Student BMJ Review: February 2008 issue

I first discovered Student BMJ several years ago and have continued to be impressed. Its content, with few exceptions, is appropriate for a much wider audience. The February 2008 edition continues in that tradition.

Much of the current edition could be classified under the broad heading of “Maintaining Standards”: standards of medical education and training, and of professionalism. These are of course crucially important areas and are of concern not only to our profession but also to members of the public. They have been brought into particularly sharp focus by the debate which arose out of a small number of high-profile scandals, and the need to maintain quality during a period of recent expansion in medical student numbers.

The essay on plagiarism by Michael Cross is particularly relevant and is a problem that is fuelled by the relative ease with which it can be perpetrated. Many admission tutors will have been familiar with personal statements on the UCAS form, indicating unprecedented levels of injury by fire of close family members, which subsequently led to an interest in medicine. Plagiarism strikes at the heart of our academic society. It is a form of theft which can be particularly difficult to detect, notwithstanding a number of sophisticated software packages that are now available. Crucially important, is the need to make students aware that this is unacceptable behaviour and generation of that culture probably needs to begin before entrance to the medical school.

Fitness to practise procedures have come under the spotlight recently, with the publication of guidance from the GMC. I am aware that students have a number of concerns about the process but I think it is important to remember that the number of students involved in these assessments is only a tiny proportion. Consistency of application of guidelines and the need to avoid “double jeopardy” are of appropriate concern to both students and medical schools. My own view is that one way of protecting students against these hazards would be for medical students to register with the GMC. I am aware that this is not universally popular with medical students. I do not really understand why.

Turning the page from the article on fitness to practise, leads to an essay on investigations that one may face as a hospital doctor, pointing out that in the UK, doctors can be held accountable in more ways than almost any other profession. Whilst this may be true, it is important to emphasise once again, that the number of doctors who experienced this kind of investigation is very small indeed.

Many people will have heard “Where’s the Femur?” on Radio 4 recently. It raised the “never mind the quality, feel the width” issue associated with a massive expansion in medical student numbers over the last few years. As one of the opinions expressed in the article on “Can we trust medical training?” states, there is no evidence that graduates today are any less knowledgeable than before. Your readers will be reassured to learn that the converse is true. I finish my review on a positive note, by indicating that there has been an overall improvement in the preparedness of graduates from medical schools when they embark upon FY1 (http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/7/38)

   

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