Construction and validation of a medical career readiness inventory.

BACKGROUND: Medical students' preparedness for clinical practice is well researched, yet little is known on the extent to which students are being prepared for a medical career. This paper reports the construction of a short medical inventory titled eXploring medical sTudents' caReer reAdiness (XTRA) to measure students' career readiness based on Super's theory of career maturity. APPROACH: We designed an instrument consisting of a series of 5-point Likert-scale to identify participants competencies regarding career exploration and planning during their undergraduate studies. The instrument was completed by 348 medical students from 41 universities in the United Kingdom. We examined the validity and reliability of the instrument through Exploratory Factor Analysis, Cronbach's coefficient α and Pearson correlation. EVALUATION: Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed that 16 of the 20-items survey were aligned with the exploration stage of Super's theory: Crystallisation (Career goals), Specification (Career pathways) and Implementation (Career accomplishments). The four items that formed two separate statistical factors were specific to a current medical career in the UK. Internal reliability for Super's factor subscales were acceptable (α = 0.71 to α = 0.81). A significant positive relationship was found between students' overall rating of career readiness and the three factors, indicating construct validity. IMPLICATIONS: The XTRA Inventory is a short instrument with construct and content validity specifically designed to measure career readiness of medical students. Further work on its psychometric properties will help establish this inventory to be used as a guidance and career counselling tool by medical educators and educational institutions in developing career development programmes.

A rapid review of emergency department interventions for children and young people presenting with suicidal ideation.

BACKGROUND: Suicidal ideation is an increasingly common presentation to the paediatric emergency department. The presence of suicidal ideation is linked to acute psychiatric hospital admission and increased risk of suicide. The paediatric emergency department plays a critical role in reducing risk of suicide, strengthening protective factors and encouraging patient engagement with ongoing care. AIMS: This rapid review aims to synthesise evidence on interventions that can be implemented in the paediatric emergency department for children and adolescents presenting with suicidal ideation. METHOD: Six electronic databases were searched for studies published since January 2010: PubMed, Web of Science, Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Cochrane. Outcomes of interest included suicidal ideation, engagement with out-patient services, incidence of depressive symptoms, hopelessness, family empowerment, hospital admission and feasibility of interventions. The Cochrane risk-of-bias tool was used to evaluate the quality of studies. RESULTS: Six studies of paediatric emergency department-initiated family-based (n = 4) and motivational interviewing interventions (n = 2) were narratively reviewed. The studies were mainly small and of varying quality. The evidence synthesis suggests that both types of intervention, when initiated by the paediatric emergency department, reduce suicidal ideation and improve patient engagement with out-patient services. Family-based interventions also showed a reduction in suicidality and improvement in family empowerment, hopelessness and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Paediatric emergency department-initiated interventions are crucial to reduce suicidal ideation and risk of suicide, and to enhance ongoing engagement with out-patient services. Further research is needed; however, family-based and motivational interviewing interventions could be feasibly and effectively implemented in the paediatric emergency department setting.