Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2007. / Title from screen (viewed on January 9, 2008). Department of Communication Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Stuart M. Schrader, Kim D. White-Mills, Elizabeth M. Goering, Jane E. Schultz. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-94).

Previous research with college students had supported that light and heavy smokers differentially imitate smoking models. Light smokers' smoking rates seemed to vary with the rates presented by a model, while heavy smokers' rates tended to remain relatively consistent. This study examined the effects of a smoking and nonsmoking physician model on 54 older, more chronic, in-patient smokers and extended the scope of research in this area by attempting to evaluate whether immediate modeling influences generalize behaviorally and/or attitudinally. A second part of the experiment investigated the effects of the smoking patients' exposure to a nonsmoking physician model who advised quitting, a smoking physician model who advised quitting, and a smoking physician model who did not comment on smoking relative to patient behavior and attitudes.

The primary objective of this study was to analyze dyadic verbal interactions and to determine whether they were associated with the roles of the participants. These "interactions occurred in the chronic paediatric health care delivery system between parents of handicapped children and physicians and between those same parents and other members of the health team. Additional objectives of this research included testing of the reliability of the Sequential Analysis of Verbal Interaction (SAVI) instrument and its utility in the health care system. Clinical data were obtained during regularly scheduled appointments in the form of audio-taped interviews using 37 parent-professional 'and 37 parent-paraprofessional dyads. A six-minute sample was selected from each interview tape, coded at three-second intervals, transcribed into the class of communication behaviour and analyzed. Subsequent to data collection, reliability and utility of the SAVI instrument were examined and determined to be appropriate for this study. The major finding of the study was that parents of handicapped children used different verbal messages and behaviours than professionals and paraprofessionals. The communication pattern for all three groups, using Agazarian's (1968) model was cross-purpose. Under a proposed model, adapted from Agazarian's, the parents' pattern of communication was considered to approximate the problem-solving pattern more closely. The conclusion drawn from this exploratory study was that very little of a personal nature was occurring in interpersonal communication, which in turn hindered the development of a problem-solving pattern of communication. An important direction for further research would be the testing of the predominance of the cross-purpose pattern of communication using a larger and more homogenous sample of professionals and paraprofessionals. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate

Increased interest in and opportunities for participation in recreation and sports have brought sports medicine into physicians' offices as another phase of health care. At one time considered to be limited to treatment and rehabilitation of injuries, sports medicine today includes many other medical aspects of sports. A preparticipation health appraisal is mandatory before entry into strenuous activity programs. Annual physical appraisals are not necessary, however, when continuing health supervision and periodic reviews of illness and injury are used to reveal needs for prompt medical attention. Cardiopulmonary and musculoskeletal capabilities must be included in the health examinations of athletes. School health personnel are important components of a scholastic sports medicine program because of their availability, their interest in all athletes, and the usefulness of their cumulative health records. Many physicians are sufficiently interested and qualified in sports medicine to serve as team physicians and be advisors on the health aspects of school or community youth sports programs.

BACKGROUND: The gender wage gap has existed since women started entering the workforce. Once large, the wage gap narrowed significantly in the 1980’s, and plateaued in the 2000s. Proposed rationales for the wage gap include: gender differences in negotiation, unconscious bias or discrimination, and productivity differences between men and women. Productivity is commonly measured in terms of relative value unit (RVU) generation. RVU assignment to non-clinician providers (NPCs) such as PAs and NPs is inaccurate, contributing to a lack of data regarding their productivity. Little is known about PA productivity in general, particularly gender differences. The purpose of this study is to formulate a standardized definition of clinical productivity and to compare mean productivity of male and female PAs in three specialties. LITERATURE REVIEW FINDINGS: Women are assumed to be poorer negotiators. However, when negotiation, a stereotypically “male” act, is framed in a communal way, gender differences vanish and women are as equally successful. Unconscious bias and discrimination against women have detrimental effects on their salary, job satisfaction, and psychological health. The assumption that women are less productive than their male counterparts arises from the belief that women will drop work obligations to care for the family. After controlling for practice, personal, and productivity differences, women continue to earn significantly less than their male counterparts. The persistent, unexplained wage gap suggests that uncontrolled variables, such as bias or discrimination, are the true cause of the wage gap. PROPOSED PROJECT: The proposed project is retrospective cohort study and secondary database analysis obtained from the NCCPA PA Professional Profile. The data will be utilized to determine average, individual productivity for male and female PAs practicing in three specialties. The mean productivity of male and females will be compared using ANOVA. Confounding variables will be analyzed using a multiple linear regression analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Social constructs regarding gender contribute to stereotypes influencing the definition a “successful negotiator” and provide the foundation for bias and discrimination. Clinical productivity cannot be altered by these stereotypes. If no gender differences in productivity exist, this proposed cause can no longer be used to justify the wage gap. SIGNIFICANCE: Accurately measuring PA productivity has several implications including proper compensation, determination of PA impact on practice efficiency, and comparison of productivity between PAs by gender and specialty type, aiding in the search for the true cause of the gender wage gap in the PA profession.

The ability to gather accurate and complete information is important in scientific endeavors and the field of medicine is no exception. The medical interview is one of the primary methods by which the physician gathers information. His/her method should be no less than that used by the scientist. There are two components to the medical interview: The content, or the specific information, and the process, or the method by which the information is obtained. Traditional methods for teaching interviewing skills to medical students emphasized an on-the-job type of experience with students going out on the wards to interview actual patients. The method had several problems including lack of standardized methods of teaching and evaluating. This dissertation looks at a competency-based method of teaching and evaluating medical interview skills used at The University of Arizona College of Medicine. It uses patient instructors (PIs) to objectively evaluate interviewing skills. PIs are highly trained non-physicians who have been trained to function as patients, teachers, and evaluators. Analysis of the data collected on student interview performance from the classes of 1982-1984 indicated that there was no significant difference in content or process scores due to sex or prior occupational experience in a health-related profession. However, significant differences were found in content and process scores due to the age of the interviewer with students older than the class average scoring higher than the younger students.

The purposes of this study were to understand emergency physicians¡¦ perception, attitude and application of evidence-based medicine(EBM). This cross-sectional study employed quantitative methods. Regarding the quantitative method, the study population included emergency physicians in southern Taiwan of 32 participating hospitals. Structured questionnaires were sent to emergency physicians, a total of 214 questionnaires were distributed with 189 questionnaires being returned. The response rate was 88.32%. Descriptive statistics was used in data analysis. The major findings were: 1. Emergency physician¡¦s perception of EBM: The average score in Physicians¡¦ understanding EBM terminologies were from 1.88 to 2.79(score ranged from 1 to 4, 1 represented fully understand). 2. Emergency physician¡¦s attitude of EBM: a. There were over a half (57.7%) emergency physicians had taken EBM training courses, while 93.1% expressed their willingness to attend EBM activities in the future. b. Most emergency physicians(86.7%) agreed that application of EBM was useful in clinical practice. c. The major barriers of emergency physicians to apply EBM were lack of time(57.1%), lack of EBM knowledge(50.3%), lack of research methodology knowledge(45.5%) and hardness of critical appraisal(40.7%). d. In general, emergency physicians hold positive attitudes toward EBM, the average score was from 1.79 to 3.09 (score ranged from 1 to 5, 1 represented the most agree). 3. Emergency physician¡¦s application of EBM: a. The average proportion of EBM application in emergency physicians¡¦ clinical practice was 54.42% . b. Emergency physician¡¦s choice of clinical problem-treating was diverse, only little clinical problem may have uniform opinions.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-202). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

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Thesis (M.P.H.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Public Health, 1999. / Includes bibliography (leaves 178-190).