General

Best bits from the ASME medical education conference 2017

Tim Vincent General, Research and Conferences, Sharing good practice and examples, TEL tools and technologies
Tim Vincent
BSMS Learning Technologist

One of the main medical education conferences is the ASME Annual Scientific Meeting which, this year, took place at Exeter university. BSMS had the highest representation ever with several oral presentations and posters, a workshop, and a teaching award (well done Claire!). I am a member of the ASME Technology Enhanced Learning Special Interest Group (ASME TEL SIG) and, as such, was interested to see the growing prevalence and quality of education research in this area. Here are the best bits from the conference from my perspective:

Reflection 1: The importance of Clinical Teaching Fellows. Looking around all the presentations and posters, they seem to be pivotal in medical schools and hospitals driving forward innovative educational initiatives, undertaking robust research, and disseminating the output. That has certainly been our experience at BSMS (we have had Andy, Becky, and Nikki with us this year and others before) – they have contributed a fantastic amount this year to our teaching activity and they have benefited from their year with us, too, taking their skills to . It would seem wise to continue to invest in this crucial role if we want to maintain high quality teaching and education research.

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Get interactive in your lectures – some helpful tools

Tim Vincent General, Interaction and interactive tools, Large group teaching and lectures, Mobile learning, TEL tools and technologies
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/lecture-hall.jpg

It can be a challenge to keep lectures engaging and stimulating, especially when there is so much material to cover and the physical layout is not conducive to interaction. Fortunately, mobile technology provides some tried and tested digital tools that can help get students thinking and responding to your teaching.

They can be used in a variety of ways, for example:

  • Ascertaining what students know at the start of a lecture to direct your teaching for that session
  • Breaking up long didactic sections with a bit of interaction
  • Getting students to think and commit to a decision
  • Indicating students’ understanding towards the end of a lecture to see if they are taking in the learning objectives
  • Getting feedback on an aspect of the course or your teaching

Here is a list of some of these tools.  If you would like some help in trying any of these out, get in touch with the BSMS Learning Technologists Tim Vincent or CJ Taylor.  Several BSMS faculty are using PollEverywhere, for example, in their large group teaching – look out for future posts discussing their experience.

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Physicians Associates at BSMS

Nicola Dearnley Careers and medical profession, General, News, Physician Associates (PAs), Small group teaching

  Dr Nikki Dearnley, Clinical Education Fellow, BSMS

In September 2016 BSMS opened its doors to its first intake of Physicians Associate students. As part of my role as a Clinical Education Fellow I am heavily involved in teaching on this course. When I explain to friends and colleagues what my job involves I often get a lot of questions about the role of a Physician Associate, so I am going to use this blog post as an opportunity both to answer some commonly asked questions and perhaps sell to you the benefits of teaching on this course!

What is a Physicians Associate?

Physician Associates are collaborative healthcare professionals with a generalist medical education. They work alongside doctors to provide medical care as a part of the multidisciplinary team. Physician Associates are dependent practitioners working with a dedicated supervisor, but are able to work independently with appropriate support. Physician Associates work within a defined scope of practice and limits of competence. They can:

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