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Biomedical subjects

Peter Curtis

Publications and source records attributed to Peter Curtis.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Recognizing the value of community involvement by AHC faculty: a case study.

Physicians seek connections to their communities. Some health care and academic leaders believe that facilitating the creation of more such community connections is one way to reverse the trend of waning social and political legitimacy for the U.S. medical profession. For academic health centers (AHCs), such connections can maintain local and state support crucial to their long-term success. Multiple barriers exist to such involvement, especially for physicians in AHCs, where work done beyond direct patient care, administration, and research rarely contributes to the tenure and promotion process. The authors present a case study to show how one department in an AHC, beginning in the late 1990s, has been overcoming these barriers to incorporate the scholarship of community engagement into its mission and structure. The case study incorporates theoretical underpinnings to crystallize the following lessons that the department has learned so far: (1) If academic departments wish community service to be a central part of their mission, they need ways to institutionalize community engagement within organizational structures. (2) Community engagement can be scholarly. (3) If faculty members are to be recognized for their service activities, measures are necessary to determine what constitutes "excellence" and "scholarship" in community service. (4) Scholarship of community engagement goes beyond performing service activities in the community.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMed2004

Assessing the role of influential mentors in the research development of primary care fellows.

PURPOSE: To assess the association between mentorship and both subsequent research productivity and career development among primary care research fellows. METHOD: In 1998, using a self-administered questionnaire, the authors surveyed 215 fellows who graduated from 25 National Research Service Award (NRSA) primary care research programs between 1988-1997 to assess quantitative aspects and qualitative domains of their mentorship experience during fellowship training. RESULTS: A total of 139 fellows (65%) responded to mentorship questions a median of four years after their fellowship. Thirty-seven fellows (26.6%) did not have an influential mentor, 42 (30.2%) reported influential but not sustained mentorship, and 60 (43.2%) had influential and sustained mentorship. Individuals with influential mentorship spent more time conducting research (p =.007), published more papers (p =.003), were more likely to be the principal investigator on a grant (p =.008), and more often provided research mentorship to others (72.5% versus 66.7% of those with unsustained mentorship, and 36.4% of those with no influential mentor, p =.008). After controlling for other predictors, influential and sustained mentorship remained an important determinant of career development in research. On qualitative analysis, fellows identified three important domains of mentorship: the relationship between mentor and fellow (such as guidance and support), professional attributes of the mentor (such as reputation), and personal attributes of the mentor (such as availability and caring). CONCLUSIONS: Influential and sustained mentorship enhances the research activity of primary care fellows. Research training programs should develop and support their mentors to ensure that they assume this critical role.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Building capacity for research in family medicine: is the blueprint faulty?

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study compared the training programs and career paths of family medicine graduates in the National Research Service Award (NRSA) Program for Research in Primary Medical Care with general internal medicine and general pediatric peers. METHODS: We mailed a survey to NRSA fellows graduating from 23 programs nationally between 1988-1997. Personal characteristics, fellowship experience, current professional activities, and academic productivity were compared among primary care disciplines. RESULTS: Of 215 NRSA participants, 146 (68%) completed the survey. Of the 131 primary care respondents, 25% were family physicians. During the fellowship, family physician trainees spent significantly less time in hands-on research activity (32% +/- 12%) than internists and pediatricians (39% +/- 17%). Family physician graduates also had less post-fellowship mentoring and were less likely to hold clinician/researcher faculty positions in academic centers. Family physician faculty spent far more time on clinical work and less time on research. Only 12.5% of family physician fellowship graduates published one or more articles per year, compared with 36.5% of their peers, and 30% had published nothing since graduation. CONCLUSIONS: Family physician graduates of this research training program did not achieve academic success comparable to their peers. Family physicians need more protected time for conducting research in their faculty positions and more sustained mentorship.

Biomedical Research↗
PubMed2002

Indicators of early research productivity among primary care fellows.

OBJECTIVE: Little is known about the impact of fellowship training in primary care on subsequent research productivity. Our goal was to identify characteristics of research fellows and their training associated with subsequent publications and research funding. DESIGN: Mail survey in 1998. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: 1988-1997 graduates of 25 National Research Service Award primary care research fellowships in the United States. OUTCOME MEASURES: 1) Publishing 1 or more papers per year since the beginning of fellowship, or 2) serving as principal investigator (PI) on a federal or non-federal grant. RESULTS: One hundred forty-six of two hundred fifteen program graduates (68%) completed the survey. The median age was 38 years, and 51% were male. Thirty-two percent had published 1 or more papers per year, and 44% were PIs. Male gender (odds ratio [OR], 3.6; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.4 to 9.2), self-reported allocation of 40% or more of fellowship time to research (OR, 4.4; 95% CI, 1.8 to 11.2), and having an influential mentor during fellowship (OR, 5.0; 95% CI, 1.5 to 17.2) were independently associated with publishing 1 or more papers per year. Fellows with funding as a PI were also more likely to have an influential mentor (OR, 3.0; 95% CI, 1.3 to 7.2). CONCLUSION: Primary care fellows who had influential mentors were more productive in research early after fellowship. Awareness of the indicators of early research success can inform the policies of agencies that fund research training and the curricula of training programs themselves.

Family Practice↗
PubMed2002

The training and career paths of fellows in the National Research Service Award (NRSA) Program for Research in Primary Medical Care.

PURPOSE: To describe the training and career paths of fellows in the National Research Service Award (NRSA) Program for Research in Primary Medical Care. METHOD: All fellows who graduated from 25 NRSA programs nationally between July 1988 and June 1997 (n = 215) were mailed a questionnaire. Personal characteristics, fellowship experiences, and current professional positions were compared between faculty researchers, faculty clinician-educators, and individuals who were not in full-time academic positions. RESULTS: A total of 146 NRSA graduates (68%) completed the survey. A mean of four years had elapsed since their fellowships. Of the respondents, 36% were faculty researchers, 32% were faculty clinician-educators, and 32% were not on full-time faculties. Faculty researchers did not differ from the other groups in demographics or acquisition of advanced degrees, but they were more often general internists than general pediatricians, family physicians, or from other disciplines (p =.002). Fellowship graduates spent a mean of 29% of their training in course work and 38% conducting research. Faculty researchers spent a greater proportion of their fellowship conducting research (46% versus 34% for clinician-educators and 31% for those not on full-time faculties, respectively, p <.0001). They were also more productive in terms of subsequent publications and grant acquisitions. CONCLUSIONS: Only a minority of those completing NRSA programs held positions as faculty researchers. The preponderance of general internists among researchers may indicate problems in the capacity of general pediatrics and family medicine to support primary care research. The amounts of direct research time during these fellowships may need to be increased to enhance the likelihood of subsequent research success.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Community service by North Carolina family physicians.

BACKGROUND: Community service is an integral part of American society. Although Family Medicine advocates community service through community medicine, few data exist on family physicians' involvement in voluntary community service activities or roles as community advocates. METHODS: A questionnaire was mailed to 489 North Carolina family physicians, including a 20% random sample of those in community practice and all statewide faculty physicians. The survey assessed types and amount of volunteer activity, attitudes toward volunteer work, and factors that support or inhibit participation in community service. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 54%. Most respondents reported strong interests in community service before medical school and residency, yet few reported any relevant training during medical education. More than 85% of faculty and community practice family physicians reported participating in volunteer service in the previous year (70.8 mean hours for faculty vs 45.5 mean hours for community practice; P = .06). Family physicians also reported a wide variety of lifetime volunteer activities (mean number of different faculty physician activities 20.8 vs mean number of different community practice physician activities 16.7, P = .00). Less than 50% of both physician groups reported that their practice or program publicly supports those performing community service. CONCLUSIONS: The great majority of family physicians in North Carolina regularly participate in one or more volunteer community service activities, frequently without organizational recognition. Data about the scope of service expected by communities and provided by physicians may assist the discipline in clarifying the place of volunteer community service in medical education, promotion guidelines and practice.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Pre-registration education: learning communities.

Changes in nurse education in the UK and the introduction of a new pre-registration nursing programme have led to developments in education methods. This article describes the creation of learning communities at Thames Valley University as a means of adapting to the new curriculum.

Curriculum↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Preparing complementary and alternative practitioners to teach learners in conventional health professions.

Federal funding is supporting complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) educational programming in health-professions schools in the United States. CAM practitioners from a wide range of disciplines are now being invited to participate as instructors or content experts in this effort. The challenge is to promote effective and consistent teaching methods around appropriate content. This article describes the development of a series of 4 workshops intended to enhance the teaching skills of 9 complementary medicine practitioners participating in an educational project at the University of North Carolina. Key issues addressed in the workshops included the interface between CAM and conventional medicine, a better understanding of the nature of conventional medical practice, styles and strategies in teaching complementary medicine, and building skills in accessing information from databases.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗