Undergraduate anatomy teaching in the UK

2009 ◽  
Vol 91 (3) ◽  
pp. 102-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Gogalniceanu ◽  
E Fitzgerald O'Connor ◽  
A Raftery

The UK undergraduate medical curriculum has undergone significant changes following the recommendation of Tomorrow's Doctors, a report by the UK's General Medical Council (GMC). One consequence of these reforms is believed to be an overall reduction in basic science teaching. Many anatomists, surgeons and medical students have objected to the reduction in anatomy teaching time, the diminishing role of dissection and the inadequate assessment of students' knowledge of anatomy. Moreover, there have been concerns regarding the future of anatomy as an academic subject as well as the fitness to practise of junior doctors. Currently there is much debate as to whether the UK is experiencing a real or apparent crisis in anatomy teaching.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhruv Gupta ◽  
Lahvanya Shantharam ◽  
Bridget Kathryn MacDonald

Abstract Background:It is now a General Medical Council requirement to incorporate sustainable healthcare teaching (SHT) into medical curricula. To date, research has focussed on the perspective of educators and which sustainable healthcare topics to include in teaching. However, to our knowledge, no previous study has investigated the perspective of both undergraduate and postgraduate medical students in the UK regarding current and future incorporation of SHT in medical education.Methods:A questionnaire was circulated to clinical year medical students and students intercalating after completing at least one clinical year in a London University. The anonymous questionnaire consisted of sections on the environmental impact, current teaching and future teaching of SHT.Results:163 students completed the questionnaire. 93% of participants believed that climate change is a concern in current society, and only 1.8% thought they have been formally taught what sustainable healthcare is. No participants strongly agreed, and only 5 participants (3.1%) agreed, that they would feel confident in answering exam questions on this topic, with 89% agreeing that more SHT is needed. 60% believe that future teaching should be incorporated in both preclinical and clinical years, with 31% of participants preferring online modules as the method of teaching.Conclusion: Our novel study has stressed the lack of current sustainable healthcare teaching in the medical curriculum. From a student perspective, using online modules throughout medical school presents an attractive method of incorporating sustainable healthcare teaching in the future.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sneha Barai

UNSTRUCTURED The UK General Medical Council (GMC) explicitly states doctors have a duty to ‘contribute to teaching and training…by acting as a positive role model’. However, recent studies suggest some are not fulfilling this, which is impacting medical students' experiences and attitudes during their training. As such, doctors have a duty to act as role models and teachers, as specified by the GMC, which it seems are not currently being fulfilled. This would improve the medical students’ learning experiences and demonstrate good professional values for them to emulate. Therefore, these duties should be as important as patient care, since this will influence future generations.


2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 192-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. A. Jackson ◽  
D. J. R. Evans

The General Medical Council states that United Kingdom graduates must function effectively as educators. There is a growing body of evidence showing that medical students can be included as teachers within a medical curriculum. Our aim was to design and implement a near-peer-led teaching program in an undergraduate medical curriculum and assess its acceptability among year 1 students. Students received six tutorials focusing on aspects of cardiac, respiratory, and blood physiology. Tutorials ran alongside standard module teaching. Students were taught in groups of ∼30 students/group, and an active teaching approach was used in sessions where possible. Using anonymous evaluations, student feedback was collected for the program overall and for each tutorial. The program was voluntary and open to all first-year students, and 94 (of 138) medical students from year 1 at Brighton and Sussex Medical School were recruited to the study. The tutorial program was popular among students and was well attended throughout. Individual tutorial and overall program quantitative and qualitative feedback showed that students found the tutorials very useful in consolidating material taught within the module. Students found the small group and active teaching style of the near-peer tutors very useful to facilitating their learning experience. The end-of-module written examination scores suggest that the tutorials may have had a positive effect on student outcome compared with previous student attainment. In conclusion, the present study shows that a near-peer tutorial program can be successfully integrated into a teaching curriculum. The feedback demonstrates that year 1 students are both receptive and find the additional teaching of benefit.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Palmer ◽  
Robert Cragg ◽  
David Wall

2021 ◽  
Vol 94 (1119) ◽  
pp. 20201308
Author(s):  
Cindy Chew ◽  
Patrick J O'Dwyer ◽  
Euan Sandilands

Objective A recent study has shown that the averaged time tabled teaching for a medical student across 5 years in the UK was 4629 hours. Radiology has been demonstrated to be an excellent teaching source, yet the number of hours allocated to this has never been calculated. The aims of this study were to evaluate and quantify the hours allocated to radiology teaching in Scottish Medical Schools and to evaluate if they can fulfil requirements expected from other Clinical disciplines and the upcoming General Medical Council Medical Licensing Assessment (GMC MLA). Methods Data pertaining to timetabled teaching for Radiology in Scottish Universities were obtained from the authors of the Analysis of Teaching of Medical Schools (AToMS) survey. In addition, University Lead Clinician Teachers were surveyed on the radiological investigations and skills medical students should have at graduation. Results Medical students in Scottish Universities were allocated 59 h in Radiology (0.3%) out of a total 19,325 h of timetabled teaching. Hospital-based teaching was variable and ranged from 0 to 31 h. Almost half (15 of 31) of Clinician Teachers felt that there was insufficient radiology teaching in their specialty. Thirteen of 30 conditions included in the GMC MLA were listed by Clinician Teachers, while 23 others not listed by the GMC were considered important and cited by them. Conclusion This study demonstrates that medical students do not receive enough radiology teaching. This needs to be addressed by Universities in collaboration with the NHS in an effort to bring up this up to line with other developed countries and prepare students for the GMC MLA. Advances in knowledge (1) There is insufficient time allocated in Medical Students’ curriculum to Radiology. (2) Radiology teaching in medical schools fall short of University Lead Clinician Teachers’ and GMC expectations of medical students at graduation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-43
Author(s):  
Al Dowie

Confidentiality has a pre-eminent status in the medical curriculum for ethics, law, and professionalism because it does not depend on prior clinical learning or scientific knowledge, and it provides students with the opportunity to engage in the work of self-formation in professional practice from the very beginning. The historical tendency to romanticise medical professionalism, and confidentiality in particular as a symbol for this, was able to thrive in previous eras as a result of uncertainty around the boundaries of disclosure. To some extent echoes of this romanticism can still be heard today in rhetorical appeals to the Hippocratic tradition despite the development of detailed clarification in frameworks of law, standards, codes, professional regulation, and guidance from the second half of the 20th century. This paper considers two iconic portrayals of medical professionalism from the romantic period of the Victorian past, contrasting that era with the present-day environment of normative codifications. While ethics is commonly approached in an intellectual mode as a discussion of theory, a purely cognitive understanding is deficient on its own since learning in professional ethics must by definition be reified as sets of practices. The shift to the clinical accountability of today means that practices are of central importance to the undergraduate medical curriculum, not least in the area of confidentiality, for which the General Medical Council guidance sets the UK agenda for medical educational approaches to teaching, learning, and assessment, before students repeat the Hippocratic Oath at graduation as they embark on their future careers as doctors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-244
Author(s):  
Joy EwennTan ◽  
Aedin Collins ◽  
Rosalinde Tilley ◽  
Manasvi Upadhyaya

Background: Professionalism is one of the five key attributes that the General Medical Council has focused on the guideline of Good Medical Practice. The primary aim of this study is to evaluate how the attributes of professionalism among medical students are perceived by themselves (SG) and patients, parents, carers, junior doctors, nurses, consultants and other allied health professionals (NSG). The secondary aim of this study is to evaluate methods of assessment for professionalism. Methods: This study was carried out for a period of 8 weeks. This was a multifaceted evaluation gathering opinions from SG and NSG. All participants filled-in a questionnaire, using a 5-point Likert score scale satisfaction. Results: In total, we had 185 participants: 88 (SG), and 97 (NSG). The mean score of medical professionalism rated by SG was 3.87 and NSG was 3.95. The top two attributes that scored the highest scores by SG were respectfulness and confidentiality. NSG were confidentiality and appearance. The two attributes that had the lowest score in both groups were attendance and punctuality. One-to-one feedback was the most favorable choice of assessment method among both groups. Conclusion: The level of professionalism among medical students in this study was observed to be positive. There was no significant difference between both groups. Professionalism is a crucial requirement for all medical doctors. It is all educator’s responsibility from all educators to instill medical professionalism from the moment medical school begins.


2016 ◽  
Vol 102 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Finnegan ◽  
Victoria Gauden

Professionalism is a concept at the heart of good medical practice. Ensuring that medical students develop and display professional behavior is crucial, both to ensure that their early encounters with patients are safe and appropriate, and to help guard against difficulties in their future practice. As part of its role as the UK's medical regulator, the General Medical Council (GMC) sets the standards that doctors need to follow as well as overseeing UK medical education and training. This includes providing guidance on student professional values and fitness to practice, which it does in partnership with the UK Medical Schools Council (MSC). To inform policy development in this area, the GMC carried out a survey of student professional values between December 2014 and January 2015. This article expands on and discusses a report about the survey, produced and published on the General Medical Council (GMC) website in 2015.1 The results of the survey are presented here. A total of 2,501 students responded to the survey, giving their views on the level of acceptability of 16 different scenarios. These results were analyzed by gender, year of study and entry route to medical school. While medical students responded overall in ways that indicate an understanding of professionalism, the results have highlighted some areas to focus improvements on, and differences between groups of students may be helpful to medical schools in planning how and when to teach certain aspects of professionalism.


BJR|Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindy Chew ◽  
Patrick J O'Dwyer ◽  
David Young

Objectives: The UK has a shortage of Radiologists to meet the increasing demand for radiologic examinations. To encourage more medical students to consider Radiology as a career, increased exposure at undergraduate level has been advocated. The aim of this study was to evaluate if formal Radiology teaching hours at medical school had any association with the number of qualified Radiologists joining the General Medical Council Specialist Register. Methods: Total number of doctors joining the GMC Specialist Register as Clinical Radiologists, and those with a primary medical qualifications awarded in Scotland, was obtained from the GMC (2010–2020). Graduate numbers from all 4 Scottish Medical Schools (2000–2011) were also obtained. Hours of Radiology teaching for medical schools in Scotland were obtained from validated AToMS study. Results: Two hundred and twenty three (6.6%) of 3347 Radiologists added to the GMC Specialist Register between 2010 and 2020 received their primary medical qualification (PMQ) from Scottish Universities. The number of Radiologists from Scottish Universities joining the GMC specialist register was 2.6% of the total number of Scottish Medical Graduates. There was no association between the number of hours (Range 1–30) Radiology was taught to medical students and the number that joined the specialist register as Radiologists (p = 0.54 chi square trend). Conclusion: Increased exposure to Radiology teaching does not influence medical students’ decision to take up Radiology as a career. While continued Radiology exposure remains important, other strategies are required in both the short and long term to ensure radiology services are maintained without detriment to patients. Advances in knowledge: Increased hours of Radiology teaching in medical school was not associated with increased radiologists joining the profession.


1997 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hagen Rampes ◽  
Fiona Sharples ◽  
Sarah Maragh ◽  
Peter Fisher

We surveyed the deans of British medical schools to determine the provision of complementary medicine in the undergraduate curriculum. We also sampled medical students at one British medical school to determine their knowledge of, and views on instruction in, complementary medicine. There is little education in complementary medicine at British medical schools, but it is an area of active curriculum development. Students' levels of knowledge vary widely between different therapies. Most medical students would like to learn about acupuncture, hypnosis, homoeopathy and osteopathy. We conclude that complementary medicine should be included in the medical undergraduate curriculum. This could be done without a great increase in teaching of facts, and could serve as a vehicle to introduce broader issues, as recommended by the General Medical Council.


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