So you want to be a specialist registrar?--What to put in your CV.
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Dentists applying to a specialist training programme often receive conflicting advice over what to put in their curriculum vitae (CV). We conducted a survey of the Training Programme Directors of the dental specialties to determine what aspects of CV content and presentation styles are considered important. This has allowed us to construct guidelines for what to put in a CV. Recently, structured application forms have become increasingly popular and may be a more objective way to carry out the shortlisting process. The guidelines presented could also be used as a framework for medical personnel departments if structured application forms eventually replace the CV. (+info)
Effects of guided written disclosure of stressful experiences on clinic visits and symptoms in frequent clinic attenders.
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BACKGROUND: Psychosocial variables such as major stressful life events/daily stressful events have been associated with health care utilization. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to examine the effects of a guided disclosure protocol (GDP) of past traumas on symptoms and clinic visits among frequent clinic attenders. METHODS: Forty-one frequent clinic attenders (> or =2 visits/3 months) took part. Patients were randomly assigned individually to either a casual content writing control group (n = 19) or a trauma content writing experimental GDP group (n = 22). GDP patients wrote about an upsetting event chronologically (day 1), verbally described their thoughts and feelings and described the event's impact on life (day 2), and finally wrote about their current perspective on and future coping with the event (day 3). Three months later, patients were reassessed blindly for symptoms and clinic visits, and an average of 15 months later they were assessed blindly for clinic visits again. RESULTS: Compared with controls, GDP patients reported lower symptom levels at 3 months (2.3 versus 5.2), and made fewer clinic visits during the 3 (1.3 versus 3.0) and 15 month (5.1 versus 9.7) follow-ups. The percentage of GDP patients making > or =10 visits during the 15 month follow-up was smaller (10%) than among controls (33%). CONCLUSIONS: The findings extend previous findings to frequent clinic users, using a new form of written disclosure aimed at shifting trauma from implicit to explicit memory. The GDP may be an inexpensive additional intervention in primary care for reducing symptoms and clinic visits among frequent clinic users. (+info)
Kipling's guide to writing a scientific paper.
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The generally accepted structure of a scientific paper is four sections, an introduction, a methods section, the results, and a discussion. This so-called IMRaD format is, with a few small variations, found in most research articles in biomedical journals. However, as a guide for someone writing up research data for the first time, it is far from complete for example, there is no T for title or even S for summary. Nor does IMRaD explain what belongs in which section and how much should be included in or excluded from any section. As a supplement to, but not a replacement for, IMRaD research-workers could bear in mind the six honest serving-men of the poet Rudyard Kipling. These writer's servants are called What, Why, When, How, Where, and Who, and they can be applied to all parts of the paper from its title down to the tables. (+info)
Problem-based writing with peer review improves academic performance in physiology.
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The aim of this study was to determine whether problem-based writing with peer review (PW-PR) improves undergraduate student performance on physiology exams. Didactic lectures were replaced with assignments to give students practice explaining their reasoning while solving qualitative problems, thus transferring the responsibility for abstraction and generalization to the students. Performance on exam items about concepts taught using PW-PR was compared with performance on concepts taught using didactic lectures followed by group work. Calibrated Peer Review, a Web-delivered program, was used to collect student essays and to manage anonymous peer review after students "passed" three calibration peer reviews. Results show that the students had difficulty relating concepts. Relationship errors were categorized as (1) problems recognizing levels of organization, (2) problems with cause/effect, and (3) overgeneralizations. For example, some described cells as molecules; others thought that vesicles transport materials through the extracellular fluid. With PW-PR, class discussion was used to confront and resolve such difficulties. Both multiple-choice and essay exam results were better with PW-PR instead of lecture. (+info)
Randomized, controlled trial of written emotional expression and benefit finding in breast cancer patients.
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PURPOSE: Expressing emotions and finding benefits regarding stressful experiences have been associated in correlational research with positive adjustment. A randomized trial was performed to compare effects of experimentally induced written emotional disclosure and benefit finding with a control condition on physical and psychological adjustment to breast cancer and to test whether outcomes varied as a function of participants' cancer-related avoidance. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Early-stage breast cancer patients completing medical treatment were assigned randomly to write over four sessions about (1) their deepest thoughts and feelings regarding breast cancer (EMO group; n = 21), (2) positive thoughts and feelings regarding their experience with breast cancer (POS group; n = 21), or (3) facts of their breast cancer experience (CTL group; n = 18). Psychological (eg, distress) and physical (perceived somatic symptoms and medical appointments for cancer-related morbidities) outcomes were assessed at 1- and 3-month follow-ups. RESULTS: A significant condition x cancer-related avoidance interaction emerged on psychological outcomes; EMO writing was relatively effective for women low in avoidance, and induced POS writing was more useful for women high in avoidance. Significant effects of experimental condition emerged on self-reported somatic symptoms (P =.0183) and medical appointments for cancer-related morbidities (P =.0069). Compared with CTL participants at 3 months, the EMO group reported significantly decreased physical symptoms, and EMO and POS participants had significantly fewer medical appointments for cancer-related morbidities. CONCLUSION: Experimentally induced emotional expression and benefit finding regarding early-stage breast cancer reduced medical visits for cancer-related morbidities. Effects on psychological outcomes varied as a function of cancer-related avoidance. (+info)
Olmec origins of Mesoamerican writing.
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A cylinder seal and carved greenstone plaque bearing glyphs dating to approximately 650 B.C. have been uncovered near the Olmec center of La Venta in Tabasco, Mexico. These artifacts, which predate others containing writing, reveal that the key aspects of the Mesoamerican scripts were present in Olmec writing: the combination of pictographic and glyphic elements to represent speech; the use of the sacred 260-day calendar; and the connection between writing, the calendar, and kingship. They imply that Mesoamerican writing originated in the La Venta polity. (+info)
Graphogenic epilepsy: a variant of language-induced epilepsy distinguished from reading- and praxis-induced epilepsy.
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We report a case of graphogenic epilepsy as a variant of language-induced epilepsy. A 25-year-old, right-handed woman had noticed for the previous 10 years that writing almost always provoked jerks or a jerking sensation in her right hand. No other triggers, including facets of language function such as reading and speaking, elicited any epileptic seizures. Ictal EEG demonstrated an initial left central abnormality. In our report, we stress that graphogenic seizures as an expression of language-induced epilepsy should not be confused with those that are manifestations of juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, and that writing and reading trigger different facets of motor manifestations. (+info)
Assessing student learning.
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Biology education research has now reached a level of maturity where the expectation is that researchers will assess the effectiveness of their innovation on student learning. This may include an examination of affective outcomes, such as student attitudes and beliefs, as well as student understanding of discipline-based content. A variety of tools are available to generate assessment data, each with certain advantages and disadvantages. They include not only quantitative measures, which lend themselves to familiar statistical analyses, but also qualitative techniques that can provide a rich understanding of complex outcomes. This article describes some of the most commonly used assessment techniques, their advantages and disadvantages, and typical ways such information is reported. (+info)