Biomedical subjects

John Goldie

Publications and source records attributed to John Goldie.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

AMEE Education Guide no. 29: evaluating educational programmes.

Evaluation has become an applied science in its own right in the last 40 years. This guide reviews the history of programme evaluation through its initial concern with methodology, giving way to concern with the context of evaluation practice and into the challenge of fitting evaluation results into highly politicized and decentralized systems. It provides a framework for potential evaluators considering undertaking evaluation. The role of the evaluator; the ethics of evaluation; choosing the questions to be asked; evaluation design, including the dimensions of evaluation and the range of evaluation approaches available to guide evaluators; interpreting and disseminating the findings; and influencing decision making are covered.

Curriculum↗

PubMed2004

Can students' reasons for choosing set answers to ethical vignettes be reliably rated? Development and testing of a method.

Although ethics is an important part of modern curricula, measures of students' ethical disposition have not been easy to develop. A potential method is to assess students' written justifications for selecting one option from a preset range of answers to vignettes and compare these justifications with predetermined 'expert' consensus. We describe the development of and reliability estimation for such a method -- the Ethics in Health Care Instrument (EHCI). Seven raters classified the responses of ten subjects to nine vignettes, on two occasions. The first stage of analysis involved raters' judging how consistent with consensus were subjects' justifications using generalizability theory, and then rating consensus responses on the action justification and values recognition hierarchies. The inter-rater reliability was 0.39 for the initial rating. Differential performance on questions was identified as the largest source of variance. Hence reliability was investigated also for students' total scores over the nine consensus vignettes. Rater effects were the largest source of variance identified. Examination of rater performance showed lack of rater consistency. D-studies were performed which showed acceptable reliability could nevertheless be obtained using four raters per EHCI. This study suggests that the EHCI has potential as an assessment instrument although further testing is required of all components of the methodology.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed2004

The impact of a modern medical curriculum on students' proposed behaviour on meeting ethical dilemmas.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of a modern medical curriculum on students' proposed behaviour on encountering ethical dilemmas. DESIGN: Cohort design. SETTING: University of Glasgow Medical School. SUBJECTS: The first intake of students into Glasgow's new curriculum (n = 238). Main outcome measure Student answers consistent with consensus professional judgement on the ethical dilemmas posed by the vignettes of the Ethics and Health Care Survey Instrument. RESULTS: The probability of giving a consensus answer was lowest pre-Year 1 and highest post-Year 1. It reduced slightly post-Years 3 and 5, but remained significantly higher than at pre-Year 1. The performance of students undertaking a 1-year intercalated BSc, however, appeared to regress on testing post-Year 4. CONCLUSIONS: While the first year of the curriculum had a positive impact on students, the remainder of the curriculum did not impact to the same extent. These findings support the recommendation that small group teaching, the predominant teaching method in Year 1, should be preferred to lecture and large group teaching, the predominant method of the remaining curricular years. Full integration of ethics and law teaching within the rest of the curriculum is recommended, particularly during the clinical years. This has training implications for all medical teachers involved in the curriculum. The assessment of ethics should be incorporated into all formal examinations. It is recommended that ethics be addressed as part of a wider approach to professionalism in order to promote integration.

Cohort Studies↗

PubMed2003

Students' attitudes and potential behaviour with regard to whistle blowing as they pass through a modern medical curriculum.

OBJECTIVE: To examine students' attitudes and potential behaviour with regard to whistle blowing as they progress through a modern undergraduate medical curriculum. DESIGN: Cohort design. SETTING: University of Glasgow Medical School. SUBJECTS: A cohort of students entering Glasgow University's new learner-centred, integrated medical curriculum in October 1996. METHODS: Students' pre- and post-Year 1, post-Year 3 and post-Year 5 responses to the whistle blowing vignette of the Ethics in Health Care Instrument (EHCI) were examined quantitatively and qualitatively. Analysis of students' multichoice answers enabled measurement of movement towards professional consensus opinion. Analysis of written justifications helped determine whether their reasoning was consistent with professional consensus and enabled measurement of change in knowledge content and recognition of the values inherent in the vignette. Themes in students' reasoning behind their decisions of whether or not to whistle blow were also identified. RESULTS: There was little improvement in students' performance as they progressed through the curriculum in terms of their proposed behaviour on meeting the whistle blowing scenario. There was also no improvement in the quality of justifications provided. Students' reasoning on whether or not to whistle blow was found to change as the curriculum progressed. CONCLUSIONS: The EHCI has the potential to elicit students' attitudes towards ethical issues at entry to medical school and to measure change as they progress through the curriculum. Students should be encouraged to contemplate dilemmas from all ethical standpoints and consider relevant legal implications. Whistle blowing should be addressed as part of the wider domain of professionalism.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

The impact of three years' ethics teaching, in an integrated medical curriculum, on students' proposed behaviour on meeting ethical dilemmas.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of 3 years' ethics teaching (30 hours mainly small group teaching in year 1, 14 hours mainly lecture-type teaching in years 2 and 3) on students' proposed behaviour on encountering ethical dilemmas. DESIGN: Cohort design. SETTING: University of Glasgow Medical School. SUBJECTS: A cohort of 111 students entering Glasgow University's new learner-centred, integrated medical curriculum; where ethics learning is formally assessed in years 1 and 5 only; in October 1996. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Student answers consistent with consensus professional judgement on the ethical dilemmas posed by the vignettes of the Ethics and Health Care Survey Instrument. RESULTS: The instrument was completed pre- and post- year 1 and post- year 3 by 77%(85) of the cohort. There is a significant increase in the number of consensus answers given following the first year of the curriculum, but no further improvement was found. The odds ratio for giving the consensus answer post- year 1 relative to pre- year 1 was 1.42, 95% Confidence Interval (1.19, 1.71), P = 0.0001. Comparing post- year 3 to pre- year 1, odds ratio 1.30 (1.08, 1.57), P = 0.0062. Post- year 3 compared to post- year 1, odds ratio 0.91 (0.76, 1.10), P = 0.34. CONCLUSIONS: While small group ethics teaching can be effective in developing students' normative identification with the profession of medicine, its effectiveness is dependent on the amount of small group teaching provided. The lack of formal assessment in years 2 and 3 is also felt to contribute to the lack of impact. This information will inform future curriculum development.

Curriculum↗