LESS MEMORISING

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 134, 8 June 1935, Page 15

LESS MEMORISING

TRAINING OF DOCTORS

REFORMS IN ENGLAND

A report of profound interest not only to the medical profession but to parents, schoolmasters, and all concerned in the training of medical students has been issued, says the "Daily Telegraph." It contains the reforms in the education of the medical profession recommended by the conference of representatives nominated by the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Surgeons, and the Society oi Apothecaries. The conference was presided over by Lord Dawson of Perm, and the chairman of the executive committee was Professor Sir Farquhar Buzzard, both physicians to the King. Among the recommendations are:— The medical curriculum should not be extended beyond the present period of five years. . \ . The different licensmg bodies should be brought more into line with each other. A higher school certificate examination should be considered for exemption from the first M.B. examination. Set periods should be allocated to certain pre-olinical studies. There should be fewer separate examinations. The importance of the study of pathology -is stressed, and emphasis is laid throughout the report on the strain which the present methods of teaching put upon,the memory. TO GIVE CONFIDENCE. Briefly, the aim of the conference has been to secure that the student of average ability should receive such knowledge and training in observation and method; as to give him confidence in approaching the problems of general practice and the ability to learn from his experience. . Regarding pre-medical ■ studies, it agrees that the ideal preliminary equipment is a university degree in' either arts or science; and it is in full agreement with the majority of schoolmasters against too early specialisation. It recommends for school purposes a common syllabus of elementary chemistry, physics, and biology, but urges that literature or languages should continue to be studied till the end of school life. Turning to actual medical training, it recommends that the first two years should be mainly occupied, as now, in the study of human : anatomy and physiology, but $ith.* a much more practical associatib^'than-hithertowith future practical medical: application. There should be less memorising in the dissecting-room of innumerable small structural details, and the teaching of physiology should be associated with occasional demonstrations of patients'; and instruction in the use of the stethoscope, ophthalmoscope, and otoscope as' the functions of the relevant organs are. taught. TIME NOT WELL SPENT. It strongly endorses the present British system, when once 'the hospital' wards are entered, of the intimate association of small groups of students with patients and experienced consultant teachers. But it rightly deprecates: the many hours spent at present by medical students in witnessing major operations that they will probably never be called upon to perform and studying examples of rare diseases that they are seldom, if ever, likely to encounter again. : The time so spent should be employed in outpatient departments, where the everyday minor complaints are more likely to be met, and in the special departments concerned with the Commoner affections of the eye, throat, nose, and ear that now receive relatively little attention. The preventive aspect of medicine should be emphasised throughout this ward and outpatient' period, and more stress laid on the psychological associations of disease. Finally, it recommends that the qualifying examination should be definitely taken in,two parts, one comprising medicine and surgery and the other midwifery; gynaecology, elementary public health, and forensic medicine. It also tentatively expresses the hope, with which there will be general agreement, that, after qualifying, a period of at least six months as resident'medical officer in a large general hospital, will soon become obligatory before practice is allowed.