A survey of the teaching and assessment of undergraduate psychiatry in the medical schools of the United Kingdom and Ireland.

BACKGROUND: Individual medical schools currently decide on the content and delivery of their undergraduate psychiatry curriculum, so there is probably significant variation in the students' experience of the speciality during the medical course and in the extent to which they develop the appropriate skills and knowledge base. AIM: To ascertain how the teaching of undergraduate psychiatry differs across UK and Irish medical schools. METHODS: The educational lead for psychiatry at each medical school in the United Kingdom and Ireland completed a questionnaire providing factual information on the teaching structure, contents and assessment methods in their current psychiatry curriculum. RESULTS: Some aspects of the curriculum were consistent across the medical schools with other areas showing great variability. The course content was broadly similar but the assessment, length of experience and course structure differed. CONCLUSION: There are significant differences in how psychiatry is taught to undergraduate students in the United Kingdom and Ireland and although all the curricula are evaluated by the General Medical Council, further study is required to see if this has any effect on the levels of competency achieved.

Service user perspectives about their roles in undergraduate medical training about mental health.

BACKGROUND: Current policy states that 'service users and carers should be involved in planning, providing and evaluating training for all health care professionals. We wished to explore service users' views regarding undergraduate psychiatry. AIMS: We aimed to explore user perspectives on the specific role of service users in the delivery of teaching psychiatry. METHOD: The study design was qualitative and used focus groups. The study took place in a community context with one focus group in Leeds, Leicester, Lincoln and Nottingham. Four focus groups were run with a total of 28 participants (16 women and 12 men, all white). No exclusion criteria were applied. The lead of each group were contacted and they then recruited volunteers from their membership. RESULTS: The key findings were that participants felt that service users could play important roles in contextualising the part mental health plays in people's lives; dispel myths and fantasies about mental health; offer positive aspects of mental health to counterbalance the media; illustrate diversity within mental health and hope and recovery. Participants also identified the potential challenges to their participation including vulnerabilities especially at critical points in people's illnesses; perceived credibility - lack of support from some involved in academic roles; lack of appropriate training and support and issues of power and lack of genuine partnership in the planning and delivery of teaching. They were favourable about the development of guidelines as long as they involved a range of perspectives. CONCLUSIONS: Service users present a range of ways in which they could be involved to enhance the educational experience of medical students in psychiatry.

Susceptibility to moxifloxacin of pneumococci isolated in English hospitals participating in the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (EARSS) in 2003.

Susceptibility to moxifloxacin, penicillin and erythromycin was determined for 592 invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae collected from 20 English hospitals participating in the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (EARSS) during 2003. Resistance to moxifloxacin, penicillin and erythromycin was observed in 0.8%, 5.4% and 13% of the isolates, respectively. These results show that the large majority of pneumococci were susceptible to moxifloxacin in 2003, the year when it was licensed for clinical use in the UK.

Class half-empty? Pre-registration house officer attendance at weekly teaching sessions: implications for delivering the new Foundation Programme curriculum.

This study aimed to explore patterns of attendance at classroom-based, taught education programmes for pre-registration house officers (PRHOs) and to identify reasons for non-attendance, and to consider implications for Foundation Programme curriculum delivery and suggest strategies for improving delivery. We analysed registers of attendance for education sessions for 3 local teaching hospitals in the Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland (LNR) Healthcare Workforce Deanery, along with PRHO exit questionnaire returns (from 2001 to 2005). Despite a trend for attendance to fall slightly over the course of a rotation, attendance rates have, in general, remained relatively stable at around two-thirds. However, during most 4-month posts, a fifth or more of PRHOs missed half or more of all sessions. Two types of barrier to attendance were identified: 'routine barriers', which relate to hospital working patterns, and 'contextual barriers', which refer to the particularities of each hospital post. There was no evidence that doctors' motivation and commitment towards the education programme is a main determinant of attendance. Contextual barriers to attendance, such as pressure being placed on PRHOs to remain on the ward, can be addressed. However, routine barriers to attendance, including on-call working patterns and annual leave, render it impossible to avoid significant numbers of education sessions being missed by PRHOs in each post during a rotation. En bloc teaching of basic generic skills prior to the start of the rotation plus greater use of online learning resources are examples of ways in which reliance on in-post, classroom-based programmes can be reduced.