Postgraduate medical education - A time of change for physicians

Are future medical oncologists sufficiently trained to communicate about palliative care? The medical oncology curriculum in Flanders, Belgium

BACKGROUND

Palliative care is considered an integral part of oncology and communicating this with patients is an unavoidable task for oncologists. This contribution investigated to what extent communication skills for communicating palliative care with patients are trained in the formal academic training program in medical oncology in Flanders, Belgium. The programme is based on the recommendations for a Global Core Curriculum in Medical Oncology, developed by The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) together with the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO).

METHODS

For this qualitative study, data were collected using document analysis from the ESMO/ASCO recommendations and the documents of the Flanders' medical oncology programme complemented with interviews with Flemish medical oncology trainees.

RESULTS

Few recommendations for training communication skills to communicate about palliative care were found in the ASMO/ASCO recommendations and even less in the Flanders' programme documents. Trainees are mainly exposed to palliative care communication during the clinical practice of their training. Only very few lectures or seminars are devoted to palliative care and even less on communication about palliative care. They reported several barriers to communicate about palliative care.

CONCLUSIONS

This study revealed promising developments for the training of Flemish medical oncologists to discuss palliative care. However, there is still a need for more theoretical training on palliative care complemented with communication skills trainings. Communication training in general needs to be fully integrated as a core skill within the medical curriculum at large and should be promoted as lifelong learning and competency development.

The future physician

Both hospital-based care and physician training have undergone significant changes within the past decade. Current physician training in the UK is failing to meet the needs of patients, with significant numbers of acute and general medicine posts unfilled. Building on the themes of the 2013 Shape of Training review, we propose a model that places an alternative model of generalist - the 'future hospitalist' - at the centre of patient care and medical training. The reinstatement of the general physician at the heart of hospital care will increase flexibility in both training and workforce planning, and embed active leadership, patient safety and quality improvement in care delivery.

Where did the acute medical trainees go? A review of the career pathways of acute care common stem acute medical trainees in London

Acute care common stem acute medicine (ACCS AM) training was designed to develop competent multi-skilled acute physicians to manage patients with multimorbidity from 'door to discharge' in an era of increasing acute hospital admissions. Recent surveys by the Royal College of Physicians have suggested that acute medical specialties are proving less attractive to trainees. However, data on the career pathways taken by trainees completing core acute medical training has been lacking. Using London as a region with a 100% fill rate for its ACCS AM training programme, this study showed only 14% of trainees go on to higher specialty training in acute internal medicine and a further 10% to pursue higher medical specialty training with dual accreditation with internal medicine. 16% of trainees switched from ACCS AM to emergency medicine or anaesthetics during core ACCS training, and intensive care medicine proved to be the most popular career choice for ACCS AM trainees (21%). The ACCS AM training programme therefore does not appear to be providing what it was set out to do and this paper discusses the potential causes and effects.

What is the role of general internists in the tertiary or academic setting?

The changing demography of European populations mandates a vital role for internists in caring for patients in each level of healthcare. Internists in the tertiary or academic setting are highly ranked in terms of their responsibilities: they are clinicians, educators, researchers, role models, mentors and administrators. Contrary to the highly focused approach of sub-specialties, general internists working in academic settings can ensure that coordinated care is delivered in the most cost-conscious and efficient way. Moreover, internal medicine is one of the most appropriate specialties in which to teach clinical reasoning skills, decision-making and analytical thinking, as well as evidence based, patient oriented medicine. Internists deal with challenging patients of the new millennium with a high burden of chronic diseases and polypharmacy; practice personalised medicine with a wide scientific background and so they are the perfect fit to establish and implement new tools for scientific research. In conclusion, internal medicine is developing a new identity as a specialty in its own right. The European Federation of Internal Medicine supports the concept of academic internists and calls upon the member countries to construct academic (general) internal medicine departments in their respective countries. As 'internal medicine is the cornerstone of every national healthcare system', academic (general) internal medicine should strive to be the cornerstone of every integrated, patient-centred, modern medical care and training system.