Biomedical subjects

Elisabeth A Pimentel

Publications and source records attributed to Elisabeth A Pimentel.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Combining high-fidelity human patient simulators with a standardized family member: a novel approach to teaching breaking bad news.

Our novel approach to teaching Breaking Bad News (BBN) involves having students actively participate in an unsuccessful resuscitation (mannequin) followed immediately by BBN to a standardized patient wife (SPW) portrayed by an actress. Thirty-nine 3(rd) year medical students completed a questionnaire and then were divided as follows: Group 1 (n=21) received little to no training prior to speaking with the SPW. Group 2 (n =18) received a lecture and practiced for 1 hour in small groups prior to the resuscitation and BBN. Both groups self assessed ability to BBN (p<.0002 & p<.00001), and ability to have a plan (p<.0004 & p <.0003) improved significantly over base line with greater improvement in group 2. Group 2 (pre-trained) students were rated superior by SPW's in several key areas. This novel approach to teaching BBN to 3(rd) year medical students was well received by the students and resulted in marked improvement of self assessed skills over baseline.

Education, Medical↗

PubMed2005

Teaching intravenous cannulation to medical students: comparative analysis of two simulators and two traditional educational approaches.

This study examines the effectiveness of two virtual reality simulators when compared with traditional methods of teaching intravenous (IV) cannulation to third year medical students. Thirty-four third year medical students were divided into four groups and then trained to perform an IV cannulation using either CathSim, Virtual I.V., a plastic simulated arm or by practicing IV placement on each other. All subjects watched a five minute training video and completed a cannulation pretest and posttest on the simulated arm. The results showed significant improvement from pretest to posttest in each of the four groups. Students trained on the Virtual I.V. showed significantly greater improvement over baseline when compared with the simulated arm group (p<.026). Both simulators provided at least equal training to traditional methods of teaching, a finding with implications for future training of this procedure to novices.

Catheterization↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Immunosuppressants.

This edition of the Med-Psych Drug-Drug Interactions Update begins a change in format. Starting with this column, each column will feature one drug-drug interaction (DDI) topic that will be explored in depth. This edition features DDIs associated with the commonly used immunosuppressants. These drugs are frequently encountered by consultation-liaison psychiatrists in tertiary care settings. Generally, most of these drugs have narrow safety and therapeutic windows; therefore, other drugs that change their serum levels can have deleterious effects. In this review, the DDI profiles of cyclosporine, tacrolimus, sirolimus, and the corticosteroids are explored.

Humans↗