The role of Community Paediatrics in Paediatric Medical Education : A survey among students in England and Germany and among German Office Paediatricians
The past fifty years have brought about an exponential rise in basic medical knowledge with the development of highly specialised areas of medicine. The volume of knowledge that students have to learn has increased to such a point that it is now clear that a medical course cannot cover all areas in detail. As such, it seems appropriate that the selection and training of students should be changed, to generate a product better equipped for the new millennium.
This Survey was conducted among British (Imperial College School Of Medicine-ICSM) and German (Justus-Liebig-Universitaet JLU, Giessen) Medical Students and German Office Paediatricians (GOP), after a tool to analyse paediatric undergraduate teaching programs in three European universities revealed striking differences.
In Germany attention was focused on topics of a clinical nature, which was also evident on review of standard German literature.
Community Paediatrics received higher representation in English Paediatric books, a trend reflected in the British paediatric curriculum.
Analysis of the three participating groups showed areas of perceived deficiency for Clinical vs. Community Paediatric Topics (CPT) to be of similar frequency for JLU Gießen students. For the ICSM students, topics of a clinical nature were considered more inadequately taught than CPT. The ratio amongst German office paediatricians was 4:1, CPT posing the more cause for concern.
Opinions on educational deficiencies were influenced by the subject s status as student or doctor, whereby 50% of GOP found Community Paediatrics to be an area of deficiency. Opinions of JLU students were most closely linked to those of the GOPs.
Age (of GOP) was the only factor that influenced the importance participants accorded to Community Paediatrics. If today s students are to become competent doctors of tomorrow, it is essential that the shifting patterns of childhood morbidity are recognised and reflected in medial education.
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