T S Murray

Teaching Decision Making to Medical Undergraduates by Computer-Assisted Learning.

Undergraduate medical students improve their ability to make patient management decisions through using computer‐assisted learning. With this problem‐solving approach an improvement in their factual knowledge also occurs and they retain a significant amount of the content.

An experiment in problem-based learning

Summary: Problem‐solving skills are important for medical students and problem‐based learning (PBL) is especially suited to general practice. Therefore an experiment using a form of PBL was introduced into a new 4‐week course in general practice for final rotation students at the University of Glasgow in the session 1992–93. The experiment aimed to introduce students to an alternative method of learning to the traditional one previously used by them in their course, to encourage teamwork and to encourage the use of alternative methods of obtaining information. The method, centred around allowing the students to investigate problems they choose themselves, is described. The evaluation of the course by written standard form, free written comments and audiotape recorded interviews with a one in four sample of the class is presented.

Audit and summative assessment: a completed audit cycle

To develop and test a system for delivering a completed audit cycle for summative assessment of general practitioner registrars in the United Kingdom.

Audit and summative assessment: system development and testing

Registrars in general practice have to submit an audit project as one of four parts of summative assessment. A criterion‐referenced marking schedule has been developed in the West of Scotland, consisting of five independent criteria all of which have to be judged above minimum competence to pass. A system was developed to test the instrument using a marking exercise which calculated the sensitivity and specificity of the assessment process, for different combinations of assessors. One hundred and two registrar audit projects were then assessed by three independent assessors. Ninety‐two (90%) passed and 10 projects (10%) were referred back to the registrar as being below minimum competence. After resubmission six projects (6%) passed, two projects (2%) were still below minimum competence, and two (2%) were not resubmitted. A referral process for assessing the audit projects of general practice registrars has been developed to maximize the opportunity of finding a project below minimum competence.

Attitudes of medical undergraduates in Glasgow to computer-assisted learning.

Computer‐assisted learning (CAL) has been introduced as part of the undergraduate teaching course in general practice during the penultimate year of the medical course. The student is given an opportunity to make clinical decisions and to manage a case over a significant time scale. The attitudes of the students are favourable to this method of instruction.

Attitudes towards the content of general practice teaching

In a study of attitudes towards the content of general practice teaching, it was found that there was good agreement between fifth year medical students and their general practitioner tutors. The social aspects of illness were considered the most important by students and both groups emphasized the value of seeing patients in their homes with time for discussion of cases. These findings are discussed in the context of the development of teaching in general practice at Glasgow University.

Medical undergraduate teaching of paediatrics in the community.

The undergraduate teaching of childhood illness in the community is described. This teaching includes a cross‐section of acute childhood illness together with some contact with handicapped children in their own homes. Although there were only four teaching sessions, the frequency of conditions studied approximated to that in general practice.

Use of recording booklets to evaluate teaching in general practice

Recording booklets have been introduced for students during their course of general practice teaching at the University of Glasgow. The booklets guide the students with patients in the community who have chronic and complicated diseases.