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Biomedical subjects

K I Hoffman

Publications and source records attributed to K I Hoffman.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1988

Medical students' attitudes towards cancer: influence of the type of clerkship experience.

Attitudes of third-year medical students relative to patients with cancer were assessed prior to and following three different 6-week pediatric clerkships. Clerkship I (N = 139) was conducted in a public hospital where student contact with all patients occurred in wards, supervised by pediatricians in all subspecialties. Clerkship II (N = 146) was in a pediatric hospital which is a cancer center. Contact with patients with cancer was directed by oncologists and nononcologists. Clerkship III (N = 31) was similar to II, with an exposure to an oncology ward. A 51-item instrument, employing a visual analog scale, which included general, adult, and pediatric items, was used (pre- & postclerkship) to evaluate attitudes in all 316 students and 49 faculty instructors associated with the clerkships. Factor analysis of student responses to pediatric items resulted in four factors: a) early diagnosis, b) aggressive therapy, c) long-range surveillance, and d) psychosocial support in reference to patients with cancer. Post-test differences between clerkship groups in items a and b were noted, with increasing positivity correlated with increased exposure to oncology and oncologists. Attitudes of faculty nononcologists differed significantly from those of oncologists irrespective of institutional affiliation.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1979

Medical student attitude toward seeking professional psychological help.

To explore the antecedents of emotional distress among physicians, the authors investigated the relationship between year in medical school and student attitude toward seeking professional psychological help. The sample consisted of 489 students at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. Since a cross-sectional approach was employed a classical regression analysis was used to control for possible differences in the variables of sex, age, contact with psychotherapy, and specialty choice. Differences in male and female responses prompted separate analyses. For women, no attitudinal changes were noted during medical school. For men, a significant positive change in attitude was noted between the students of years one and two, as compared with students of years three and four. Results were contrary to findings in the literature. Several possible explanations are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Student-constructed examination items.

Student-written items were compared with teacher-written items on an objective examination given to first year medical students. While student scores were higher on the student-written items than on teacher-written items, there was a positive correlation between the scores. Student items did not differ from teacher items in the course, according to student ratings of emphasis. As a by-product of this study, correlations were found which suggest that student scores on an item often reflect the degree of teaching emphasis given the content area of the item rather than the inherent difficulty of the content. It is suggested that further research is needed to determine whether students learn through the process of writing examination items. Therefore, if the process proves to be educational, this study indicates that it will be feasible to incorporate the student-constructed items in examinations.

California↗