Virtual Mentor. November 2009, Volume 11, Number 11: 829-926. Full Issue PDF

November 2009 Contents

Humanizing Physician Learning

Ethics Poll

Do you think that a pass/fail (or honors/pass/fail) grading system provides medical educators with enough information about the level of knowledge and skills their students have mastered?
Yes.
No.
Don't know.

There is evidence that medical students' compassion for patients erodes and that they become more hardened during their medical school years and residency training. Which of the following best describes why you think this happens?
Applicants misrepresent their compassion and ideals in order to gain entrance to medical school.
To exercise good clinical judgment, a doctor has to be able to create a distance between himself or herself and the patient's suffering.
Through constant, direct contact with patients, they decide that not everyone is deserving of their compassion.
The competitiveness of medical school and residency application causes students to concentrate on grades and diagnoses to the detriment of patients.
There is so much demand for their compassion that they become victims of "compassion fatigue."
There are too many patients and too little time.
Everyone becomes less compassionate as he or she gets older and more familiar with the world.
Don't know.

Which of the following best describes how you think medical school admissions committees should treat the ethnicity of applicants? Committee members should:
Disregard a candidate's ethnicity in their deliberations.
Consider a candidate's ethnicity only when the candidate meets or exceeds all of the school's other admissions criteria.
Consider a candidate's ethnicity because it may explain why he or she has not met other admissions criteria.
Consider a candidate's ethnicity as important if it helps increase the diversity of the physician workforce.
Don't know.

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From the Editor

Breaking Tradition: Changing Medical Education to Preserve the Patient-Doctor Relationship
Nneka N. Ufere
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:832-834.

Educating for Professionalism

Clinical Cases

The Ethical Dilemma of Duty-Hour Reporting
Commentary by Mary E. Klingensmith and Katrina S. Firlik
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:835-841.

Can a Pass/Fail Grading System Adequately Reflect Student Progress?
Commentary by Bonnie M. Miller, Adina Kalet, Ryan C. VanWoerkom, Nicholas Zorko, and Julia Halsey
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:842-851.

Should Applicants’ Ethnicity Be Considered in Medical School Admissions?
Commentary by Will Ross
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:852-858.

Medical Education

The Winnowing Fork of Premedical Education: Are We Really Separating the Wheat from the Chaff?
Raymond G. De Vries and Jeffrey Gross
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:859-863.

The Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship
Ann N. Poncelet, Karen E. Hauer, and Bridget O’Brien
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:864-869.

Helping Those Who Need It Most: Medical Education Focused on Poor and Disenfranchised Communities
Charles Vega
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:870-873.

The Code Says

AMA Code of Medical Ethics Opinion on Resident Physician Training
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:874-875.

Clinical Pearl

Managing the Effects of Shift Work in Medicine
Holger Link and Robert Sack
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:876-881.

Law, Policy, and Society

Health Law

When Are Residents Treated as Doctors Under the Law?
Kristin E. Schleiter
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:882-885.

Policy Forum

Nurturing Leaders for an Environment of Change
Paul Rockey and Daniel Winship
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:886-890.

Development of a 3-Year Undergraduate Primary Care Curriculum
Richard A. Ortoski and Richard M. Raymond
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:891-895.

Medicine and Society

Medical Education Meets Health Care Reform
Jordan J. Cohen
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:896-899.

History, Art, and Narrative

Medical Narrative

Learning Bedside Medicine
John Kugler and Abraham Verghese
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:900-903.

Op-Ed and Correspondence

Op-Ed

Is an MD Enough?
Leana S. Wen
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:904-908.

A Toolkit for Practical Medical Ethics
Douglas Brown
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:909-914.

Resources

Suggested Readings and Resources
PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:915-922.

About the Contributors
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2009; 11:923-926.