An Integrated IT Program to Assist Students' Personal and Professional Development whilst Simultaneously Developing Communications Competency.

"The experience of studying in medical schools has been considered to be analogous to belonging to an abusive and dysfunctional family."1 Increasingly, doctors are being criticized, not so much for shortcomings in their knowledge or technical expertise, but for their inability to communicate effectively and humanely. "Paradoxically, at a time of global communication we are faced with a breakdown in communication between patients and doctors, increasing patient dissatisfaction, rising numbers of complaints and claims for malpractice, and abandonment of conventional medicine for alternatives that are often unproved." 2 We also know that ".... the behaviour of physicians reflects their experiences in medical school1".

We report here an integrated program to assist students' personal and professional development whilst simultaneously developing communications competency. Students create curriculum in response to three stimuli: real encounters with patients in health-care settings; triggers in the paper cases which form the core of the Problem-Based Learning Programme; and impromptu scenarios created by their clinician-tutors. Experienced actors work with these small groups improvising roles and providing "as-if" feedback. Experienced clinicians interview patients using live-to-audience video, students are resourced with interactive video-workshops, there are intranet-based assignments and formative assessments, and on-line student book-reviews. On-line forums and anonymous feedback encourage rapid feedback on the copurse itself, to presenters, tutors and actors. Except in their dealings with members of the public, students are encouraged to experiment, take risks and have fun.

Students keep an on-line reflective journal of their patient encounters and tutorials, and use a structured competency schema to document their development. Our philosophy adopts "high-road learning for transfer" principles recognizing that, "[A]lthough low-road learning can result in fast attainment of transfer, the resulting transfer tends to be very limited in scope and flexibility. In contrast, high-road learning results in slower attainment of transfer, but the transfer attained is much more extensive and adaptive in nature".3

Although too soon for formal evaluation, our preliminary work suggests that the course is popular with students and faculty, and is achieving much more than just its objectives.

References

1 Polloli L., Price J. Validation and Use of and Instrument to Measure the Learning Environment as Perceived by Medical Students Teaching and Learning in Medicine 2000;12(4), 201-207

2 Meryn S, What Patients Want BMJ 1998;316, 1922-1930

3 McKeough A., Lupart J., Marini A. (Eds.) Teaching for Transfer -

Fostering Generalization in Learning. (1995) Mahwah, New Jersey.

Sharing practical experiences
Dissemination of ideas
Traps, Trials and Tribulations
Visions for an IT Future

Dr Glyn Brokensha
Medical Education Unit, Adelaide University, South Australia SA 5005
Phone: +61 8 8303 6221
Fax: +61 8 8303 6225
Email: glyn.brokensha@adelaide.edu.au