|
|
01.18 The newsletter of the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine, Autumn 2008
Issues and news on learning and teaching in medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine Print: ISSN 1740-8768 Online: ISSN 1479-523X IN THIS ISSUE:
This first issue of 2009 is packed with innovative methods and tools to help you with burning issues in learning and teaching.There are three CETL updates in this issue, reflecting the level of maturity many of these projects have achieved, and the excellent tools and advice they have to disseminate. We learn about reflective learning and how it may be different in the ‘net generation’, how to support early years community based learning, and find out about a new conference aimed at elearning developers, users and implementers. We would like to thank Denise Wilson for her very hard work in the Subject Centre as its Centre Manager since September 2007. Denise has moved to a new position in the Institute for Aging and Health at Newcastle University. Her contribution has been invaluable. Suzanne Hardy Contents
CETL update: WebPA - an online open source tool for peer assessmentNicola Wilkinson, Engineering Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (engCETL), Faculty of Engineering, Loughborough UniversityThe JISC funded WebPA project promotes and supports the award winning open source e-assessment tool,WebPA. Originally developed at Loughborough University, funding from October 2006 has enabled further development, dissemination and support, through partnership with the University of Hull.The project has gone from strength to strength and is currently supporting over 10 UK Higher Education Institutions. WebPA is an online tool, primarily
used for peer moderated marking of
group project work. The tool collects
students’ submissions of numerical
and textual information, for both self
and peer contribution to group work.
WebPA automatically calculates each
group member’s contribution to the
work using a tried and tested
marking algorithm. This reduces any
marking bias that may be created by
students assessing one another and
the results are then presented to the
academic tutor in a series of reports. Benefits of peer assessment Peer assessment has been demonstrated to provide educational benefits and help the development of social skills. Students benefit by receiving their own mark for group based projects. In addition further benefits are also evident, including self reflection and critical thinking skills, and the development of many other transferable skills. Overcoming barriers to peer assessment The idea of peer assessment can be alien to both academic tutors and students alike. As a result there are potential issues that need to be overcome to carry out peer assessment. A clear understanding of the educational benefits and the full engagement of students in the assessment process are key to achieving this. There is a common assumption by academic tutors, that administering the peer assessment for a large cohort can be time consuming, however, WebPA has been developed with this in mind. Student groups need to be set up only once and can be used repeatedly thought out the year. The criteria students use in the assessment can also be created once and re-used numerous times across cohorts, semesters and years. These features help to reduce the work load of the academic tutor, making peer assessment a more attractive option. Adopting WebPA for assessment WebPA is freely available for download, to install and use within individual institutions. All that is needed is a web server and access to IT support. WebPA is currently in use across a wide range of subject disciplines from engineering and computing to the sciences, arts and medicine. Here are some reasons to adopt WebPA now it has benefited from JISC funding.
You can also join the project mailing list to receive updates and obtain advice.To join the list visit: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/webpa.html For more information visit the website at www.webpaproject.com www.webpaproject.com CETL update: Medical students - in healthy competition?Jayne Garner and **Dr. Helen O’Sullivan**, Centre for Excellence in Developing Professionalism,
School of Medical Education, University of Liverpool As part of a pilot research project at the University of Liverpool (in conjunction with the Northern Personal Professional Development Group), medical students across six medical schools were asked to volunteer their views anonymously on peer appraising professional behaviours.Three participants wrote about how the competitive nature of medical school would impact upon peer appraisal. Competitiveness in medical school begins with the application process. There is more demand than places available, with applicants having to meet strict academic and personal criteria to win a place. However when a student has secured their place and begun their studies, shouldn’t this competition end? Well, it would appear the answer is no. One fifth year student wrote that: “Peer assessment seems like a good idea, but I am slightly worried that it won’t suit every one; it may add yet another competitive element to life at medical school” This implies there are already existing areas that students perceive as competitive. The nature of these elements isn’t elaborated upon - as the author is in their fifth year it could be related to foundation year training placement. But this is not only the opinion of students nearing completion of their course. A similar view is expressed by a third year student, who raises concern about the summative use of peer appraisal: “I do not think that it is appropriate that medical students (who are in direct competition with each other and other medical students in the country) should be in a position to negatively influence the progression of another student’s education” The third comment on this issue is made by a third year who emphasises the role staff and tutors can play in fostering competition: “I think that as we have had a competitive drive driven into us from all the staff, that peer feedback would just add to the already often intense environment of medical school” The issue of competition was not originally considered as a possible outcome of this research. The current emphasis of fitness to practice guidance is to encourage the learning and practice of professional behaviours amongst medical students, and it could be argued that accountability is part of this remit. So is there a mismatch here? On the information collected as part of this research study it is impossible to say. Anecdotal conversations with medical students have produced reactions ranging from surprise to indignation - some students openly admit they are in competition while others see themselves as colleagues with a responsibility to support each other’s learning. So although this was not originally a focus of the peer appraisal research, it is a relevant issue we shall be asking students about in a wider international study of medical schools in 2008-2009. For more information contact jayneg@liverpool.ac.uk CETL update:LIVE Centre: 3 years on, where are we now?Helen Shore, LIVE Centre Manager, Royal Veterinary College The CETL for Lifelong and Independent Veterinary Education (LIVE) was set up in the latter part of 2005 with the aim: to ensure that veterinary education meets the needs of capable committed, independent learners, from entry to retirement.Three years on, how are we progressing? Current projects Since opening, the LIVE Centre has been a hive of activity. We have a great team working on an innovative programme of educational development and research. Members of the LIVE team are involved in a diverse spectrum of projects and collaborations. Some of the areas we are currently working on include: Evaluation of our new, more selfdirected curriculum A new curriculum was launched at the RVC for the Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (BVetMed) in 2007. A generic evaluation inventory was developed to gather student feedback. Results indicated an overall satisfaction with the course and were useful in highlighting areas that needed improvement. A 40 item user friendly inventory is available to veterinary schools and colleagues in allied disciplines. **‘VetConnect’: fostering collaborative learning** VetConnect is an electronic notice board system designed for students to share case notes, pictures, ideas and questions with other students and staff. The system is currently being trialed in one of the small animal medicine rotations and will soon be made available to students in other areas of the BVetMed course. Pastures new for haptics As well as using Haptic simulators extensively in teaching, we are using the technology to learn more about how and what clinicians do when palpating animals. For example, the Haptic device can help us answer the question students often ask: “How much force should I use?”. It is difficult for vets to describe what they do - their clinical art - in a meaningful way. Information from recordings made when vets palpated a simulated uterus has allowed us to calibrate the Haptic Cow so she “Moos” if the force applied is excessive. Development of resources We have been involved in the creation of some new teaching and learning resources including: BVetMed Day One Skills Handbook: This easy to follow handbook covers the basic competences that veterinary students are expected to be able to perform on ‘Day One’ in practice. It is designed to help students align their learning with their ultimate goal of becoming a vet. An online version of the handbook can be found at: www.live.ac.uk/documents/DOS_handbook.pdf Drug Administration CAL: The Drug Administration program was developed to address a gap in the teaching of an essential Day One Skill associated with calculating and administering Drugs to patients. Previously undergraduate veterinary and veterinary nursing students relied on their clinical rotations and placements to develop this skill. The Drug Administration program is available at the station where students practice the psychomotor parts of the skill in the RVC’s Clinical Skills Centre. To learn more about the LIVE centre, its team and projects, visit our website - revamped and relaunched in October 2008! www.live.ac.uk Supporting early years community based learningDr.Andrew Russell and Dr. Lyn Brierley-Jones, University of Durham The increasing emphasis on communitybased medical education brings with it the question of how such endeavours are to be assessed.At the University of Durham, the community placement scheme aims to give students practical experience of health and social care in community settings, generally in the voluntary and statutory sectors, through work which is of benefit to the community.This article reports on some problems early years medical students typically experience with the community placement and successful support measures that have been introduced. Overview Students are allocated a placement organization that they attend on a weekly basis for 60 hours over a calendar year straddling their first and second years. They are expected to investigate the work of the organization, its role in the community, the nature of inter-professional team work, and the way policies at national, regional and local level impact on the organization and the client groups it serves. This can involve a ‘culture shock’ for students but a useful one in developing their communication skills, ethical awareness and confidence in working with people from ‘hard to reach’ backgrounds (Russell 20081). Upon completion of their placement students must construct a summative 3000 word report which has at its heart an ethnographic account of their experience, based upon their participation in and detailed observation of their placement organisation. As well as a Community Placement Handbook and a member of administrative staff dedicated to overseeing placement activities, students were offered in 2006 the choice of an electronic mediated discussion board and/or a weekly lunchtime Community Placement drop-in session to discuss placement concerns. Use of either service was voluntary and a social science tutor with experience in medical education oversaw both services. Tutor notes taken during the drop-in sessions produced emergent categories, outlined below (Terreblanche and Durrheim 19992). Approximately a third of 2nd year students (35/109) made use of the writing support service during the academic year. We found students had an overwhelming preference for one-on-one drop-in sessions compared to the mediated discussion board. In theory students could discuss any aspect of their community placement, but in practice their anxieties centred round problems with writing up their reports. Student anxieties centred round three themes; fear of having too much to write about, fear of having too little to write about and anxiety interpreting the marking criteria. These anxieties led to three difficulties:
Student preference for one-on-one drop-in sessions over electronic mediated discussion contrasts with the success of such ‘virtual’ facilities as part of the teaching of clinical subjects (e.g. Dance et al 20073). However, it accords with a greater ambivalence towards use of electronic resources compared to the ‘real thing’ in other spheres (e.g. Williams and Brown 20074). We identified four reasons for this preference:
A vital part of medical education is the cultivation of individual professional identity. In our view this constitutes a way of being in the world as much as a way of doing (Scavenius et al 20066) As such there are components of professionalism that cannot be taught. New autonomy and responsibility, self-reflective learning, simultaneous engagement and detachment and the resolution of (seemingly) conflicting demands are all processes apparently at work in community based learning that perhaps account for student preferences for a human face over a computer screen (Van de Camp et al 2006;7 Lazarus et al 2000 Arnold,8 L 20029). As such community based learning may offer a unique opportunity to cultivate some elusive aspects of professionalism. References
For more information contact l.k.brierley-jones@durham.ac.uk Reflective learning for the net generation studentChristopher Murray and Dr. John Sandars, Medical Education Unit,
University of Leeds Reflective learning is essential for lifelong learning and many net generation students do not engage in the process since it does not align with their preferred learning style (Grant, Kinnersley, Metcalf, Pill, Houston, 20061).The combination of multimedia and technology motivates students to creatively produce digital stories that stimulate reflective learning. Digital stories present a personal and reflective narrative using a range of media, especially photographs and video. In addition, students can feel empowered and develop multiple literacies that are essential for lifelong learning. Net generation students Our current undergraduate students are members of what has been called the ‘net generation’ (Oblinger & Oblinger, 20052). This group of young people have grown up with a variety of new technologies as an integral part of daily life and learning. The net generation has not only become more technological savvy but it also appears to learn in fundamentally different ways to previous generations. Prensky (20013) has suggested that this is because the brains of the net generation have become wired differently at an early developmental stage, at a time when the neuronal structure has increased plasticity. There are several features that are typical of the way that the net generation learns:
We surveyed all first year undergraduate medical students in 2007. The average age was 19 years and over 90 per cent used instant messaging, 80 per cent used a media sharing site (such as Flickr or YouTube) and 97 per cent had a profile on a social networking site (such as Facebook or MySpace). Similar results have been found in surveys of first year students at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford (Kennedy, Krause & Judd, 20064; White, 20075). We also surveyed all second year undergraduate medical students in 2007 to identify their learning preferences. The most frequent preferences were bodily-kinaesthetic (52.8%) and interpersonal (47.8%). Our conclusion was that our undergraduate medical students were typical of the net generation, both regards their high use of new technologies and their learning preferences. We had the expectation that students would be used to working with a range of media, including images, sound and text, in an informal context and with a variety of new technologies. Our challenge was now to offer opportunities for reflective learning that were closely aligned to the student experience. Using multimedia for reflective learning Making meaning from experience requires the construction of a narrative. This can be through the use of text but many students find it difficult to describe their thoughts and emotions though words. However, visual and audio media allow these deeply personal experiences to be more easily accessed and portrayed. Gauntlett (2008)6 has recently highlighted the creative potential of using a range of media to stimulate reflective learning and Hull & Nelson (2005)7 have emphasised that the use of multiple media (images, words and music) is not simply an additive art but increases the meaning-making potential of any narrative. There has never been an easier time to combine the use of multimedia with technology to create and present a personal and reflective narrative. This narrative is usually presented as a story. Stories have an overall coherent theme that structures the narrative rather than a random collection of media. This structuring of narrative increases reflective learning through an active and creative process in the author (Ohler 20088). An example using a text based approach is an autobiographical novel and a multimedia example is a personal documentary. The genre of digital storytelling has emerged that combines both the technological and multimedia aspects with the structuring of narrative. Digital storytelling for reflective learning was introduced into a first year undergraduate personal and professional development module. The aim of this module was to encourage students to reflect on their experience of first meeting a patient. All students visited a patient in their home and were expected to identify their thoughts and feelings of what it was like to communicate with a patient who they had not met before but also to consider the perceived thoughts and feelings of the patient. Students were given an opportunity to choose how to create their digital story but the overall approach used a range of new technologies and mobile phones. Each student had a personal blog that was created by using open source software (elgg.org/) on an institutional platform outside the main VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). The blog allowed students to write reflective accounts, to store images from a variety of sources (such as free and publicly accessible media sharing sites and photograph archives), to store images taken from their mobile phones and to create digital stories. This use was analogous to using a reflective diary and a scrapbook (Williams & Jacobs, 20049). Students who had a mobile camera phone could collect images as and when they wanted to capture a particular thought or feeling. No patient identifying photographs were taken. The digital story was presented as a PowerPoint show since this presentation software was familiar to all the students, was widely available on the institutional computer system and could be easily uploaded to the blog. We noted that digital stories were created in three ways. Some students used their mobile camera phones to take images before, during and after the event and these were included in their final presentations. Others took mobile camera phone images but, after considering their story, used a mixture of their own images and others they had sourced through the internet. The remainder used solely pictures they had sourced from the internet. The evaluation Students frequently mentioned the “fun” aspect of the whole process and they enjoyed being creative. “I don’t tend to use pictures in that way but I discovered a new way of expressing my feelings and it was good.” This engagement and enthusiasm contrasted with their thoughts on traditional methods of writing reflective accounts and text-based presentations. Being able to be creative and artistic was a positive for the students, particularly due to the nature of the rest of their course, “It was good to get away from science and be more artistic!” Students also commented that they liked using technology that they were familiar with, such as mobile phones, media sharing sites and blogs. The creation of the digital story took place after the visit and the process of choosing the “right” image to convey their emotions was an important aspect. As one student noted, “When you start to choose the pictures you are thinking about how you felt exactly and comparing it to the picture and thinking that matches that doesn’t!” All stages of the digital storytelling process appeared to stimulate reflection, from initial selection of the photographs to the final presentation of the story. “I find it very useful because while I was trying to choose my pictures I could actually visualise what was going on at that moment and you can think of the emotions you were feeling. You think that it will only take 5 minutes but you end up putting a lot of effort into it.” “You go greater into depth as well to be more honest and show your feelings.” “If you were to write a report on your visit I would have been looking for facts. But I found that I was listening more to what she was saying and how she felt and how I felt.” As tutors, we were impressed by the obvious enthusiasm of the students and the depth of reflection in their presentations. Overall, we appear to have successfully engaged our undergraduate medical students in reflective learning by using a range of new technologies and also by the use of mobile phones. Blogs were used as a personal learning space that combined both media storage with a creative space. Images were obtained from a variety of media sharing sites. Most mobile phones have a camera function and the “always to hand” nature of mobile camera phones encourages spontaneous image capture at times of surprise during an experience, the “disorientating dilemma” that Mezirow (1991) regards as being an essential component of transformative reflective learning. Conclusion Digital storytelling offers a practical teaching approach that combines multimedia and technology for reflective learning. Our work in undergraduate supports the use of this approach to engage Net generation students in reflective learning but it also appears to stimulate deep reflection. You can read more about our work and see examples at www.ireflect.org References
For more information contact c.murray@leeds.ac.uk or j.e.sandars@leeds.ac.uk New online diploma for veterinary nursing professionalsPeter Nunn, Perdi Welsh, and Belinda Yamagishi, Royal Veterinary College A new online Graduate Diploma in Professional and Clinical Veterinary Nursing is being offered by the Royal Veterinary College. Being aware of issues with online and distance modes of study and those of ‘non-traditional’ learners, the first module of the course, Contemporary Study Skills, has been created to support learners in developing their higher education, technology and e-social skills. The summer of 2008 saw the first intake of veterinary nurses onto the Royal Veterinary College’s (RVC) new Graduate Diploma in Professional and Clinical Veterinary Nursing. This course is the latest in a growing portfolio of distance learning degree programmes and e-CPD courses offered by the RVC since May 2003. The diploma has been developed in response to the ever-increasing demand of the veterinary profession for veterinary nurses with specialist skills. It complements the existing provision of veterinary nursing courses offered by the RVC, and provides a route for qualified veterinary nurses to progress to an advanced level qualification. This course is novel for the RVC in that it is the first award-bearing veterinary nursing course to be delivered almost entirely online via the college’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Blackboard. This online mode of study was chosen to help widen the participation of veterinary nurses wishing to advance their knowledge and skills and who are unable to attend regular sessions at college because of distance or family and professional commitments. Perdi Welsh, the course director, has gathered a team of veterinary educational and eLearning specialists to design the programme which incorporates evidence-based frameworks and eLearning activities to engage and stimulate the learner. The graduate diploma comprises a series of modular short courses, set at honours level on the Quality Assurance Agency framework for Higher Education Qualifications. These modules are led by subject specialists who have designed a series of collaborative tasks and assignments which address predefined learning objectives. The modules generally use case or problem-based activities, so that students can work in small groups, which facilitate discussion, collaboration and research. All applicants must be qualified veterinary nurses working in a clinical environment. Many of these applicants have veterinary nursing qualifications at certificate level and are considered ‘non-traditional’ learners.1 The first module of the course, Contemporary Study Skills, was created to prepare these students for higher level education, using contemporary technologies in an online environment. Throughout the module, activities are included that help students develop skills in academic writing and evidence-based practice, and cultivate strategies for managing their lifelong learning skills such as; problem-solving; critical reflection; information literacy and time management. The VLE and activities within also provide a platform for communications, discussion and team building. The aim is that students will establish a solid foundation that will be useful for all subsequent modules in the course, through the development of a series of skills which are transferrable to other aspects of the students’ professional, educational and personal life. Crucially, the exercises within the module have also been designed to address some of the known challenges associated with distance and online learning including ‘a perceived lack of sense of community’ and ‘comfortableness with online technologies’.2 To encourage involvement, discussion boards and group activities were made mandatory with a participation mark contributing to the overall assessment of the module. The primary intention here was twofold; to encourage students to develop the technical skills to enable them to partake in online communication activities; and also the social skills, in discussion and information sharing with their peers, to help create a sense of community. At the end of the module, students were required to attend a residential week at the RVC’s Hawkshead Campus. This study week enabled students to further develop as a group and feel part of the College community, by meeting their peers and course tutors, and taking part in a range of team building exercises, one-to-one tutorials and interactive face-to-face sessions. It is still very early days; however, feedback indicates that student attitude is positive. After completing the first Contemporary Study Skills module, all students successfully met the academic requirements, mastered the technology required to participate and formed the foundation of a close supportive student network. Fifteen out the first cohort of seventeen students completed a post module review survey. Twelve of these students ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’ that they ‘felt like part of a group of students committed to learning’. Furthermore eleven students ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’ with the comment that ‘Input and discussion from other students helped me with my own learning’. Some general comments from students include: “I enjoyed (if that’s possible?) this module because it encouraged students to be self motivated and reflect on their personal study skills and endeavoured to develop new skills which will benefit future learning. Using blackboard was a new learning environment and the discussion boards were useful to share opinions and learn from other students.” “I felt this module was an ideal introduction for the higher education learning environment. It enabled myself to research, revise and review my study skills and also introduced me so some new concepts which can be put into practice in the future.” “The content of the first module has provided me with invaluable study tools in preparation for future modules. Staff are very approachable, helpful and patient.” The RVC Graduate Diploma development team will continue to adopt approved and tested eLearning strategies, whilst closely monitoring student learning. We are determined to ensure that the Graduate Diploma provides a high quality progression route for qualified veterinary nurses to advance their knowledge and skills, combining a course of high academic standard with an exciting and effective delivery method. References
For more information contact: pnunn@rvc.ac.uk Medical professionalism - more than fitness to practiseDr.David Owen, Dr. Faith Hill and Dr. Chris Stephens, School of Medicine, University of Southampton The General Medical Council (GMC) and the Medical Schools Council have produced guidance on professional behaviour for medical schools and students.1The guidance focuses particularly on fitness to practise.While fitness to practise is vital for the protection of patients,we argue that it is only one aspect involved in the teaching and learning of professionalism. Professional practice stems not only from external guidelines but also from an individual’s personal reflection into their values and the personal insight they gain during their training. These reflections and insights may be called personal development and should form an integral part of training for professionalism. Personal development lays the foundation for the ongoing professional development that is necessary for clinicians to adapt and change according to the different requirements and expectations they will face during their professional lives. This paper presents a model that the authors have found useful in developing the teaching of professionalism in the School of Medicine at Southampton. It presents a view of professionalism where values, behaviours and relationships are interconnected, interdependent and mutually determining, and where this is equally true of personal development, clinical practice and the individual’s understanding of the organisations to which he or she belongs. Professional values There are two competing sets of beliefs concerning the way in which medicine establishes and maintains itself as a profession. From the first perspective, medicine is seen as predominantly a vocation which selects individuals who aspire to particular values, experience a calling to belong to a group that works with these values and undertake to learn the appropriate techniques and skills. The alternative perception sees medicine as predominantly a ‘job’, requiring technical and specialised training and individuals who will adopt and champion the values that are expedient in practicing their skill. In reality, the profession encompasses qualities of both a vocation and a highly skilled job. Moreover, as medicine encompasses a diverse set of roles, requires practitioners to behave in a variety of ways and to form professional relationships with diverse patients, it is arguably healthy for individuals to hold a range of different values. Individual awareness of personal values, and the maturity that comes from having reflected on personal strengths and weaknesses, are likely to serve patients better than any predetermined set of values and behaviours. A dynamic model of professionalism A consensus seems to be gathering that ‘medical professionalism signifies a set of values, behaviours and relationships that underpins the trust the public has in doctors’.2 A delicate balance has to be found between professional values, appropriate behaviours and clinical responsibilities.3 Teaching this ‘ecology of professionalism’4 presents challenges further complicated by students, teachers and patients each emphasising different values as the most important.5 When individual practitioners, their practice environments and the organisations that represent and regulate them have values that are aligned, a ‘virtuous cycle’ of personal, clinical and organisational development is established. Such values include collaborative decision-making, appropriate curiosity, importance of training and a culture of unbiased research and enquiry. We have developed a model that depicts three areas of influence on medical professionalism. The three are personal development, clinical practice and the individual’s relationship to the organisations that employ and regulate them. Each is connected to the others. For example, when doctors experience burnout and depression within an organisation, they are more likely to perceive they have personally made errors and visa versa.6 The following describes some examples of learning outcomes for each of the three. Organisational development “Medicine, like any cultural practice, is based on a set of shared beliefs and values, and is an intrinsic part of the wider culture of society.” 7 EXAMPLE LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of undergraduate training, a medical student should be able to: - Describe how their future career fits in with the provisions of health and social care. - Explain the function of the organisations that regulate, represent and employ them. - Describe how as doctors they might interact with government and patient organisations. - Describe the variety of roles and expectations that the public have of medical professionals in society. Clinical practise “If doctors don’t provide a positive, patient centred approach, patients will be less satisfied, less enabled, and may have greater symptom burden and higher rates of referral”. 8 EXAMPLE LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of undergraduate training, a medical student should be able to: - Describe how their personal values and attitudes influence the doctor - patient relationship. - Reflect on the expectations patients are likely to have of doctors’ behaviour. - Explain how a health professional’s wellbeing influences their ability to provide care.9 Personal development "Burnout is common in physicians at all levels of training and practice, from medical students to department chairs".10 EXAMPLE LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of undergraduate training, a medical student should be able to: - Recognise that some degree of stress is a natural part of training and may promote a physician’s ability to perform under pressure. - Identify and manage unhealthy levels of distress including emotional exhaustion, sleep deprivation, unrealistic patient expectations, work-life imbalances and be aware of how to support him or herself through these. - Be aware of how they respond when caring for patient suffering and dying. - Reduce the likely-hood of burnout, depersonalization, alcohol or other drug misuse in themselves and others. - Be aware that physicians are themselves therapeutic instruments that require maintenance and renewal to remain effective.11 These learning outcomes are for illustrative purposes and not taken directly from the Southampton curriculum. Role modelling, reflection and cynicism All three aspects of professionalism are commonly learnt through a process of role modelling and observing a community delivering and receiving care. Throughout their training, doctors move through a number of diverse clinical settings and meet many teachers and patients. They become involved in a ‘community of practice’ determined by varied beliefs and behaviours and influenced by different situations, social interactions and contexts in which they learn.12 Students gradually become full participants within a culture through ‘trying out’ values and ‘picking up’ behaviours observed in ‘role models’. Taking part in a wide range of experiences, including managing difficulties and mistakes, enables the process of professional development.13 This ‘situated learning’ is frequently not part of the formal curriculum or identified in explicit learning outcomes but is none the less a vital part of medical training. There are, however, important questions to be asked about such ‘informal’ learning. There is evidence of negative change during medical training, such as a reduction in empathy.14 One study reported evidence indicating that 47% of students in the study felt pressurised to act unethically because of negative role models.15 In another study it was reported that most medical students in the United States claim to have been harassed or belittled during their training.16 We need to gain a better understanding of effects like these but we would contend that so long as the teaching of professionalism continues to rely on unconscious role modelling and situated learning, it will remain difficult to ensure that all students have adequate opportunities to develop appropriate values and attitudes or develop the reflective skills necessary to prepare them for a diverse and evolving profession. Students need opportunities for mentoring and reflection on the role modelling and situations they have experienced. Guidelines on behaviour and lists of values the profession feel are important may be helpful if used to stimulate a process of reflection. However, if teachers and students associate the guidelines solely with rules on fitness to practise, they can serve to hinder reflection about the diverse values different individuals hold. Guidelines may also inhibit those teachers who regularly attempt to inspire students to gain insight into the values that underpin their way of working. For example, honesty is often regarded as a core value, but how might a doctor model those times when it is necessary to hold back from being (brutally) honest? Altruism is also frequently suggested as a core value but how, when it is required, do doctors learn to put their own health and well-being first? In practice, it is often when students encounter these and similar difficult choices that they learn most. It is vital to facilitate reflection at these times and we believe that this is a key educational role. It is also important to support and mentor students where their personal values do not neatly reflect the professional ones expected of them or when values and beliefs that might be long held are challenged. Cynicism is evident where there is a difference between students’ beliefs and feelings and what they say or reveal when being observed. The greater the fear of not meeting fitness to practise guidelines, the greater and more embedded the potential for cynicism. For example, doctors are often perceived by the public to be more trustworthy than other professions, with nine out of ten members of the public trusting doctors to tell the truth.2 Can trustworthiness be assumed in those choosing medicine as a career; does it correlate with academic credentials; is it reflected in the behaviour of student doctors; how does it change during medical training and how can it be assessed? Are those who fail to meet a required level screened out and, if so, how? If values and behaviour exhibited in an examination, or when practice is being observed, are different from the normal daily practice of student or teacher then the situation may lead rapidly to a culture of cynicism. Although mentoring is common in medicine, there is not the same culture of clinical supervision as in other health professions. Many medical students have high expectations to get things right and find it difficult to discuss mistakes. Enabling teachers to mentor, support and supervise students should help students to learn to practise reflectively. This is more valuable than relying on fitness to practise. Indeed, over-relying on fitness to practise may lead to a scapegoat culture (there but for the grace of God...), where problems are seen as one-off issues that the rest of the profession can pigeon hole and disassociate with (we would never do that), while creating stress and fear (best keep quiet rather than ask for support or assistance). The early experiences students have at medical school are likely to set their expectations both of themselves and the level of support they can expect from organisations like the GMC. Conclusion There are important questions about the nature of medical professionalism and how it should be taught and monitored. The way doctors behave will be influenced by professional guidelines such as those issued by the GMC and the Medical Schools Council. But this contribution from the organisations that regulate and train doctors will be tempered not only by the influence of role models and learning in a variety of clinical situations but also from personal reflections and awareness. Enabling medical students to identify the values, behaviours and attitudes they hold and to reflect on how these interface with the values they observe during their training are important aspects of teaching professionalism. Professional development is an integral part of becoming a doctor. What is at stake includes vital issues relating to standards of clinical practice and also the relationships that doctors have with their organisations and their own well-being. If medical schools are to prepare doctors for the future they need to adopt a broad approach that goes beyond guidelines and involves more than role modelling and situational learning. It is essential that students undergo a reflective process that enables personal growth. There is a possibility that over reliance on fitness to practise guidelines could inhibit broader professional development. How this issue is addressed is central to determining how the culture of medical professionalism develops. References
For more information contact f.j.hill@soton.ac.uk PREVIEW:Problem-basedEmily Conradi, Sheetal Kavia, Luke Woodham and Dr.Terry Poulton, St George’s University of London PREVIEW is a JISC funded project to deliver problem-based learning (PBL) for students on healthcare courses via the virtual environment Second Life. Problem-based Learning has become a central learning approach in many curricula, but the collaborative style of learning is threatened by the movement towards more self-directed and distance learning. Furthermore, virtual world environments offer new possibilities for the ways in which PBL can be delivered. For these reasons, PREVIEW aims to investigate, implement and evaluate the use of virtual worlds to create and deliver immersive, collaborative PBL tutorials. The project has been running since January 2008, and eight problem based learning scenarios have been developed and tested for Paramedic students at St George’s University of London, and Health and Social Care students at Coventry University. The scenarios are set up on each University’s Second Life island, with different environments to put the scenarios into relevant contexts - whether it is a high street, a night club, or a care home. Students and teachers on these courses have little or no experience with the Second Life1 environment. Tailored orientation has been set up on each University’s island to provide users with all the basic skills they will need to take part in the scenarios. It provides interactive activities to make the training process more enjoyable and effective, and has an accompanying written training guide. ‘Imitation’ scenarios have also been developed to provide students with an opportunity to practice interacting with the scenarios before their PBL sessions begin. Paramedic scenarios The four scenarios developed at SGUL for paramedic students are based on widely used resources known as virtual patients - online, narrative-driven cases that test students’ decision-making skills and their ability to apply their knowledge to realistic scenarios. The scenarios adhere to the Medbiquitous virtual patient (MVP) specification,2 meaning that they can be interoperable between any platform that adheres to the MVP specification - whether it be within a virtual world, or through a web browser. This also means that these cases can be authored in the same way that any virtual patient case is authored at SGUL, and all the scenarios can also be accessed via the web. All the scenarios start with a dispatch call - as they would in a real life situation. Students have to assess the scene, decide where to park the ambulance, and whether to call for back up. All decisions throughout the scenario are discussed and made collaboratively within their PBL groups. As with virtual patient resources, the scenario adapts to reflect the decisions the students have made. Throughout the scenario they can ask the patient questions, or carry out various observations and assessments of the patient. The patient in these scenarios is represented through a mannequin that is programmed to respond to certain interactions the students’ avatars may make. The paramedic students also receive an equipment box, stored in their SL inventory. This lists all the equipment that a paramedic would routinely have available to them in real life. At any point they can drag an object out of their inventory, and click on it to select the possible options. Another set of decisions must be made around the most appropriate time and way to transfer the patient to hospital. All the scenarios end with the hand over at hospital - in which the students summarise the case on a note card that then gets posted to their tutor. Health and social care scenarios The Health and Social Care scenarios at Coventry are based on face to face PBL scenarios, which have been specifically designed for use in Second Life. There are four scenarios, which are all set in a care home context. Students are provided with a brief introduction to each scenario and given background information about their role. For example they might be told they are the management team of the home, which is facing a crisis and it is their job to formulate a strategy based on the information they receive. To provide a realistic context, a virtual care home called The Cedars has been developed in Second Life on the Coventry University island. Most of The Cedars remains the same for all four scenarios, but the office space and some of the interactive objects change depending on the scenario being used. This is done via a holodeck, which allows Second Life objects to appear and disappear at the touch of a button. Two of the scenarios are based around machinima videos. A machinima is a film made within a virtual environment using virtual actors, in this case Second Life. Students watch the machinimas, which convey information about the scenario, and then begin making a strategy in their PBL groups based on what have they seen. Interactive objects throughout the virtual setting offer additional information and help to set the scene for the scenarios. The other two scenarios are based around artificially intelligent nonplayer characters (NPCs), which are also known as chat bots. The chat bots, which are built around a mark-up language called AIML, take on roles within the scenarios such as a regional manager, and the students have to interact with them to learn more about the situation. The students use what they have learned from the NPCs as a basis for discussion in their groups, and to help them develop a strategy for the problem they have been presented with. Trialling the scenarios The scenarios have been trialled with students on both courses. Feedback received from the testing days has proved invaluable in improving the scenarios, and better understanding the process of working and collaborating within the Second Life environment. Further testing days were scheduled over the summer, before the scenarios were embedded within the curricula for the 2008/2009 Academic year. More comprehensive feedback on our testing days and findings of the project so far can be found on the project website. National workshop This October, PREVIEW and our partners within the JISC Emerge Community held a National Learning in Immersive Worlds Workshop. This was a free, one day event hosted at Coventry University’s Technocentre on October 23rd, 2008. The workshop featured a range of real world and virtual sessions and was streamed in to Second Life throughout the day. References For more information about the PREVIEW project, please visit the website www.elu.sgul.ac.uk/preview/blog/ or the Youtube channel www.youtube.com/user/PreviewProject For more information or to get involved with testing the scenarios, contact skavia@sgul.ac.uk Integrating plagiarism detection software tools into an in-house medical virtual learning environment (VLE)Dr.Trevor Bryant, Martin Chivers, Dr. Sunhea Choi, Peter Gibbs, School of Medicine, University of Southampton Software which is independent of the VLE has been developed that enables documents, submitted by students to be submitted for plagiarism detection by TurnItInUK (provided by JISC) and originality reports retrieved. In collaboration with other Schools in our Faculty, we have been developing an electronic assignment handling system which goes beyond a simple assignment submission system (digital drop-box) to one that will provide a complete online solution from definition of the assignment to submission of work by the student and collation of marks for an examination board. This led to the question ‘How do we integrate plagiarism detection software tools into an in-house medical VLE’ - in particular, how we link to TurnItIn UK (www.submit.ac.uk) without the user noticing. Issues One of the issues for the School has been how we use a plagiarism detection tool to support those responsible for coordinating the assessment of a large number of submissions for a single assignment. This can be illustrated by our 3rd year BM programme, where the coordinator had 278 submissions this year, which were double-marked by 150 markers. The question was, should each marker be provided with a plagiarism report, or should the coordinator review all the plagiarism reports and take action before a submission was assigned to markers? The coordinator reviewed the output from TurnItIn; however, checking 278 reports was an onerous task. The summary output from TurnItIn, with an overall percentage and use of a traffic light system, although useful, did not provide sufficient detail. Therefore, each originality report had to be inspected to determine if the score of a suspect submission was due to the usage of large amounts of material from a single source, or due to the use of small amounts of material from many sources. Development of a TurnItIn API wrapper Using the Microsoft .NET Framework, we have successfully built a wrapper for the Application Programming Interface (API) for TurnItIn, provided by iParadigms (source code and associated documentation available at: www.som.soton.ac.uk/divisions/MIC/ic/webdevelopment/ eassignments/turnitin/default.htm) Figure 1 illustrates the key features of the Southampton TurnItIn API Wrapper, which allows an administrator to submit a batch of assignments previously uploaded to the School’s web server. Subsequently, the API allows the retrieval of an overall originality score for a submission (i.e. a single value), or the URL for the full report. What next? Having proved the concept we are evaluating this feature with the academic and administration staff to assess if it provides enhanced functionality compared to direct batch submission of assignments to www.submit.ac.uk. We want to be able to provide details of the highest similarity percentage for each submission and the number of sources identified for each submission. What did we learn? The main thing we learnt from this project was communication with the person who developed the TurnItIn software, David Woo. He identified that we did not have the complete documentation for integrating with the TurnItIn API. The formal process would have been to ask the University of Southampton TurnItIn contact to liaise with the JISC plagiarism team about issues and then wait for feedback. Direct communication between two technical experts was far more efficient and removed communication delays. This work was supported by a MEDEV JISC case study award. For more information contact t.n.bryant@southampton.ac.uk t.n.bryant@southampton.ac.uk Making the most of library facilities: student views of challenging the traditional definition of a libraryRichard M Thomson and Henry LL Jefferson, F1 doctors, Royal Liverpool University Teaching Hospital Over the past decade there have been many changes in medical education both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.A career in medicine requires the constant pursuit of new information, essential for improved patient care, research and even when writing for publication! Both undergraduates and postgraduates have had to become efficient self directed life long learners. Undergraduates for example have had to develop searching skills and strategies as part of problem based learning, whilst postgraduates must keep abreast of developments and keep their clinical knowledge up to date to ensure competency and professional development. The pursuit of new knowledge is challenging and requires specialist skills. Evidence based medicine requires critical appraisal of information which can then be used to inform clinical decision making. On line searching skills are required to make the most of resources available - resources that are increasing at a phenomenal rate. It is hardly surprising that many feel frustrated and pressured. The library has traditionally been able to provide all the support that is needed. Much is on offer with the librarian not only being an information expert able to advise on a range of resources, but also a trainer and service provider. However, in the modern age the concept of a library has become more decentralized, with many students exclusively searching through online resources. The emphasis has shifted from a trained librarian able to direct students to relevant sources to the individual student who is often self-taught in the art of online searching. You can however expect all libraries to offer the following range of services whether you are at medical school, working for an NHS Trust, or approaching a professional organization such as the BMA or Royal Society of Medicine.
With loan, interlibrary and document delivery services the move towards electronic delivery is almost complete. Already many libraries provide a service where electronically scanned copies of articles can be e mailed to you within a matter of days. The BMA provides this service, so if you are an NHS doctor you can access a wide range of information via the National Library for Health website. This website hosts the NHS Core Content Collection which provides access to full text articles from over 1000 journals; the Cochrane database of systematic reviews and a library of e books. Alerting services are a really good way of keeping up to date with all new developments in your specialty. Evidence of having kept up to date being required for annual appraisal meetings and ultimately for revalidation. The Royal Society of Medicine has electronic monthly updates for its members and the BMA offers a selected dissemination of information service where a weekly targeted search is run on MEDLINE and the results sent by email. The literature searching service (usually on MEDLINE) is widely available - so make the most of this facility. Interestingly research has shown that an experienced professional searcher can find 30% more information on MEDLINE than an inexperienced searcher might find! From medical student following a PBL curriculum to career doctor, who must keep up to date, on line searching skills are essential. Often training on how to efficiently and effectively search available data bases is required. Librarians are available to provide this training along with other courses covering health information on the internet and critical appraisal skills. It is important to recognize the availability of this training, research has shown that experienced searchers are more likely to extract relevant information from an online search. With many first-time searchers adopting a ‘trial and error’ approach it often takes months to years of use before they become proficient, training in this area would significantly improve first time researching skills. Some librarians may also provide courses on the use of reference management software, for example EndNote - very relevant to medical students working towards production of Special Study Modules and career doctors working towards higher qualifications, production of dissertations and material for publication. So where from here? Finding out exactly what your library (whether University or NHS Trust) can offer is a good starting point. However services available via membership of professional organizations and Royal Colleges should also be investigated. Developing a good working relationship with the librarians makes a lot of sense as it keeps you in the loop as services develop. Providing feedback as to what you have found useful is often appreciated by the library service and it helps ensure you continue to have your needs met. We need to remember that:
For more information contact brigdend@liverpool.ac.uk brigdend@liverpool.ac.uk International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) visits Europe in 2009Dr. Peter G.M. de Jong, Leiden University Medical Center,The Netherlands The International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) was founded in 1997 based on the guiding principle that all who teach the sciences fundamental to medical practice should have access to the most current information and skills needed to excel as educators. Through IAMSE, medical science educators have a trustworthy source of information and mutual support, and can belong to an organization dedicated to their professional development.With members in over 40 countries, including basic science and clinical faculty as well as members representing faculty from several other health care disciplines, the organization is international in scope and interdisciplinary in nature. From June 29th until July 3rd 2009, the 13th Annual Meeting of IAMSE will take place in the historical city of Leiden, The Netherlands. The meeting will be hosted by the Leiden University Medical Center, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. This meeting is designed for all those who teach and lead curricula in the fundamental sciences of human and veterinary medicine, incorporating molecular, cellular, organ system, and behavioural sciences as well as instructional technologies. It aims to improve the teaching skills of faculty in both basic science and clinical education, in undergraduate programs as well as in continuing education. Each year approximately 300 attendees join from all over the world including basic science and clinical medical faculty as well as members representing faculty from various other health care disciplines. The program offers lots of opportunities to enhance teaching skills through workshops, faculty development courses, focus sessions, discussion sessions and poster presentations. At the Leiden meeting the keynote lectures will be delivered by Henry Mandin (Calgary, Canada on the Clinical Presentations Model), Cees van der Vleuten (Maastricht, Netherlands on Progress Testing) and Martin Valcke (Gent, Belgium on Elearning). 10 preconference Faculty Development Courses are offered on topics like Strategies for Publications, Improvement of the Clinical Teacher, Human Patient Simulation and Becoming an Effective Course Director. Also 20 preconference workshops are scheduled on topics like Communication in Science, New Set-ups for Teaching Anatomy, Digital Photography, Genomics in Medical Education, Audio Tours for the Anatomical Museum, the Clinical Presentation Model, Adobe Flash, Social Software and Mind Body Medicine. During the main conference almost 40 Focus Sessions will be presented, as well as poster presentations and E-learning Demonstrations. During the meeting special opportunities will be offered to visit the famous Leiden Anatomical Museum. The Museum was founded in the 18th century by Albinus, a professor at the university who dedicated his life to the anatomy of the body. He made the first atlas of human anatomy and created a vast collection which can still be seen in the museum’s huge Albinus cabinet. Over the centuries 11,000 specimens have been collected, the most diverse and special of which have been given a place in the museum. The main purpose of the museum is to educate students and staff of the LUMC. The IAMSE Board of Directors welcomes and invites all educators and members of the medical community, as well as those from dental, pharmacy and veterinary colleges and especially colleagues from the clinical disciplines of medicine. Please note that meeting registration and hotel reservations are open at the moment. The number of participants will be limited to 400, so please don’t hesitate to register. Full details on the conference website at: www.iamseconference.org For more information contact p.g.m.de_jong@lumc.nl Workshop report: Health education developers’ Special Interest Group: sharing good practice in educating health care educatorsClare Morris, Associate Dean and Judy McKimm, Visiting Professor in Healthcare Education and Leadership, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Postgraduate Medical School, University of Bedfordshire Two workshops (held on 15 May and 10 September 2008) provided opportunities for staff, curriculum and educational developers in medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine and health professions to meet together as part of an interprofessional Special Interest Group (SIG).The workshops were led by the authors and Nigel Purcell (MEDEV Subject Centre), Reg Dennick (University of Nottingham), John Spencer (Newcastle University) and Mark Gamble (University of Bedfordshire). Background: the Special Interest GroupThe SIG was established in June 2006 and four meetings have been held to date. SIG activities incorporate the Resource Archive for Teacher Trainers (RAFTT) project, led by Nigel Purcell, and a JISC-funded mini-project led by Clare Morris and Judy McKimm Supporting a community of MEDEV professional developers. These activities aim to provide members with opportunities for networking; sharing up-to-date information and expertise and developing and exchanging ideas; a safe place for discussion and debate; ‘making a difference’; research and scholarship and personal development. Workshop report - 15 May 2008This one-day workshop was held at the University of Bedfordshire ‘Bridges’ CETL. The main aim was to develop the on-line site to support the community of practice which enables SIG members to access and share a range of educational resources, and promotes communication and collaboration. The workshop included interactive, creative, small and large group activities, discussions, hands-on on-line learning and development, interspersed with presentations and demonstrations as triggers for activities and dialogue. Topics included leadership, academic writing and development for skills teaching, framed around a collaborative leadership approach aimed at sharing ideas, challenges and educational practice. Leadership development and the on-line Community - Judy McKimm and Clare MorrisParticipants engaged in practical activities which facilitated leadership and personal development through engagement with the on-line environment. The CETL Cspace (Creative space) provided rich opportunities to work collaboratively and individually, both face to face (e.g. writing on the walls, finding postcards to capture metaphors of leadership) and on-line (through discussion boards, blogs, journal club pages and wikis). This allowed a real time ‘capturing’ of experiences of learning on-line and an exploration of the possible functionality of the online space to support and sustain this emerging community of practice. Michael Fullan’s model of ‘leading in a culture of change’ (2001, p4) provided the leadership development framework. Fullan suggests that if leaders can combine moral purpose; understanding change; relationship building; knowledge creation and sharing and coherencemaking within an approach that embodies enthusiasm, energy and hope, they will gain commitment of members to change. The results are that ‘more good things happen and less bad things happen’. The workshop provided the opportunity to use and apply the Fullan model to visioning change; become familiar with the on-line tools and contribute to further development of the SIG. Leadership frameworkRELATIONSHIP BUILDING - Introductions through creating personal home pages
MORAL PURPOSE
KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND SHARING
COHERENCE-MAKING
Sharing good practice - Reg DennickThis session focussed on faculty development for skills teaching. Participants were invited to engage as ‘students’ in the practical activity of making origami shirts, then critique learning theory and a model of practical skills teaching from their own educational experience. Collaborative writing forum - John SpencerThe SIG is exploring how to establish an on-line collaborative writing forum to support members in writing and publishing. Challenges, pitfalls and opportunities for those wishing to publish in academic peer-reviewed journals, books and on-line publications were discussed. The SIG will use wikis and on-line discussions to support the sharing of ‘works in progress’, and will explore ways of writing collaboratively and more creatively to generate outputs involving groups of SIG members. Workshop report - 10 September 2008A half-day pre-conference workshop was held at the ASME national conference at Leicester on 10 September 2008. The workshop was primarily for new SIG members, offering an opportunity to showcase some of MEDEV’s and the SIG’s activities as well as introduce participants to some educational and leadership theory and practice. Three specific activities were included:
Evaluations were very positive. Participants were enthusiastic about developing face to face and on-line communities, enjoyed opportunities to explore collaborative Web 2.0 tools in a supported environment and saw potential for professional development. New participants enjoyed hearing about activities and welcomed the opportunity to engage in SIG activities. Future SIG activitiesThe SIG offers developmental, networking and collaborative opportunities and a source of information, sharing and generating ideas and support. It offers opportunities for action research, generation of new knowledge, scholarship and raising the profile of education. The SIG welcomes new members to attend workshops and/or activities of the on-line community. Future meetings will be held in various locations with a view to enabling members to explore different educational and learning environments and participate in masterclasses on topical issues for staff and educational developers. The next SIG workshop will be held on 10 February 2009. References and websitesFullan, M. 2001. Leading in a culture of change, San Francisco: Jossey Bass (fig 1.1, p4) Bridges CETL, University of Bedfordshire: images of the CETL learning spaces can be found at www.beds.ac.uk/bridgescetl/gallery/learningspaces For more information on the SIG or RAFTT contact nigel@medev.ac.uk If you would like to join the SIG on-line community, contact clare.morris@beds.ac.uk Conference report: Researching Medical Learning and Practice Network (RMLPn)Dr.Viv Cook, Centre for Excellence in Work-based Learning, Institute of Education, University of London
and Senior Lecturer in Medical Education, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry The Researching Medical Learning and Practice network is based at the Centre for Excellence in Work-Based Learning for education professionals (WLE) www.wlecentre.ac.uk at the Institute of Education, University of London.The network exists to support colleagues in health interested in researching clinical learning and practice including those completing postgraduate qualifications and doctoral studies. Over the last year we have organized two successful education conferences. The first took place at the Institute of Education on 16th November 2007, Researching Medical Learning and Practice, with keynote presentations from Professor Karen Evans on workplace learning and Dr Roger Kneebone on simulation in a clinical context. More recently, on 17th November 2008, the RMLPn organised a joint conference with the Association for the Study of Medical Education. This very well attended event, Researching Learning and Assessment in the Clinical Workplace, was held at the Royal Institute of British Architects and focused upon qualitative research methodology within medical and health research. We welcomed keynote presentations from Professors Lorelei Lingard, Della Freeth, Trisha Greenhalgh and Kevin Eva together with presentations from CETLs in Clinical and Communications Skills at Barts and the London, Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings, University of Leeds. There were also workshops on thematic analysis, ethnography and observation, narrative interviews, discourse analysis, sociometry and video analysis (Paul Bartholomew - CETL at Birmingham City University for Stakeholder Learning Partnerships). In line with the RMLPn’s aim to support doctoral work, there was also a parallel session in which doctoral students from the Institute of Education presented papers on their ongoing research - Jo Brown discussing transfer of communications skills from medical school to clinical settings, and Ann Griffin on taking a phenomenological approach to researching students’ views on quality. It was a really stimulating event which benefited from the rich mix of delegates interested in educational research but coming from different academic and practice backgrounds - health and medicine, and wider higher education. Alongside the conference events, the RMLPn has launched a seminar series at the Institute of Education with the aim of inviting academic colleagues whose theoretical contribution continues to inform research into practice. We were very pleased to have Professor Michael Eraut begin the series on November 4th 2008 with a presentation to a packed audience entitled “Is it possible to develop distributed apprenticeship in surgery?” We are currently planning our second seminar at 5pm on 25 February with Professor John MacDonald from Institute of Education. Details at www.wlecentre.ac.uk For more information contact v.cook@qmul.ac.uk Workshop programmeWorkshops are open to anyone involved in learning and teaching in undergraduate medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine.They attract CPD points and there is currently no charge for attendance. The programme of workshops is designed and delivered by members of our constituency and thus reflect current concerns in the field. Details of the workshops are available on the website and we place new ones on the site as soon as dates and venues have been finalised, so keep checking to see if there is something of interest to you. We also send email notification of each workshop to everyone on our mailing list as soon as it is finalised. If you are not on our contact list and would like to receive information about our workshops as well as our regular monthly update on current issues, funding opportunities etc then please go to www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medev.html or email enquiries@medev.ac.uk To find out more or book your place on any workshop go to: www.medev.ac.uk/resources/meetings/workshops/ Online: ISSN1479-523X
The Higher Education Academy T: +44 (0)191 2225888 enquiries@medev.ac.uk Our mission is to work with institutions, discipline groups and individual staff to provide the best possible learning experience for all students - postgraduate as well as undergraduate. We also work with the governments of the UK and their funding bodies to create the best policy environment to enable this to happen. We provide an authoritative and independent voice on policies that influence the student learning experience. Discipline-based support is provided through the Academy’s Subject Network of 24 Subject Centres. These are a mix of single-site and consortium-based centres located within relevant subject departments and hosted by higher education institutions. More from: www.heacademy.ac.uk |
|