Speaking up: using OSTEs to understand how medical students address professionalism lapses

Background: Objective-structured teaching encounters (OSTEs) are used across many disciplines to assess teaching ability. The OSTE detailed in this paper assesses 191 fourth-year medical students’ (M4) ability to identify and address lapses in professionalism based on Association of American Medical Colleges’ professionalism competencies. The research questions addressed are: How frequently do M4s address professionalism lapses observed during an OSTE? What factors influence whether M4s provide feedback when they observe professionalism lapses in an OSTE? Methods: Standardized patients (SPs) and standardized learners (SLs) were recruited and trained to participate in a standardized encounter with specific cognitive, social, and behavioral errors, including professionalism lapses. M4s viewed this encounter and then offered feedback to the SL, while remotely observed by faculty. Post-encounter, the SL and faculty completed identical checklists to assess both teaching readiness and ability to address professionalism concerns. Results: An analysis of frequencies showed that six of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ nine professional competencies were addressed in the checklist and/or discussed in the focus group. Analysis of transcribed debriefing sessions confirmed that M4s did not consistently address professionalism lapses by their peers. Conclusions: In focus groups, M4s indicated that, while they noticed professionalism issues, they were uncomfortable discussing them with the SLs. Findings of the current study suggest how medical educators might support learners’ ability to address lapses in professionalism as well as topics for future research

Tales of diversity: Genomic and morphological characteristics of forty-six <i>Arthrobacter</i> phages

<div><p>The vast bacteriophage population harbors an immense reservoir of genetic information. Almost 2000 phage genomes have been sequenced from phages infecting hosts in the phylum Actinobacteria, and analysis of these genomes reveals substantial diversity, pervasive mosaicism, and novel mechanisms for phage replication and lysogeny. Here, we describe the isolation and genomic characterization of 46 phages from environmental samples at various geographic locations in the U.S. infecting a single <i>Arthrobacter</i> sp. strain. These phages include representatives of all three virion morphologies, and Jasmine is the first sequenced podovirus of an actinobacterial host. The phages also span considerable sequence diversity, and can be grouped into 10 clusters according to their nucleotide diversity, and two singletons each with no close relatives. However, the clusters/singletons appear to be genomically well separated from each other, and relatively few genes are shared between clusters. Genome size varies from among the smallest of siphoviral phages (15,319 bp) to over 70 kbp, and G+C contents range from 45–68%, compared to 63.4% for the host genome. Although temperate phages are common among other actinobacterial hosts, these <i>Arthrobacter</i> phages are primarily lytic, and only the singleton Galaxy is likely temperate.</p></div

Dengue

Lecture 49 ISBN e-book : 9781615045754International audienc