Biomedical subjects

Tina Foster

Publications and source records attributed to Tina Foster.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

Teaching and assessing resident competence in practice-based learning and improvement.

We designed, implemented, and evaluated a 4-week practice-based learning and improvement (PBLI) elective. Eleven internal medicine residents from 2 separate residency programs participated in the PBLI elective and 22 other residents comprised a comparison group. Residents in each group had similar pretest Quality Improvement Knowledge Application Tool scores; but after the PBLI elective, participant scores were significantly higher. Also, participants' self-assessed ratings of PBLI skills increased after the rotation and remained elevated 6 months afterward. In this curriculum, residents completed a project to improve patient care and demonstrated their knowledge on an evaluation tool in a way that was superior to nonparticipants.

Clinical Competence↗

PubMed2003

Exploring and embracing complexity in a distance-learning curriculum for physicians.

The recent pressures on clinical medicine such as the attention to medical error and the challenges of interdisciplinary care have also exerted pressure on health professions education. Educators must now gauge how to redesign education systems to adapt quickly to these disruptions. Sometimes disruptions can be self-inflicted, such as the VA National Quality Scholars Fellowship's decision to use interactive video (IV) as its primary medium for delivering the curriculum to its six sites around the nation. The authors describe how this disruption to their education system helped to fashion a learning environment that is adaptable. Along the journey from a classroom-based curriculum to an IV-based curriculum, the authors and others involved in the program learned the basic tenets of IV sessions, redefined the roles of the teachers and learners, and discovered an IV environment that functions as a complex adaptive learning system. This distance-learning curriculum can be a model for other health professions education, since it starts with simple rules, changes from within, has a tolerance for unpredictability, and continually moves forward and transforms itself despite tension.

Curriculum↗

PubMed2002

Improving the effectiveness of physician participation in local quality improvement efforts.

The authors present five success factors for medical students, residents, and fellows to consider when engaged in quality improvement projects: (1) add value, not work; (2) start small and build; (3) move quickly; (4) adapt, innovate, and collaborate; (5) produce understandable results. Using examples from the Veterans Affairs National Quality Scholars Fellowship Program, they describe how these factors were used successfully. While not the only steps to take, these critical success factors proved helpful in defining the problem to be addressed, engaging leadership, and anticipating the resolution of conflict.

Competency-Based Education↗