E
xeter’s Medical School would benefit from more hands-on training so they are more qualified to work on wards when they graduate, a study a led by scientists has revealed.
Scientists from the Westcountry have published a new paper arguing that undergraduate Medical degrees should have a greater emphasis on the practical side.
According to BMJ open, undergraduates would benefit from first-hand training to ensure that they are highly responsible for caring for patients when they qualify.
Alongside Exeter, the study argued that more hands-on experience would improve the medical education training system at the universities of Cardiff, Dundee and Queen’s University Belfast.
Currently trainee doctors are only provisionally registered with the General Medical Council on graduation and have to carry out a Foundation Year (F1) under close supervision.
Exeter Professor Karen Mattick commented on the preparedness of graduates for medical practice: “Research participants felt that medical students currently do not get enough experience embedded in the workplace and in multidisciplinary healthcare teams.
“This makes it difficult to assess the domains of clinical practice and professionalism with confidence – for example with workplace based assessments of practical procedures, decision making, communication skills and team-working.”
The research was carried out after the General Medical Council commissioned a report to learn the current state of graduates’ ability to enter medical practise.
The conclusions were based on interviews with 185 participants across the UK, including foundation year doctors and other trainees, health professionals, medical school trainers and patients.
An academic at Cardiff commented on the effectiveness on the study, worried that the outcome would equate to no more than an opinion poll.
Despite concern, lots of participants responded positively in regard to the F1 year, which allows new doctors to be closely supervised and supported, and senior doctors to identify struggling trainees.
When asked whether doctors should be fully registered at graduation, 57% disagreed while only 23% were supportive of the change, with the remaining comments expressing no strong views.
It is of general opinion that undergraduate clinical placements and postgraduate supervision and support would inevitably benefit medical students, trainees and patients; but this is not a troubling anxiety that bothers the majority.
