing enterprise in Hunan, China, obtaining 337 valid data using an on-site questionnaire survey. The data was analyzed using a hierarchical linear regression method, showing that supervisor developmental feedback was positively related to job crafting and employee job performance, and this job crafting was positively associated with employee job performance and partially mediated the relationship between supervisor developmental feedback and employee job performance. Managerial implications and directions for further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined gender differences in the experiences of 923 officer cadets attending Canadian Military Colleges and 135 officer cadets attending civilian universities who completed a survey. Overall, the findings revealed that the experience of officer cadets in civilian universities was more positive, gender neutral, and their institutions' values and culture were a better fit for them compared to their peers in Canadian Military Colleges. For officer cadets in Canadian Military Colleges, the results revealed that women were less likely to perceive gender equality in the way they were treated, the fairness of complaint mechanisms, and being treated with respect compared to men. Men in Canadian Military Colleges were less likely to perceive gender equality in performance standards than women. There were no gender differences in experiences for officer cadets in civilian universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The delivery of patient care in the United Kingdom is under increasing financial pressure. The need to continuously improve service delivery while making financial savings is challenging. Alongside this, National Health Service (NHS) Trusts must provide a suitable educational environment that meets the needs of all learners while meeting performance standards and targets set by external regulating authorities. This research addresses the gap in literature concerning educational culture in the NHS. Methods: This case study examines the delivery of postgraduate medical education in the workplace. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 lead educators in the Medical Division of a North West NHS Trust to glean their insights into what works and what needs to change. Results: A thematic analysis of the transcripts revealed a number of factors that facilitated and hindered educational opportunities for doctors in training, including the role of leadership, the demands of external regulatory authorities, and the pressures on frontline staff to deliver safe, personal, and effective care. Conclusion: Opportunities for developing a collaborative approach between educational and clinical leaders and the individuals delivering education in the workplace to enhance the educational environment are discussed. Finally, an evaluatory toolkit based on the themes emerging from the data is proposed, as a resource for other health care organisations to help improve the delivery of workplace-based medical education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global change calls for more active approaches to forest risk management. To avoid unforeseen backlashes, it is necessary to examine the general public’s acceptance of the risk management strategies. By drawing on different theoretical approaches (threat and prevention, performance evaluations, and forest cognitions), the present study examines predictors of acceptability in the general public in three counties in Sweden (N = 1,026). As expected, appraisals of threat mediated the effect of threat awareness on belief in risk prevention, and when examining performance evaluations, trust in responsible actors influenced acceptability via procedural satisfaction. However, the threat and prevention approach and the performance evaluation approach only explained low levels of the variance in acceptability of the examined strategies. Nevertheless, stronger ecological forest values, and favoring broadleaved forests, were found to be important to the acceptability of proactively implementing a more diverse forest to meet the expected challenges associated with global climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In applications of cognitive diagnostic models (CDMs), practitioners usually face the difficulty of choosing appropriate CDMs and building accurate Q-matrices. However, functions of model-fit indices that are supposed to inform model and Q-matrix choices are not well understood. This study examines the performance of several promising model-fit indices in selecting model and Q-matrix under different sample size conditions. Relative performance between Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion in model and Q-matrix selection appears to depend on the complexity of data generating models, Q-matrices, and sample sizes. Among the absolute fit indices, MX2 is least sensitive to sample size under correct model and Q-matrix specifications, and performs the best in power. Sample size is found to be the most influential factor on model-fit index values. Consequences of selecting inaccurate model and Q-matrix in classification accuracy of attribute mastery are also evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Most research in the area of dynamic decision making in general and stock-flow failures in particular is conducted with the help of computerized simulations as task environments or paper-based tasks of simple dynamic systems.Purpose. The purpose of this article is to investigate if stock-flow failures persist in naturalistic decision making environments.Methods. For this purpose, a tangible stock-flow experiment is used. It asks participants to meet a target level of water in a glass by pouring water through a funnel as fast as possible. We then compare their performance with a purely cognitive task (a manufacturing task).Results. Participants on average did not significantly perform better in a tangible stock-flow task than in a paper-based test of a comparable task. In addition, individual performance in the tangible task cannot be related to performance in a similar paper-pencil stock-flow task.Conclusions. An implication of this study is that tangible stock-flow tasks are as difficult for humans to control as are purely cognitive tasks. Further research should address individual differences between the two task modes (tangible vs. cognitive). A limitation of this study is the usage of only one tangible stock-flow task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Samsoeum was traditionally used for treatment of a respiratory disease. Objective: The simultaneous determination of eight major compounds, ginsenoside Rg3, caffeic acid, puerarin, costunolide, hesperidin, naringin, glycyrrhizin, and 6-gingerol in the Samsoeum using a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with diode array detection (DAD) and an electrospray ionization mass spectrometer was developed for an accurate and reliable quality assessment. Materials and Methods: Eight compounds were qualitative identified based on their mass spectra and by comparing with standard compounds and quantitative analyzed by HPLC-DAD. Separation of eight compounds was carried out on a LUNA C18 column (S-5 μm, 4.6 mm i.d. ×250 mm) with gradient elution composed of acetonitrile and 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid. Results: The data showed good linearity (R2 > 0.9996). The limits of detection and the limits of quantification were <0.53 μg and 1.62 μg, respectively. Inter-.and Intra-day precisions (expressed as relative standard deviation values) were within 1.94% and 1.91%, respectively. The recovery of the method was in the range of 94.24-107.90%. Conclusion: The established method is effective and could be applied to quality control of Samsoeum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans pay close attention to the reputational consequences of their actions. Recent experiments indicate that even very subtle cues that one is being observed can affect cooperative behaviors. Expressing our opinions about the morality of certain acts is a key means of advertising our cooperative dispositions. Here, we investigated how subtle cues of being watched would affect moral judgments. We predicted that participants exposed to such cues would affirm their endorsement of prevailing moral norms by expressing greater disapproval of moral transgressions. Participants read brief accounts of two moral violations and rated the moral acceptability of each violation. Violations were more strongly condemned in a condition where participants were exposed to surveillance cues (an image of eyes interposed between the description of the violation and the associated rating scale) than in a control condition (in which the interposed image was of flowers). We discuss the role that public declarations play in the interpersonal evaluation of cooperative dispositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to determine the effects of active workstation designs on speed and error during typing, mouse pointing, and combined type and mouse-use tasks. Background: Office ergonomics has focused on musculoskeletal disorder prevention; however, increasing computer-based work also increases health risks associated with inactivity. Workstations allowing computer users to walk or cycle while performing computer tasks have been shown to demand sufficient energy expenditure to result in significant health benefits. However the performance effects of being active while using a computer have not been documented. Method: Thirty office workers (16 female, 15 touch typists) performed standardized computer tasks in six workstation conditions: sitting, standing, walking at 1.6 km/h and 3.2 km/h, and cycling at 5 and 30 watts. Performance, perceived performance, and heart rate were measured. Results: Computer task performance was lower when walking and slightly lower when cycling, compared with chair sitting. Standing performance was not different from sitting performance. Mouse performance was more affected than typing performance. Performance decrements were equal for females and males and for touch typists and nontouch typists. Conclusion: Performance decrements maybe related to both biomechanical and cognitive processes. Active workstations may be less suitable for mouse-intensive work and susceptible users. Application: Although active workstations may result in some decrement in performance, their ability to increase daily energy expenditure may make them a feasible solution for workplace inactivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores some of the similarities and differences between two approaches to the study of work that use moving images. The first approach, most notably practised by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, 'dissected' the movement of workers' bodies in the pursuit of efficiency. The second approach has emerged in the last few decades from ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. The article notes how shared technologies for data collection and shared interests in work practice belie more fundamental differences in analytic orientation. The article uses this comparison to highlight the potential contributions that the more recent corpus of studies can make to our understanding of work; an understanding that prioritizes the methodic practices in and through which members of society accomplish, experience and constitute work and organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to document the cognitive aftereffects of exposure to uncoupled motion and the time course of recovery from these aftereffects. Background: Uncoupled motion refers to a situation in which an individual is simultaneously exposed to two asynchronous motions, either real or virtual. These environments are a challenge for designers because technology that is supposed to increase the user's task performance may actually lead to decreased task performance. Method: In the study, 11 male participants, (median age = 32 years) with prior flight experience (median = 600 hr) were exposed to an uncoupled motion environment consisting of a flight simulator on a vertically oscillating platform. Participants completed a cognitive test battery, a balance test, and a dynamic visual acuity test preexposure, immediately postexposure, and 2, 4, 6, 8, and 24 hr postexposure. Results: The uncoupled motion scenario led to significant cognitive aftereffects that cannot be solely attributed to motion sickness. These aftereffects lasted between 2 and 4 hr postexposure. The scenario generated some physiological aftereffects that lasted between 1 and 2 hr postexposure. However, it is likely that these aftereffects can be attributed to motion sickness. Conclusion: Uncoupled motion can cause unappreciated effects, such as degraded cognitive performance. Application: System designs that create uncoupled motion need to be evaluated for the potential to generate operator impairment, and designs should be modified to minimize this potential wherever possible. When redesign is not possible, system-use guidelines should be developed to minimize impairment. The current results suggest operators avoid performing cognitively demanding tasks for at least 2 hr postexposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pernicious paradox in human motivation is the occasional reduced performance associated with tasks and situations that involve larger-than-average rewards. Three broad explanations that might account for such performance decrements are attentional competition (distraction theories), inhibition by conscious processes (explicit-monitoring theories), and excessive drive and arousal (overmotivation theories). Here, we report incentive-dependent performance decrements in humans in a reward-pursuit task; subjects were less successful in capturing a more valuable reward in a computerized maze. Concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that increased activity in ventral midbrain, a brain area associated with incentive motivation and basic reward responding, correlated with both reduced number of captures and increased number of near-misses associated with imminent high rewards. These data cast light on the neurobiological basis of choking under pressure and are consistent with overmotivation accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a large body of research has focused on the effects of teachers' educational standards and/or expectations of different types of pupils related to pupils' ability, race/ethnicity, gender, and/or social class, there has been much less research on how such standards/expectations are formed by teachers' institutional structure. Previous research on the impact of institutional factors on teachers' pedagogy and curriculum has suggested the usefulness of a particular embedded, ecological model in studying the development of teachers' standards/expectations of pupils. This article uses ethnographic data gathered from one Belgian (Flemish) multicultural vocational and technical education school to illustrate the usefulness of this conceptual framework for studying the development of teachers' standards of assessment of pupils. The conclusion discusses implications for future research on the development of teachers' standards and/or expectations of pupils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on new institutional and market theories, this article derives three hypotheses for the effects of markets on educational organizations: They (1) weaken formal structures, (2) reverse tendencies toward isomorphism, and (3) force schools to recouple and compete via performance indicators. These ideas are investigated with data on private and public schools in Toronto, which, the authors argue, is a strategic research site. The findings vary by market sector. Newer, nonelite private schools seek niches, avoid performance indicators, and dilute formal structures, while older elite schools do the opposite. Thus, market effects on school organizations vary by sector. In conclusion, the authors argue that the impact of markets on schools is mitigated by local institutional conditions. Specifically, the presumed impact of markets on educational quality may be contingent upon certain institutional conditions that, when absent, channel market forces in more consumerist directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purposes of the current study were to (1) determine the relationship between the number of practice strategies students could articulate and their performance improvement scores, (2) identify trends in students' 5-minute practice behaviors, and (3) compare students ' achievement based on their practice procedures. Participants were 65 eighth-grade students from five middle schools. Results documented a positive correlation between performance improvement and number of verbalized practice techniques. Based on the participants ' 5-minute practice behaviors, four categories of practicers were determined: holistic, noncorrective practicers, who did not stop for errors in their run-throughs; holistic, corrective practicers, who stopped only for errors in their run-throughs; analytic, reactive practicers, who stopped to remediate sections of music; and analytic, proactive practicers, who jumped around in the music to fix errors. There were significant differences between the holistic and analytic practicers, as well as between the pre- and postperformances, and a significant interaction between practicers and performances. From the baseline to the final performance, the analytic practicers made significantly more gains than did the holistic practicers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a recent survey of establishments in the United States, the authors examine how nonprofit, public, and for-profit establishments vary in the use of high-performance work organization (HPWO) practices that offer opportunities for participation in decision making (via self-directed teams and offline committees), enhance the capacity for participation (via multiskilling practices such as job rotation), and provide incentives for participation (via compensation practices). Nonprofit and public organizations are less likely to use performance incentives (gain sharing and bonuses) and some multiskilling practices than are for-profit organizations but more likely to use both self-directed work teams and offline committees. Sectoral differences in the prevalence of incentive compensation and self-directed teams persist after correlates of sector that predict HPWO prevalence—including establishment size, industry, computational requirements, and unionization—are controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addresses the dilemmas around performance assessment and frames the debate in the field of simulation and education research. Details on Anesthesia Crisis Resource Management; Categories of training with simulation; Conclusions.

The article discusses the consequences of job-related stress experienced by men and women during their arduous military training. It is very important to maintain a level of stress in daily schedules and work assignments which guarantees efficiency in performance. Health researches prove that though women experience depression when exposed to higher levels of stress in the male-dominated work environment, it is men who generally become restless and aggressive in similar situations. Media and policymakers are raising objections to the fact that gender of a person is usually not taken into account in the armed forces and military settings.

Isoperformance curves are contour lines or surfaces that trace all combinations of two or more determinants that suffice to produce a specified level of performance hence the term isoperformance. When the determinants are aptitude and training time or time on the job, an isoperformance curve allows one to identify individuals who have sufficient aptitude for the work that they can be expected to reach a specified standard of performance in a specified length of time. This paper discusses isoperformance in the personnel selection and classification literature and then develops and illustrates the uses of isoperformance curves in personnel decisions. The idea of aptitude sensitivity is introduced, and the relationship between this idea and predictive validity is explained. The paper also indicates how isoperformance can be used to detail trade-offs among training time, the minimum qualifying score, attrition rate, quotas, and the specified level of criterion performance, Isoperformance finds direct application in the multiple-job assignment problem, exemplified by the choice of which recruit to send to which training school in the military services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a rejoinder to sociologist J. Child, M. Forbes, I. Glover and P. Lawrence related to professionalism and work organization. The alleged links between either professionalism-and-work-organization or work-organization-and-economic performance were not established; that is, they did not establish that observable average differences in patterns of work organization between samples of British and German firms could be attributed to professionalism nor did they establish that the companies with different patterns of work organization had different economic performances. To some extent I was arguing that the thesis was an unsatisfactory example of its kind through weaknesses in coriceptualisation, inadequate documentation, and the failure to deal with conflicting evidence. If the various elements could not be sustained then the thesis fell. However, I was arguing further that this approach to the problems of British manufacturing did not provide an appropriate framework for studies or policies on work organisation and economic performance. The emphasis on cultural factors in analysis and the educational system in prescription did little more than provide a familiar scapegoat.

In the understanding of managerial control over work, the labour process literature has been very influential. Recent critical contributions from the sociological tradition have, however, served to so fragment the underlying perspective that its coherence is now threatened. This paper seeks to demonstrate how a dialectical analysis can lay the basis for a viable amended approach. The need for a dialectical framework has often been urged illustrations of such a perspective in operation, however, are rare. Using a series of examples, this paper argues that the dialectic of work control can be revealed by focussing on two phenomena: the 'levels' and `circuits' of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the validity of performance standards for high-stakes achievement tests. Emphasis on conceptual issues and broadly defined methodological questions; Appropriateness of passing scores used in decision making; Definition of the validity of a performance standard; Identification of sources of error in the passing score.

The research described here moves personnel psychology beyond the blind empirical search for correlates and predictors of job performance and toward an understanding of the psychological processes and mechanisms that determine the wide variation in job performance that has long been observed and measured for all jobs studied. Based on studies of workers' output in jobs of many kinds and levels, this variation has recently been formally quantified and shown to be very large. On a typical lower level job, a worker at the 85th percentile in performance produces about 20% more than average worker. On the typical medium-complexity job, this figure is 32%. For professional and managerial jobs, it is about 48%. Thus, improvements in selection, placement, and training that findings from the sort of research described here may make possible could lead to large and economically significant improvements in output and economic competitiveness.

The practice of predicting performance by means of psychological tests began in the modern age with World War I. If an employer were to use only intelligence tests and selected the highest scoring applicant for each job, training results would be predicted well regardless of the job, and overall performance from the employees selected would be maximized. Many people criticize the current test batteries, which they feel are too dependent on academically learned content, the knowledge of which can be affected by the extent of the examinee's experience as well as ability. Despite differential individual investment, the current test batteries work; their validities are evidence of their efficacy. Virtually all individuals are exposed over a number of years to basic mathematics and reading and vocabulary. Measurement of this common investment has formed the basis of intelligence tests. Contemporary cognitive psychology offers tests that appear to be content free.

The article comments on the work of sociologist William Chambliss. It suggests that although "in other fields it may be less clear who are the outstanding performers," swimming can be seen as an ideal type because the strata of excellence and the movements within and between the strata are sharper and more concise. Unfortunately, he is not as clear as he could have been in explaining precisely how the production of excellence as a meaningful folk category in swimming is similar to and how it is different from the production of excellence as a meaningful folk category in other fields. This is to say that to conceive of the relationship between criteria of measurement and performance in other fields as it occurs in swimming is to blind oneself to crucial and significantly different features of how excellence is produced in everyday life. Attention should be devoted to the ways in which excellence is an achievement at the social, not only the individual, level. Such attention would entail a critique of excellence rather than of talent, and would make. Chambliss' lessons on social stratification more generally applicable outside the field of competitive swimming.

The article discusses on the phenomenon of excellence from the point of view of stratification by taking up the case of Olympic swimmers. Within competitive swimming, clear stratification exists not only between individuals but also between defined levels of the sport as well. At the lowest level, we see the country club teams, operating in the summer-time as a loosely-run, mildly competitive league, with volunteer part-time coaches and at the top is Olympic class competitors. This is convenient for the student of stratification. Because success in swimming is so definable, and the stratification system so unambiguous. Different levels of the sport are qualitatively distinct. Stratification in the sport is discrete, not continuous. There are significant, qualitative breaks — discontinuities — between levels of the sport. These include differences in attitude, discipline and technique which in turn lead to small but consistent quantitative differences in speed. Factors other than talent explain athletic success more precisely.

This paper critically examines available theoretical models which have been derived front statistically established patterns of association between contextual and organizational variables. These models offer an interpretation of organizational structure as a product of organizational structure as a product of primarily economic constraints which contextual variable are impose. It is argued that available models in fact attempt to explain organization at one remove by ignoring the essentially political process, whereby power-holders within organizations decide upon courses of strategic action. This `strategic choice' typically includes not only the establishment of structural forms but also the manipulation of environmental features and the choice of relevant performance standards. A theoretical re-orientation this kind away from functional imperatives and towards' a recognition of political action is developed and illustrated in the man body of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on nursing homes that have expanded in the last twenty years to become a major component of medical care, although their rapid growth has been at the expense of quality standards. This article describes an attempt to improve one aspect of nursing home service through an educational program, the effects of which were measured. The initial problem for further research lies in the precise identification of the characteristics of nursing homes most likely to possess the most serious problems of adequate care. In the process of identifying such characteristics, knowledge would be gained concerning the organizational features of the homes that tend to create the problem to begin with. In order to design intelligent programs for increasing the quality of medical care in homes for the chronically ill and aged, investigation must be made of the differences of the level of care in terms of the organizational and economic features of the institution. In this way, educational programs can be developed which are realistic and directed to those institutions in greatest need. The investigation of the relationship between such a structural index as bed capacity and degree of ambulation and internal organizational features as they related both to present care and to the facilities to implement improved patient-care programs would, if the relationship were to be verified, provide a relatively simple method of selecting institutions for such educational programs.

Background: Development of diagnostic reasoning (DR) is fundamental to medical students' training, but assessing DR is challenging. Several written assessments focus on DR but lack the ability to dynamically assess DR. Oral assessment formats have strengths but have largely lost favour due to concerns about low reliability and lack of standardization. Medical schools and specialist medical colleges value many forms of oral assessment (eg, long case, Objective Structured Clinical Examination [OSCE], viva voce) but are increasingly searching for ways in which to standardize these formats. We sought to develop and trial a Standardized Case-Based Discussion (SCBD), a highly standardized and interactive oral assessment of DR. Methods: Two initial cohorts of medical students (n = 319 and n = 342) participated in the SCBD as part of their assessments. All students watch a video trigger (based on an authentic clinical case) and discuss their DR with an examiner for 15 minutes. Examiners probe students' DR and assess how students respond to new standardized clinical information. An online examiner training module clearly articulates expected student performance standards. We used student achievement and student and examiner perceptions to gauge the performance of this new assessment form over 2 implementation years. Results: The SCBD was feasible to implement for a large student cohort and was acceptable to students and examiners. Most students and all examiners agreed that the SCBD discussion provided useful information on students' DR. The assessment had acceptable internal consistency, and the associations with other assessment formats were small and positive, suggesting that the SCBD measures a related, yet novel construct. Conclusions: Rigorous, standardized oral assessments have a place in a programme of assessment in initial medical training because they provide opportunities to explore DR that are limited in other formats. We plan to incorporate an SCBD into our clinical assessments for the first year of clinical training, where teaching and assessing basic DR is emphasized. We will also explore further examiners' understanding of and approach to assessing DR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Development of diagnostic reasoning (DR) is fundamental to medical students' training, but assessing DR is challenging. Several written assessments focus on DR but lack the ability to dynamically assess DR. Oral assessment formats have strengths but have largely lost favour due to concerns about low reliability and lack of standardization. Medical schools and specialist medical colleges value many forms of oral assessment (eg, long case, Objective Structured Clinical Examination [OSCE], viva voce) but are increasingly searching for ways in which to standardize these formats. We sought to develop and trial a Standardized Case-Based Discussion (SCBD), a highly standardized and interactive oral assessment of DR. Methods: Two initial cohorts of medical students (n = 319 and n = 342) participated in the SCBD as part of their assessments. All students watch a video trigger (based on an authentic clinical case) and discuss their DR with an examiner for 15 minutes. Examiners probe students' DR and assess how students respond to new standardized clinical information. An online examiner training module clearly articulates expected student performance standards. We used student achievement and student and examiner perceptions to gauge the performance of this new assessment form over 2 implementation years. Results: The SCBD was feasible to implement for a large student cohort and was acceptable to students and examiners. Most students and all examiners agreed that the SCBD discussion provided useful information on students' DR. The assessment had acceptable internal consistency, and the associations with other assessment formats were small and positive, suggesting that the SCBD measures a related, yet novel construct. Conclusions: Rigorous, standardized oral assessments have a place in a programme of assessment in initial medical training because they provide opportunities to explore DR that are limited in other formats. We plan to incorporate an SCBD into our clinical assessments for the first year of clinical training, where teaching and assessing basic DR is emphasized. We will also explore further examiners' understanding of and approach to assessing DR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features the Society for Vascular Medicine and Biology, which aims to engage in improving the care of patients with vascular disease through excellence in clinical care and advances in biology in the U.S. Their practice includes prevention, diagnosis, and endovascular therapies, which encompasses vascular biology, pathophysiology, and clinical trials. Furthermore, its mission is to expand their membership to improve the strength of their advocacy and extend its services to members.