Medical education
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Historical Article
Anatomy teaching: ghosts of the past, present and future.
Anatomy teaching has perhaps the longest history of any component of formalised medical education. In this article we briefly consider the history of dissection, but also review the neglected topic of the history of the use of living anatomy. ⋯ Future prospects are considered, along with some of the factors that might inhibit change.
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The General Medical Council (GMC) regulates British doctors through the Medical Act. The Council comprises doctors (who predominate) and laypeople. It registers doctors for UK practice, sets professional standards, regulates basic medical education, and manages doctors' fitness to practise. The GMC sits uneasily at the interface between the medical profession, the public, Parliament and the National Health Service. Herein lie the seeds of inertia and conflict. ⋯ All patients are entitled to a good doctor. The challenge to the profession and the GMC is to ensure they fulfil this entitlement by implementing professional regulation effectively.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Randomised, controlled study investigating the optimal instructor: student ratios for teaching suturing skills.
Recently, there has been a shift away from practising procedures on patients for the first time and towards bench model teaching of clinical skills to undergraduate medical students. However, guidelines for the most effective instructor : student ratio for technical skills training are unclear. This has important implications for staffing laboratory based teaching sessions. The purpose of this study was to assess the optimal ratio of teachers to learners during the teaching of a simulated wound closure. ⋯ The optimal instructor:student ratio was 1 instructor for 4 students. Higher ratios of instructors to students resulted in no improvements in learning, and lower ratios of instructors to students resulted in significantly less learning. These findings are in keeping with current motor learning theories.
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Supervision and feedback are essential factors that contribute to the learning environment in the context of workplace learning and their frequency and quality can be improved. Assessment is a powerful tool with which to influence students' learning and supervisors' teaching and thus the learning environment. ⋯ If an ITA programme in action is to be congruent with the intended programme, the implementation of the programme must be monitored. It is also necessary to provide full information about the programme and to ensure this information is given repeatedly. Introducing an ITA programme that includes the assessment of several competencies does not automatically lead to more attention being paid to these competencies in terms of supervision and feedback. Measures that facilitate change in the learning environment seem to be a prerequisite for enabling the assessment programme to steer the learning environment.