Group-based reflection sessions, with a provocative trigger to foster engagement, may be effective educational tools for fostering shifts in student reflection about bias in encounters and willingness to discuss potential biases with colleagues, with implications for reducing health disparities.

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This article illustrates a method used in a community empowerment project where community members and university facilitators collaborated to increase the capacity of the community. The method may have practical uses in collaborations with community groups. The six-step process enabled the community groups to accomplish their short-term community goals: developing effective after-school programs and resolving problems of damaged homes and blighted properties in a relatively short time and continuing on their collaborative work. Having a social ecological model as a conceptual framework was helpful for the community to assess their status and develop action plans. Consistent community meetings, open communication, focused community leadership, community networking, and collaboration of community organizations and a university were the factors that reinforced the empowerment process. Challenges such as maximizing limited resources and generating more participation from the community need to be resolved while the reinforcing factors are cultivated.

Objective-Physicians often overlook important contextual clues that patients give during an encounter. The objective of our study was to increase medical students' knowledge and skills in identifying contextual issues.Methods-Six consecutive learning experiences, including a standardized patient (SP) encounter and activities designed to trigger reflection, were implemented within a first year Introduction to Clinical Medicine course. Evaluation of the intervention was measured through self-confidence, attitudes, SP history checklist, and student and small group facilitator evaluations.Results-Standardized patient encounters, coupled with activities designed to trigger reflection, can help students identify patients' contextual clues. Students' confidence in eliciting patient clues significantly increased after the intervention. Our results suggest that some contextual clues were more difficult for students to elicit.Conclusion-Multi-faceted approaches that include activities to trigger reflection are effective in teaching students to recognize and respond to contextual clues, however, more research is needed.Practice Implications-While students elicited most clues in this study, they struggled with identifying some clues. These results suggest the need for additional research and educational development in this area.