Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

B D Skinner

Publications and source records attributed to B D Skinner.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

A long-term perspective on family practice residency match success: 1984-1998.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Knowing which factors predict National Resident Matching Program (Match) success is critical for medical students, student advisors, and residency faculty, but published reports have focused on a limited number of program characteristics or a small number of years. METHODS: We obtained information about region, affiliation, hospital size, population served, intern salary, and intern call schedule from the Directory of Family Practice Residency Programs for all US family practice programs from 1984-1998 and correlated them with initial Match results, using both univariate and multivariate techniques. RESULTS: Over 15 years, there have been substantial increases in programs and positions offered, salaries, proportion of larger programs, and reduced intern call frequency. Western region, larger program size, and community hospital affiliation were associated with a higher initial Match rate, but only 7%-19% of the variance was explained. In the late 1980s, salary had an effect, as did call in the worst Match years; in recent years, suburban programs have filled better and rural programs less well. Hospital size had no relationship to fill rates. CONCLUSIONS: Program characteristics have a real but modest impact on initial Match rates; the significance may increase in times of decreased interest in family medicine, such as the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Family Practice↗
PubMed1997

The educational value of an OSCE in a family practice residency.

PURPOSE: To assess the educational value of an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) administered in three consecutive years (1992-93 to 1994-95) to first-year residents in a family practice residency. METHOD: Each year an OSCE was administered early in a family practice residency based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. The OSCE encompassed eight to ten stations, each 15 minutes long: ten minutes for tasks and five minutes for feedback. After the OSCE, focus groups with participating faculty and residents assessed the strengths and weakness of specific stations as well as the overall OSCE structure. Each year the residents' OSCE scores were correlated with their scores on the American Board of Family Physicians In-Training Examination (ITE). Pearson product--moment correlation coefficients were calculated for both the composite ITE scores and the clinical set problem scores. Test reliability was measured by Cronbach's alpha. In the spring of 1995 the faculty completed global evaluations of all the residents in the program at the time, including 16 of the 17 residents who had participated in the OSCEs. The faculty rated the residents in four areas, and a four-point scale was based on the percentile ranges a resident's rating could fall into for each area. Correlation coefficients were calculated for the OSCE scores and the faculty's perceptions of the residents' overall performance. RESULTS: The OSCE scores correlated significantly with the faculty's global assessments of knowledge and clinical skills, but not with in-training examination scores. Concurrent validity and reliability estimates did not support using an OSCE for decisions about the residents' competency. The faculty valued the opportunity to observe basic skills for the whole group of residents; the residents found the experience educational but stressful and valued the immediate performance feedback included at each station. CONCLUSION: The OSCE is a useful tool for teaching basic clinical skills and for forming initial impressions of interns' clinical styles and abilities, but it should be used with caution for summative assessments.

Educational Measurement↗
PubMed1991

'Late first aid'.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Dental Staff↗
PubMed1982

Improving the selection of family medicine residents through development of multi-dimensional policy models.

The annual cost of training a single family medicine resident may now exceed $50,000. This, together with the fact that normally only a small fraction of those applying for family medicine residency is selected for admission, creates a decision problem of enormous import to affected institutions. Despite these considerations, the applicant evaluation and selection process remains relatively subjective, with results often disappointing. In the current paper, a preference-based approach is proposed that first models the evaluation/selection process on the basis of well-defined cognitive and noncognitive criteria. It is suggested that validation of this model be based on future performance levels of both the accepted and rejected cohorts during and following their residencies. Discrepancies between future success levels and predicted outcomes may then be translated into appropriate control actions designed: (1) improve the definition/measurement of selection criteria; (2) enhance the evaluation/selection policies and decisions of the admissions committee; and (3) better inform potential applicants of the department's program and selection philosophies. The approach is applied to two recent, accepted cohorts of the University of North Carolina Department of Family Medicine. Preliminary results indicate that the procedure is capable of improving the in-residency success levels of selected applicants, and that these levels can be better predicted than when no formal, i.e., analytic, process is followed.

Decision Making↗