Medical education in Ireland has undergone significant recent reform. The entire continuum from undergraduate, postgraduate and independent practitioner has been included in this reform process. This article looks at these changes within the Irish medical education system and what impact these changes are likely to have on the future training and practice of medicine within the country.
Student evaluations of courses were very positive; there was no significant difference from other years. Responses to questionnaires indicated that: 1 students did, indeed, experience the new content; 2 students' self-report of skills improved from Years 1 to 3, and 3 attitudes remained quite high regarding care for the poor.The finding that attitudes of altruism persisted across all 4 years is of particular interest as other studies suggest that students typically lose their altruism over time. Context and setting In common with most other medical training providers, University College Dublin (UCD) medical school has been making increasing use of the Internet to supplement and support its taught programmes. Why the idea was necessary An evaluation of the use of the Internet to support learning within UCD as a whole revealed that, in most cases, the Web was being used to provide resources in electronic form that would previously have been provided on paper. Only in exceptional cases was effective use made of the potential for interactive learning. As a result of the university-wide survey, we looked specifically at how the Internet was used in the teaching of pathology. Our own review confirmed the findings of the larger survey. Feedback from students showed that they did not regard Ôon-screen notesÕ or the book-on-thescreen that they were currently experiencing as e-learning. Rather, they saw these facilities as representing a technologically efficient way of distributing handouts.We determined to make UCD's Internet-based resources for teaching pathology exemplars in e-learning. What was done We developed an interactive tutorial that enables undergraduate medical students to develop and practise the clinical skills of history taking, examination, investigation and formulating a diagnosis. The tutorial includes an integral reflective log that can be used for both formative and summative assessment.Evaluation of results and impact The tutorial was piloted with undergraduate medical students at UCD and evaluated by quantitative and qualitative surveys. The students found the product to be a valuable educational tool due to its innovative interactive approach. Students very much appreciated e-learning that focused on the existing curriculum, but extended it so that they could do things in virtual reality that safety or cost factors prevent them from doing in real life at that stage in their studies. The benefits achieved include the provision of an innovative and effective approach to the study of the pre-clinical basic sciences that can complement the more traditional approach to teaching undergraduates. In addition, the interactive notebook provides a new facility not commonly found in virtual learning environments. Although developed for undergraduates, the product would be suitable for adaptation for use in continuing professional development.
This article describes the development of an interactive online tutorial that enables pre-clinical medical students to develop and practice clinical skills such as history taking, examination, investigation and formulating a diagnosis. The development of this multimedia product consisted of four stages: (1) identifying the educational objective (2) content design (3) multimedia build (4) product testing, revision and incorporation into the curriculum. As a result of this development process, the tutorial was seen by students as genuinely student-centred in design and innovative in the way it takes advantage of the technology of the internet.
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