There's No Modern Substitute For Some Old-fashioned One-on-one Teaching Of Medic

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There's No Modern Substitute For Some Old-fashioned One-on-one

Teaching Of Medical Students

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=45095

Technology has taken medical school teaching tools to a new level.

Students can listen to lectures on their iPods and practice on

virtual reality patients. But a new study conducted by a researcher

at the U-M Medical School found that technology has not been able to

create a robotic replacement for the real-life student-teacher

experience.

The study, published in the June issue of American Surgeon, points to

a powerful, but often overlooked, tool for influencing students'

attitudes about their surgical training in school.

Ehrlich, M.D., MSc., an associate professor of pediatric

surgery at the U-M Medical School, and colleagues found that the

quality of the student-teacher interaction was the main reason behind

a positive experience during the clinical training portion of the

curriculum.

" What I really learned from this study is that what students wanted

20 or 30 years ago and still want today is for instructors to

interact with them. Even with all the modern day technology in

teaching tools, nothing can replace face-to-face contact, " says

Ehrlich.

Students were more likely to recommend a rotation to other students

and enjoyed their experience more if an instructor spent time with

them, challenged them to think, provided useful feedback, and had a

positive attitude toward students and teaching.

" It didn't matter if subjects were male or female, or if they had any

previous career interests in surgery; what really made the difference

was whether teachers spent time with them, " says Ehrlich.

The study also found that students listed medicine and surgical

subspecialties as their most common career interests and one quarter

of the participants had a pre-existing interest in surgery. According

to Ehrlich, this stresses the importance of clinical training in

attracting students to a surgical career, since there is a sizable

pool of potential surgeons.

Another interesting finding was that males were four times more

likely to have a prior interest in surgery than females. According to

previous studies conducted by other groups, one influence on a female

student's choice of specialty may be that women experience more

gender discrimination and sexual harassment during undergraduate

education.

" Surgery is still a male-dominated profession, and this should also

be addressed, " says Ehrlich, " The surgical and clinical experiences

in medical school must be monitored carefully to ensure that half the

potential pool of future surgeons is not turned off by a surgical

career. "

During the study, 113 students at the West Virginia University School

of Medicine completed a 27-question survey to evaluate their

experience after clinical training. They had nine surgical areas to

pick from and each student trained in four of these for a total of

452 surveys.

The questionnaire was surgery-specific and included questions about

general surgical tasks, demographic information, students' pre-

existing interests, and subjective and objective questions about

various components of being a surgeon and the student-teacher

interaction. In addition, they had to evaluate the teacher.

Ehrlich created the survey because he felt that a better review of

the quality of education was needed. Currently, students take surveys

a year or more after their clinical experience and the questions are

broad and generic. These evaluations are often used to influence

promotions, tenure, and important changes to the curriculum.

" We always get evaluations from students about teaching, but a year

or two after their clinical training, and there's no difference

between the surveys for different areas of clinical training. I felt

this made them fairly meaningless, " says Ehrlich.

Ehrlich, who also teaches surgery to medical students, believes that

instructors who take an interest in students and their educational

needs can really influence career choices.

" When you find a teacher who really turns you on to a particular

field, that's what you end up doing. I had a teacher in medical

school who really made an impression on me and he's one of the main

reasons I'm a pediatric surgeon today. "

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The study was co-authored by PA Seidman, M.D. from the West Virginia

University School of Medicine, where Ehrlich served as director of

surgical and medical education before coming to U-M.