The Unique Contribution of Behavioral Scientists to Medical Education: The Top Ten Competencies

Understandably, the focus of most physicians is primarily on the biomedical-What is this disease or injury? Behavioral scientists from various disciplines in medical education generally have a broader approach-Who is this person with these symptoms and what is their story? Since behavioral scientists are often alone among U. S. residency faculty, physicians may fail to recognize the value of their approach to medical resident training. This review identifies and describes the top areas of expertise that behavioral scientists bring to medical education and how their training prepares them to think differently than other medical educators. In the course of identifying each competency, this review will emphasize the ways in which their skills and techniques are the origin of subtle impact in their teaching encounters, explore ways of targeting that impact, and discuss examples of this impact

A Guide to Introducing and Integrating Reflective Practices in Medical Education.

It is a significant challenge for any medical education program to provide adequate training in medical knowledge. It can be just as daunting to include appropriate opportunity to learn about and manage the emotional impact of illness experiences, the healing process, and provider-patient relationships. While there may be only a few basic changes to the core of medical knowledge, advances in medical practice regularly have an impact on the nature of patient care. Life-long learning is essential to maintain one\u27s competence. However, everything doctors and other medical professionals learn about relationships with patients during their training is relevant for the rest of their career. One primary source of this learning are reflective practices. However, there is no guide or description of or comparison among the distinguishing characteristics of reflective processes. In addition, there are no criteria for the selection or integration of reflective processes in medical training or beyond. This article proposes understanding reflection as a complex, three-level process and identifies dimensions which differentiate a variety of reflective process activities. The discussion includes considerations for selecting which activities might be usefully incorporated in education curricula, and identifies conditions of medical training cultures that will support successful integration