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"education"

Most future medical leaders receive little or no formal exposure to management and leadership training activities. Industry invests considerable resources in such training for middle and senior level managers. With the increasing complexity of health care delivery systems and the increased involvement of diverse teams of individuals in the care of patients, it was believed that a training activity designed to enhance participant human interaction skills and teach about group behavior and team management might be valuable to pediatric chief residents. This article describes a 3-day workshop designed to develop such leadership skills. It has been conducted for 3 years with 117 participants. Results of end-of-course and 6-month follow-up evaluations show that participants enjoyed the training experience and believed it was valuable in helping them fulfill their leadership role as chief resident. © 1991, American Medical Association. All rights reserved.

[No abstract available]

Although a few surgical residents do leave the surgical field, little research has been done into the eventual whereabouts of all surgical residents. We undertook this follow-up to find out what proportion of them enter the surgical field and to identify changing patterns over the past 15 years. We compared 593 medical schoool graduates on demographics, academic credentials, and surgery program directors' rating of their performance in the first postgraduate year (PGY-1). Sixty percent remained in general surgery, and about 26% moved to another specialty within the surgical field. During the mid-1970s, those who remained within the surgical field had better academic credentials on average than those who switched out of the surgical field. However, more recently, the trend has reversed. There were no differences between the groups on age or sex. These results suggest that some good students are being recruited into surgical programs but are later lost in major career switches. Perhaps these changes are related to residents' preferences for specialties that offer more controllable lifestyles than the surgical field. © 1991.

[No abstract available]

To test the hypothesis that a program of regular reading and discussion would result in significant improvement in the surgical database as measured by the American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination (ABSITE), we conducted a 2-year prospective study. The study group, which was comprised of 40 residents, was compared with a control group of 44 residents enrolled in the residency during the 2 years that preceded the study period. Neither reading effort nor discussion group attendance correlated strongly with ABSITE performance among first-year residents. At this level, ABSITE scores correlated best with National Board of Medical Examiners Part I scores (r = 0.699, p = 0.002). In contrast, second-year through fifth-year residents showed a cumulative improvement across the residency (80 versus 180 standard score points, p = 0.048). Individual resident improvement correlated highly with reading effort (r = 0.79, p < 0.001). There was little measurable effect from attending discussion sessions. We conclude that the surgical database can be improved by a program of regular reading and that the magnitude of the improvement is directly proportional to the reading effort. © 1991.

Establishing competency-based standards for professions promises to help solve many of the difficulties currently besetting continuing professional education. This paper explains why this is so by defining competency-based standards, describing their uses and, hence, showing why they have attracted so much attention recently. Likely applications to continuing professional education are suggested. In addition the advantages and limitations of three different approaches to competency analysis of professions are discussed and illustrated by examples. It is argued that professional competence can be conceptualised in a way that overcomes the common objections that have been raised against competency-based standards. © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

The impact of the enterprise culture on education has resulted in a closer identification with industrial and economic activity. This has brought about an ideological and value shift which has given primacy to the efficiency of the education system in meeting the needs of the economy, and a corresponding vocationalising of the curriculum to serve this process. Competence-based learning, popularised through National Vocational Qualifications, has aided this process and now shows signs of filtering down from the post-compulsory to the school sector. A critique of the trend towards vocationalism and competency is put forward, along with a critical examination of recent attempts to provide an ethical justification of the enterprise ethos in education. © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.