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Biomedical subjects

C R Coles

Publications and source records attributed to C R Coles.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

Teaching student-centred educational approaches to general practice teachers.

The people responsible for undergraduate medical education are being urged to devise curricula which are more learner centred and community oriented. This has huge implications for teacher training. A project is reported aimed at helping general practice teachers develop learner-centred educational approaches through one-day workshops, themselves arranged on learner-centred lines. An evaluation indicates these workshops met their aim, and seem most useful when participants have an opportunity to practise newly acquired skills as soon afterwards as possible.

Curriculum↗

General practice in the undergraduate curriculum: 20 interviews with Southampton final-year students.

The Primary Medical Care Group at the University of Southampton contributes to the medical curriculum in the first, third and final years. A visiting lecturer from Sweden took the opportunity to interview a sample of 20 final-year students using a qualitative approach. Questioning centered on the impact of the primary care course both in relationship to medicine as a whole and to general practice. It was found that primary medical care was often not seen as a central or integral part of the curriculum but many students acknowledged its important contribution to seeing the patient as a whole and in integrating the various other parts of the curriculum, with significant opportunity for role modelling and informing career choice. A hidden curriculum emerged of attitudes which provided a conflict for some students. Improvements should include clearer dovetailing of primary medical care with other curricular components, limitation of aims with more specific and rigorous assessment and a wide strategy of staff development not confined to those directly involved in general practice attachments.

Adult↗

Elaborated learning in undergraduate medical education.

Southampton Medical School holds its major examination of basic knowledge after rather than before students enter their first clinical attachments. An interview survey investigated its educational effects, and found that students adopt one of four revision approaches. The most successful, not just in terms of examination grade but more particularly in students' subsequent ability to retrieve and use the knowledge gained, occurred when students related their preclinical revision to their clinical experiences. One of these approaches, an elaboration of knowledge, is considered to be essential for effective clinical thinking yet is probably rare elsewhere in medical education since it appears to be a consequence of a particular curricular arrangement. An explanation is given in terms of current thinking in cognitive psychology, and this challenges the theoretical assumptions on which other research in medical education has been uncritically based. Some implications for medical education and further research are discussed.

Curriculum↗

Helping students with learning difficulties in medical and health-care education.

In health profession education many more students than is currently acknowledged experience often extreme difficulties with their studying. This booklet is intended to help them. It outlines an approach being adopted in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton by which students are encouraged to reflect on and discuss their approaches to studying, identifying their perception of their task and where necessary changing this. It is shown that students need to elaborate their knowledge, that is to structure the factual information they are receiving and to relate it to their practical experiences. A number of suggestions are made to encourage this, and their theoretical underpinnings are discussed. It is concluded that while inappropriate curricula and teaching methods and not some weakness on the part of students are largely the cause of learning difficulties, it will take time to change these. Establishing a kind of 'clinic' for helping students cope can be of value immediately.

Curriculum↗

Interview surveys in medical and health-care education.

This booklet provides a guide to interview surveys in medical and health-care education. The view is taken that interviews are an extension of everyday interpersonal skills, and this notion is applied to situations in which they have proved valuable. The range of attributes and different forms of interview surveys are discussed, practical steps are described and the question of data analysis is addressed. Finally, suggestions for establishing the validity of interview surveys are given.

Education, Medical↗

The preregistration houseman in general practice.

During 1979-80 an experimental preregistration house physician post in general practice was conducted at Aldermoor Health Centre in Southampton in rotation with medical posts at Southampton General Hospital. Ten house physicians took part in the experiment that lasted for 19 months and each doctor spent two months in general practice. The house physicians settled quickly into general practice and found the experience both enjoyable and worth while. The hospital consultants, general practitioners, and the house physicians themselves thought that this was a valuable extension to preregistration education. The experiment raised several questions, some of which were specific to the type of rotation organised and others that were more fundamental to the whole concept of the preregistration house physician in general practice. If the experiment is to be repeated a longer period in general practice is strongly recommended. A full year rotation is suggested with four months each of surgery, medicine, and general practice.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗