Gudrun Karsten

A consensus statement on practical skills in medical school - a position paper by the GMA Committee on Practical Skills.

Introduction: Encouraged by the change in licensing regulations the practical professional skills in Germany received a higher priority and are taught in medical schools therefore increasingly. This created the need to standardize the process more and more. On the initiative of the German skills labs the German Medical Association Committee for practical skills was established and developed a competency-based catalogue of learning objectives, whose origin and structure is described here. Goal of the catalogue is to define the practical skills in undergraduate medical education and to give the medical schools a rational planning basis for the necessary resources to teach them. Methods: Building on already existing German catalogues of learning objectives a multi-iterative process of condensation was performed, which corresponds to the development of S1 guidelines, in order to get a broad professional and political support. Results: 289 different practical learning goals were identified and assigned to twelve different organ systems with three overlapping areas to other fields of expertise and one area of across organ system skills. They were three depths and three different chronological dimensions assigned and the objectives were matched with the Swiss and the Austrian equivalent. Discussion: This consensus statement may provide the German faculties with a basis for planning the teaching of practical skills and is an important step towards a national standard of medical learning objectives. Looking ahead: The consensus statement may have a formative effect on the medical schools to teach practical skills and plan the resources accordingly.

Modellierung und Assessment professioneller Gesprächsführungskompetenz von Lehrpersonen im Lehrer-Elterngespräch

Lehrpersonen sind in ihrem Arbeitskontext mit vielfaltigen professionsbezogenen Anforderungen konfrontiert (Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al. 2009). Viele davon konnen sie nur durch wirksames kommunikatives Handeln bewaltigen. Als eine besondere Anforderung wird in den Standards der Lehrerbildung der Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK) deshalb die Zusammenarbeit der Lehrpersonen mit Eltern formuliert: „Beide Seiten mussen sich verstandigen und gemeinsam bereit sein, konstruktive Losungen zu finden, wenn es zu Erziehungsproblemen kommt oder Lernprozesse misslingen“ (KMK 2004, 3).

Konsensusstatement "Praktische Fertigkeiten im Medizinstudium" - ein Positionspapier des GMA-Ausschusses für praktische Fertigkeiten

Introduction: Encouraged by the change in licensing regulations the practical professional skills in Germany received a higher priority and are taught in medical schools therefore increasingly. This created the need to standardize the process more and more. On the initiative of the German skills labs the German Medical Association Committee for practical skills was established and developed a competency-based catalogue of learning objectives, whose origin and structure is described here. Goal of the catalogue is to define the practical skills in undergraduate medical education and to give the medical schools a rational planning basis for the necessary resources to teach them. Methods: Building on already existing German catalogues of learning objectives a multi-iterative process of condensation was performed, which corresponds to the development of S1 guidelines, in order to get a broad professional and political support. Results: 289 different practical learning goals were identified and assigned to twelve different organ systems with three overlapping areas to other fields of expertise and one area of across organ system skills. They were three depths and three different chronological dimensions assigned and the objectives were matched with the Swiss and the Austrian equivalent. Discussion: This consensus statement may provide the German faculties with a basis for planning the teaching of practical skills and is an important step towards a national standard of medical learning objectives. Looking ahead: The consensus statement may have a formative effect on the medical schools to teach practical skills and plan the resources accordingly.

German MedicalTeachingNetwork (MDN) implementing national standards for teacher training.

Abstract Background: An increasing demand for proof of professionalism in higher education strives for quality assurance (QA) and improvement in medical education. A wide range of teacher trainings is available to medical staff in Germany. Cross-institutional approval of individual certificates is usually a difficult and time consuming task for institutions. In case of non-acceptance it may hinder medical teachers in their professional mobility. Aim: The faculties of medicine aimed to develop a comprehensive national framework, to promote standards for formal faculty development programmes across institutions and to foster professionalization of medical teaching. Methods and results: Addressing the above challenges in a joint approach, the faculties set up the national MedicalTeacherNetwork (MDN). Great importance is attributed to work out nationally concerted standards for faculty development and an agreed-upon quality control process across Germany. Medical teachers benefit from these advantages due to portability of faculty development credentials from one faculty of medicine to another within the MDN system. Conclusion: The report outlines the process of setting up the MDN and the national faculty development programme in Germany. Success factors, strengths and limitations are discussed from an institutional, individual and general perspective. Faculties engaged in similar developments might be encouraged to transfer the MDN concept to their countries.