Glennys Parsell

Shared goals, shared learning: evaluation of a multiprofessional course for undergraduate students

Twenty‐eight undergraduate degree students from seven health care professions attended a two‐day pilot course. Using small multiprofessional groups, final‐year students from occupational therapy, orthoptics, therapy radiography, nursing, physiotherapy, medicine and dentistry explored professional roles and clinical problem‐solving using a theme‐based approach. A balance of didactic and interactive small‐group learning enabled them to identify issues surrounding multiprofessional teamworking and collaboration in the National Health Service. Evaluation results showed that the course increased knowledge and understanding of other health care professions, developed more positive attitudes and demonstrated the importance of multiprofessional teamwork and communication. Participating students believed that both early and regular opportunities for shared learning should be essential aspects of undergraduate courses.

Recent perspectives on clinical teaching

Clinical teaching is part of a doctor’s professional life, whether it takes place in surgeries, clinics or in hospitals, with undergraduates, postgraduate trainees or colleagues. Learning to teach well means questioning the effectiveness of some of the old teaching methods, exploring new ideas and trying out new methods in different situations. It means collaborating more closely with colleagues and learners about developing and implementing new approaches to medical education. This paper is the first of an occasional series of articles about the practical aspects of clinical teaching. The articles have the following characteristics: they explore contemporary themes in medical and health care education; they use up‐to‐date references; they are a quick and easy resource for busy teachers; they explore new ideas about teaching and learning, and they provide a reference list of relevant papers. This article deals with recent ideas about clinical teachers’ knowledge and roles, teaching and organizational strategies, and the measurement of teaching effectiveness.

The changing context of undergraduate medical education.

It has long been recognised that intensive efforts are needed to reform medical education in order to meet the future needs of populations worldwide. Pressure for changes to the organisation, content and delivery of both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education has greatly increased in the last two decades. The experience of innovative medical schools, the emergence of learner-centred teaching methods and the implications of health-care reforms in North America and Britain are major factors influencing calls for change. The pace of change has accelerated to such an extent in recent years that progress towards widespread reform appears to be more attainable than ever before. This article provides an overview of the changing context of health-care, some patterns of existing medical education and some strategies for change.

Three visual techniques to enhance interprofessional learning

Many changes in the delivery of healthcare in the UK have highlighted the need for healthcare professionals to learn to work together as teams for the benefit of patients. Whatever the profession or level, whether for postgraduate education and training, continuing professional development, or for undergraduates, learners should have an opportunity to learn about and with, other healthcare practitioners in a stimulating and exciting way. Learning to understand how people think, feel, and react, and the parts they play at work, both as professionals and individuals, can only be achieved through sensitive discussion and exchange of views. Teaching and learning methods must provide opportunities for this to happen. This paper describes three small-group teaching techniques which encourage a high level of learner collaboration and team-working. Learning content is focused on real-life health-care issues and strong visual images are used to stimulate lively discussion and debate. Each description includes the learning objectives of each exercise, basic equipment and resources, and learning outcomes.

The Stratification of Youth Training

Abstract This article is based on surveys in 1988 among representative samples totalling 4,247 16‐19 year olds from four areas (Kirkcaldy, Liverpool, Sheffield and Swindon), of whom 1,562 had some experience of Youth Training (YT). The young peoples likelihood of entering YT depended primarily on their educational qualifications and where they lived. Trainees’ chances of being kept on by the firms where they were trained depended mainly on their types of schemes and their performances during training, indicated by whether or not they earned any additional qualifications. The chances of those not retained moving immediately to jobs with other firms were more dependent on their school‐leaving qualifications and where they lived. The authors interpret their evidence to argue that employers’ uses of YT in the late‐1980s were creating increasingly clear divisions between sponsorship, contest and warehousing sectors. ∗ This paper is based on evidence from the Economic and Social Research Councils 16‐19 Initiative

Unemployment and Young people's Leisure in Liverpool and Swindon

Abstract This article arises from surveys between 1987 and 1989 among representative samples of 16–20 year olds in Swindon and Liverpool. The young people in the former town ran the lower risk of unemployment, had the higher paying jobs and higher personal incomes on average, and, therefore, the higher levels of leisure spending. Overall, however, the young people in Liverpool had the higher rates of participation in leisure activities. Within each area the young people with jobs had higher rates of leisure participation than the unemployed but this intra-area difference was not mirrored neatly at the inter-area level. The authors discuss how young people in a high unemployment city such as Liverpool were able to maintain relatively high overall levels of leisure activity by drawing upon family resources, forgoing particularly expensive activities and purchases, and scaling down their spending on other leisure goods and occasions. The authors also discuss the ways in which the resilience of leisure among ...