Discusses the importance of patient recall of health information and factors influencing and that are influenced by it. Concludes that highly expressive or effective speakers of the same sex are more helpful in promoting recall. (VLC)

The effectiveness of multidisciplinary patient conferences was examined. The question of multidisciplinary conference productivity was addressed by examining the impact of these conferences on a team's formulation of patient therapy plans, problem lists, hospitalization goals, and discharge date. (Author/MLW)

Training medical students in physician/patient interaction skills resulted in a reduction of the number of times patients failed to show for their scheduled appointments. However, students were ambivalent about recommending the course to future students. (RM)

Effective patient care requires effective communication. The creation of a "Patientspeak" dictionary is offered as a constructive exercise for facilitating communication between health care professionals and their patients and has been incorporated into the freshman psychiatry course. (Author/MLW)

Researchers studied how teachers' judgments about recognizing and reporting child abuse were affected by information about parents' socioeconomic status, ethnic status, and the child's level of injury. Teachers were less swayed by parent status than were physicians. (Author/PP)

The articles, written in French, in this issue refer to research and intercultural practices with regard to confrontational situations between two or more cultural systems. The titles are as follows: "La culture universitaire comme culture en soi" (The University Culture as a Culture in Its Own Right) (Aline Gohard-Radenkovic);…

This guide presents materials to improve understanding and communication between health care practitioners and patients or between teachers and learners. It contains descriptions of health education materials addressing issues of culture and low-literacy and has information written in languages other than English. It includes materials not found…

Written tests do not project clinical optometric competence very well at present. However, the basic skills and knowledge necessary for competence can be measured, even if diagnostic and treatment skills cannot by current means. (MSE)

A program is described that integrates specialty training with clinical interdisciplinary aspects of health care by directly involving pharmacy and other health care professional students in an ongoing team model of health care delivery. It increased knowledge of and positive attitudes toward interdisciplinary teams, sensitivity to patients, and…

A 4-week course teaching interpersonal skills helps optometry students develop self-awareness in handling patients and other practice problems. Among the topics covered are questioning techniques, patient communication types, children, and difficult questions. (Author/MSE)

Students in a living anatomy course were divided into three groups--mixed, all-male, and all-female. Pairs performed most or all examinations on each other. All students felt preclinical examination of opposite sexes was important, but mixed groups scored higher in professionalism, were less bothered by sensitive area examination, and showed more…

A school of dentistry's computer system handles numerous types of online transactions: patient screening, registration, disposition, treatment planning, treatment progress, appointments, records of a patient-practitioner association, student evaluation, and records for student, faculty, and staff. The program could be adapted for other program…

A second-year clinical course composed of weekly observation sessions of interactions between patients and health care professionals in a variety of health care settings within a hospital is described. Weekly discussion sessions summarize the observations and introduce such topics as communication skills, patients' rights, patient relationships,…

To make medical care more available to high school students through increased contact among the physician and students, a project was developed to increase students' willingness to seek help. Results demonstrated that students are more likely to seek help when they believe the physician cares about and understands them. (JN)

In an attempt to assure informed consent and basic patients' rights, and to instruct patient volunteers about the teaching-patient role and its importance to effective medical education, a nonphysician patient-advocate-interviewer (PAI) model was developed. The usefulness of the model is evaluated. (Author/MLW)