National Curriculum Won't Improve Clinical Training Capacity, Australia

Main Category: Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 03 Feb 2010 - 2:00 PDT

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The Australian Medical Students' Association (AMSA) expressed surprise at a call (reported in The Australian newspaper) for the introduction of a national medical curriculum.

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) report into medical education in Australia confirmed that Australia has a world-class education system. President of AMSA, Mr Ross Roberts-Thomson said "while it may be useful to have a debate on the merits of a national medical curriculum, the problem facing students today is quality clinical education. The significant and rapid increases in student numbers are stretching the capacity of clinical education in Australia. This is puts at risk our world-class education system and that is the pending disaster facing Australia.

"The DEEWR report highlights that adequate clinical exposure is crucial for high quality medical education. Clinical medical education is built around an apprenticeship model and without adequate teaching time with senior clinicians, medical education will fail to deliver. The report outlines that good quality clinical teaching is under pressure and those pressures are growing. AMSA calls on the state and federal governments to quarantine teaching time with senior clinicians to ensure quality is maintained with the number of students coming through.

"Universities and the Government must work together to ensure that there is enough capacity in the system to train medical students before increasing enrolments."

Source
Australian Medical Students' Association

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