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Biomedical subjects

P J Rutala

Publications and source records attributed to P J Rutala.

18 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1994

Performances of underrepresented-minority students at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, 1987-1991.

PURPOSE: To compare the academic performances of underrepresented-minority (African American, Native American, and Hispanic) students and all other students at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. METHOD: The performances of 42 underrepresented-minority and 368 other students who graduated between 1987 and 1991 were compared using the following variables: undergraduate science, non-science, and overall grade-point average (GPA); scores on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT); subtest and total scores on the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Part I and Part II examinations; and three types of evaluations from a required family practice clerkship. In addition, a comparison was made of scores on an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) taken in the fourth year by 25 underrepresented-minority and 165 other students. Data were analyzed using a three-way analysis of variance and Pearson correlation analysis. RESULTS: The underrepresented-minority students earned significantly lower GPAs and scored significantly lower on all standardized paper-and-pencil tests and the family practice clerkship final examination. There was no significant group difference in the family practice clerkship clinical evaluations or the majority of the OSCE scores. For both groups, overall GPAs and MCAT scores correlated equally well with NBME total scores but were not significantly corrected with OSCE scores or family practice clerkship clinical evaluations. CONCLUSION: While the underrepresented-minority students entered medical school with significant educational disadvantages and continued to score lower than the other students on paper-and-pencil tests, their clinical performances on the OSCE and family practice clerkship were nearly equivalent to those of the other students.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1991

Sharing of information by students in an objective structured clinical examination.

Increasing numbers of medical schools are using Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) to evaluate students. An Objective Structured Clinical Examination employs a multiple-station format and standardized patients to document students' clinical skills. A lengthy format is necessary; testing an entire class often necessitates multiple repetitions of the same examination. This dictates a need to minimize sharing of information among students. We studied six administrations of an Objective Structured Clinical Examination designed to measure skills. Analyses were conducted to detect changes in scores over the administrations as well as over the 8.5 hours of each day of testing. An increase in either might indicate information sharing had occurred. No significant increase occurred. If information was shared, it had no significant effect on scores. Skills a student uses to approach a patient should not change even if the patient's complaints are known.

Clinical Clerkship↗
PubMed1984

The use of trained patient instructors for teaching and assessing rheumatologic care.

The training of professionals in rheumatologic care requires review and study. To improve teaching methods, 6 patients with stable rheumatic disease were trained to evaluate and teach medical students by using themselves as models for musculoskeletal examinations. Checklists for scoring performance and content were developed. Criteria established to give evidence of the validity of the checklists and of the reliability of the patient instructors in their scoring were met or exceeded. The patient instructors are now an integral part of the Preparation for Clinical Medicine curriculum at our institution and serve as resources for evaluation and teaching in the continuing education of practicing professionals.

Education, Medical, Continuing↗
PubMed1981

A collaborative effort to study methods of teaching physical examination skills.

A collaborative study was conducted between two medical schools to evaluate critically the teaching of physical examination skills to first-year medical students, assess the effect of different instructional methods on student performance, and improve teaching programs at both schools. Students at the two schools were videotaped performing a physical examination on a paid model at the completion of their physical diagnosis courses. The videotapes were sent to a third school for independent evaluation based on criteria agreed upon by all three schools. Students participating in a highly structured course and utilizing a very specific behavioral checklist as both a teaching and evaluating instrument tended to perform more complete physical examinations than students from a less structured course and employing a more generalized checklist. Both medical schools benefited from participation in the study.

Arizona↗
PubMed1980

Students transferring into an American medical school. Remediating their deficiencies.

Thirty US citizen foreign-trained medical students (USFMS) and eleven US-trained medical students (USMS) were accepted with advanced standing to the University of Arizona College of Medicine (UACM) in September 1978. Each student was required to meet predetermined mastery criteria in physical diagnosis skills during a six-week intensive training program before entering clinical clerkships. On entrance, USFMS showed severe deficiencies in physical examination and medical interviewing skills compared with both USMS and sophomore students at UACM. By the completion of the program, all differences between the USFMS and the USMS were nonsignificant, except for factual knowledge of pathophysiology. The transfer students received lower ratings than the UACM students on preceptorship evaluations and patient write-ups. Deficiencies in clinical skills of USFMS were reduced by a brief, intensive training program characterized by specific mastery criteria.

Arizona↗
PubMed1980

Patient instructors as teachers and evaluators.

To provide objective and reliable evaluation of students' physical diagnosis skills, nonphysician patient instructors (PIs) with stable findings were trained by physicians to function in the multiple roles of patient, teacher, and evaluator. The PIs were taught physical examination techniques and the significance of each of their positive findings. Each second- and third-year medical student examined a cardiovascular and pulmonary PI. At the completion of each examination the PI evaluated the thoroughness and proficiency of the student's examination technique and ascertained whether the student correctly identified and described the abnormal findings. Objective and reliable evaluation instruments were developed. Data are presented to indicate that PIs can be used to evaluate objectively physical diagnosis skills of medical students.

Cardiovascular Diseases↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Coccidioidomycosis in potentially compromised hosts: the effect of immunosuppressive therapy in dissemination.

Charts of 126 patients with coccidioidomycosis were reviewed. Sixteen of these were patients who had malignancies, uremia, or a collagen-vascular disease and/or had received recent immunosuppressive drug therapy. The rate of disseminated infection was 50% in this group. (The dissemination rate was 14% in 110 control patients.) No case of dissemination occurred in patients who only had the above underlying diseases; all cases of dissemination were among those who had received immunosuppressive therapy. The dissemination rate in control patients was higher for patients age 40 or over than for younger patients. The dissemination rate showed no age-related difference, however, in patients treated with immunosuppressive drugs. The dissemination rate was similar in control patients of both sexes and uniformly higher for both immunosuppressively treated males and females. The dissemination rate did not appear to be influenced by the number of circulating lymphocytes if the patient had received immunosuppressive drugs. Patients with disseminated disease who had received immunosuppressive drugs were capable of producing a serological response to the coccidoiidal organism in high titer but none had positive skin test reactivity. Disseminated coccidioidomycosis is not uniformly fatal in the immunosuppressed host: half of our patients are alive an average of 33 months after diagnosis.

Adolescent↗