Biomedical subjects

Sonya R Lawson

Publications and source records attributed to Sonya R Lawson.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

The Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale: a factor analysis study.

BACKGROUND: The practice of medicine demands that its physician practitioners are self-directed, life-long learners. The Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) intends to measure adults' readiness to engage in self-directed learning. PURPOSE: The present study assesses the underlying factor structure of the SDLRS for a sample of entering medical students. METHODS: Over a period of 6 years, 972 first year medical students at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine completed the SDLRS. To summarise the inter-relationships among variables, a principal axis factor analysis with oblique rotation was used on the 58 SDLRS items. A series of confirmatory factor analyses using LISREL 8.54 was performed to further examine the measurement model underlying the SDLRS. RESULTS: A 4-factor confirmatory model representing 4 correlated substantive factors and a reverse coding method factor fits these data well. CONCLUSIONS: Medical educators should hold limited expectations of the SDLRS to measure medical students' readiness to engage in self-directed learning. The definitions and theoretical assumptions that inform readiness for self-directed learning should be reconsidered. Alternative approaches to studying self-directed learning should be explored.

Education, Medical, Continuing↗

PubMed2004

Understanding primary care residency choices: a test of selected variables in the Bland-Meurer model.

PURPOSE: This study tested the predictive validity of variables related to student characteristics of the Bland-Meurer Model of Career Decision-Making. METHOD: A study was conducted using Association of American Medical Colleges' Graduate Student Questionnaire and career data from one medical school. Logistic regression analyses generated predictive models of primary care residency choice, including family medicine, general internal medicine, and pediatrics for 555 medical school graduates over five years. RESULTS: Variables predictive of primary care residency choice were gender; student ratings of psychiatry, surgery, and internal medicine clerkships; not having participated in a research project in medical school; attitudes toward "the changing health care system on physicians" and "access to medical care"; and planned practice in a medically underserved area. Results differed for each field within each residency choice. CONCLUSIONS: The Bland-Meurer Model may be used for variable selection in multivariate predictive models of family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics residency choice. The authors' results may help guide admissions decisions, while providing medical educators and health care policymakers with a clearer picture of residency choice and a better understanding of how to meet the demands of selected patient populations.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Predicting career decisions in primary care medicine: a theoretical analysis.

Entering the 1960s, more than half of the medical doctors in the United States were family physicians, pediatricians, or general internists. Today, about one-third of all U.S. physicians are primary care practitioners. Although opinions vary on the optimal ratio of primary care to specialty physicians, in the mid-1990s, the consensus among leaders in medicine was that more primary care physicians would be needed to ensure access to quality care. The target output of graduates was set for a minimum of 50% primary care physicians, and medical school admission committees responded. The present study examines research related to career decision making in primary care medicine. We address career decision making in primary care with the expectation that selection of a medical residency is based on multiple factors, and multivariate statistical techniques comprise the most appropriate statistical procedure for developing predictive models of medical student residency choice. Additional multivariate studies for simultaneous analysis of multiple dependent and multiple independent variables are needed to determine whether health policy planners and medical schools should continue to address the distribution of primary care physicians through medical school admissions. Further to enabling prediction, researchers must renew efforts to base investigations on theoretical models, summarizing and organizing previous research, and providing one another with means to focus future studies while building on previous work.

Career Choice↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Bacterial survival on radiographic cassettes.

The purpose of this investigation was to report the life span of Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus aureus on 3 types of radiographic imaging receptors currently used in diagnostic imaging departments in the United States. Kodak 400 speed, Dupont 400 speed and Fuji computed radiography cassettes were inoculated with the 3 bacteria, then placed in an incubation cabinet and cultured for a period of 2 weeks. All 3 cassettes revealed confluent growth with no noticeable reduction in bacterial numbers for the entire test period. This study verifies that common potentially pathogenic bacteria can survive for prolonged periods on radiographic imaging cassettes. Therefore, effective cleaning regimens are of fundamental importance in controlling and preventing potential nosocomial transmission in the diagnostic imaging department.

Enterococcus faecalis↗