The primary goals of the current medical licensing exams are to insure clinical competence, but questions have been raised as to the efficiency of these exams.
Clinical case conferences are an important component to the medical school curriculum due to the critical thinking skills that are encouraged to develop.
Jeffrey T. Kullgren, MPH and Jerome Lowenstein, MD
A physician argues that the question is not whether we can teach professionalism but rather whether we will teach professionalism, given all of modern medicine's economic and other constraints.
Professional behavior and values are often learned outside the classroom, when physicians act as role models for students in patient-physician relationships.
The use of simulated patients in medical education helps students to develop communication skills needed to interact with patients when difficult circumstances arise.
An ethical case explores whether an attending physician should allow a medical student to place a central line on a Medicaid patient even though the student has failed the procedure two previous times.