Medical ethics and law: a practical guide to the assessment of the core content of learning

Teaching diversity to medical undergraduates: Curriculum development, delivery and assessment. AMEE GUIDE No. 103

The aim of this Guide is to support teacher with the responsibility of designing, delivering and/or assessing diversity education. Although, the focus is on medical education, the guidance is relevant to all healthcare professionals. The Guide begins by providing an overview of the definitions used and the principles that underpin the teaching of diversity as advocated by Diversity and Medicine in Health (DIMAH). Following an outline of these principles we highlight the difference between equality and diversity education. The Guide then covers diversity education throughout the educational process from the philosophical stance of educators and how this influences the approaches used through to curriculum development, delivery and assessment. Appendices contain practical examples from across the UK, covering lesson plans and specific exercises to deliver teaching. Although, diversity education remains variable and fragmented there is now some momentum to ensure that the principles of good educational practice are applied to diversity education. The nature of this topic means that there are a range of different professions and medical disciplines involved which leads to a great necessity for greater collaboration and sharing of effective practice.

How we tackled the problem of assessing humanities, social and behavioural sciences in medical education

BACKGROUND

Assessment serves as an important motivation for learning. However, multiple choice and short answer question formats are often considered unsatisfactory for assessment of medical humanities, and the social and behavioural sciences. Little consensus exists as to what might constitute 'best' assessment practice. What we did: We designed an assessment format closely aligned to the curricular approach of problem-based learning which allows for greater assessment of students' understanding, depth of knowledge and interpretation, rather than recall of rote learning.

CONCLUSION

The educational impact of scenario-based assessment has been profound. Students reported changing their approach to PBL, independent learning and exam preparation by taking a less reductionist, more interpretative approach to the topics studied.

Reflections on learning and teaching medical ethics in UK medical schools

The development of learning, teaching and assessment of medical ethics and law over the last 40 years is reflected upon with particular reference to the roles of the London Medical Group, the Society for the Study of Medical Ethics, its successor Institute of Medical Ethics; the Journal of Medical Ethics and the General Medical Council. Several current issues are addressed. Although the situation seems incomparably better than it was 40 years ago, the relatively recent events in Mid Staffordshire National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust show we cannot be complacent. Whatever role we have in the NHS or medical education, we must all strive to make sure it never happens again.