Biomedical subjects

Elizabeth G Armstrong

Publications and source records attributed to Elizabeth G Armstrong.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Using an outcomes-logic-model approach to evaluate a faculty development program for medical educators.

PURPOSE: This study used an outcomes-logic-model approach to examine the impact of participating in a nontraditional professional development program. Building and using a logic model provides a structure for the program to examine the degree that the desired learner outcomes, the program delivery methods, and the measurement approaches are aligned. METHOD: Structured telephone interviews were conducted in 2001 with 16 Harvard Medical School (HMS) participants in the Harvard Macy Program for Physician Educators (HM-PE): five who completed the program in 1998, five in 1999, and six in 2000. Interviews were also conducted with four Faculty Scholars, alumni of the HM-PE program who taught in subsequent programs. In 2004, online questionnaires were sent to the 16 participants and four Faculty Scholars. Immediate outcomes, such as greater use of active learning principles, and intermediate outcomes, such as commitment to medical education, were examined. RESULTS: Of those interviewed in 2001, 80% responded to the 2004 online questionnaire. Thirteen of 16 (81%) HMS respondents reported increased knowledge about and confidence using learner-center teaching methods; 10 of 16 (63%) said they gave fewer lectures and added alternative educational methods. Thirteen of 16 (81%) reported a stronger commitment to the field of medical education: almost one third felt the HM-PE program was a turning point in their careers. CONCLUSIONS: The outcomes logic model provided data to judge how well the program mission and plan were implemented, and whether outcomes had been attained.

Boston↗

PubMed2004

Medical education as a process management problem.

With complaints that new doctors are less prepared for residency and practice than expected, are burdened with debt, and then take even longer to complete their specialty training, the authors ask whether medical education can be designed more effectively. Curriculum redesign and pedagogical reform efforts to date address fragments of medical education-the content of particular courses or clerkships or the way in which the courses or clerkships are conducted. However, these reforms do not typically address the relationships among the various elements, that is, in what order skill sets should be sequenced, how communication should occur between disciplines, and by what mechanisms skills or knowledge should be mastered and assessed by the end of one phase so students are prepared adequately for the next. In failing to address these systems issues, current reform efforts may forgo some opportunities to convey and properly insure greater mastery of knowledge and skills in less time, at less cost. A case study of a typical student's third- and fourth-year clerkships illustrates how focusing only on educational elements leads to the exclusion of opportunities to systemically facilitate the relationships among them. This situation is contrasted with how other demanding, high-tech, knowledge-intensive industries with outstanding operations have learned to achieve superlative performance by managing and designing both the elements and the interactions among them within complex work and learning systems. The authors' exploratory research offers suggestions for medical education reform and frames additional opportunities for further discussion.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Transformative professional development of physicians as educators: assessment of a model.

PURPOSE: Medical education reform has been the clarion call of U.S. medical educators and policymakers for two decades. To foster change and seed reform, Harvard Medical School created a professional development program for physicians and scientists actively engaged in educating future physicians that sought to transform both participants and their schools. This study focused on identifying the long-term effects of a professional development program on physician educators. METHOD: A follow-up survey of the 1995-97 cohorts of the Harvard Macy Program for Physician Educators was conducted by sending the 99 program participants a questionnaire two years after their participation. Main outcome measures studied were individual changes as reflected in participants' self-reported shifts in teaching behaviors, academic productivity, career advancement, and sense of commitment. RESULTS: A total of 63 participants completed the questionnaire, for a response rate of 63.6%. Two years following participation in the program, a majority (88.8%) of respondents reported that participation had significantly affected their professional development, including long-term changes in teaching behaviors (77.8%), engagement in new educational activities from committee work (86%) to grant funding (52.4%), and renewed vitality/identification of themselves as educators. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term follow-up of participants enrolled in an intensive program for physician educators suggests that professional development programs that create an immersion experience designed in a high-challenge, high-support environment, emphasizing experiential and participatory activities can change behaviors in significant ways, and that these changes endure over time.

Education, Medical↗