TY - JOUR
T1 - "Between a rock and a hard place", the discordant views among medical teachers about anatomy content in the undergraduate medical curriculum
AU - Inuwa, Ibrahim M.
AU - Taranikanti, Varna
AU - Al-Rawahy, Maimouna
AU - Roychoudhry, Sadhana
AU - Habbal, Omar
PY - 2012/2
Y1 - 2012/2
N2 - The last two decades of medical education have been marked by a persistent push towards curricular reform. Anatomy as a discipline, the unshakable foundation of medical teaching for hundreds of years, has been at the centre of this development. Although it is widely agreed that for doctors to be competent, they need an adequate knowledge of anatomy underpinning medicine, there is much less agreement over the quantity required, and who should decide and define it. Many clinicians feel medical students are being under-trained in this basic medical science before reaching the clinical stages. Professional accreditation boards advocate the reduction of factual information in undergraduate medical courses. Anatomists complain of a progressive erosion of the time allocated to the subject. Caught in the midst of this controversy is the student of anatomy who is left bewildered and confused about what is required from him to become a safe and competent health professional. The way forward might, first, be for medical schools to facilitate discussions between students, anatomy professors, and clinicians to bring these divergent perspectives into alignment. Second, the anatomists need to re-invent themselves in two principal frameworks: first, to present the subject in the context within which it will be utilised by the student, and second to employ the overwhelming learning tool of today, i.e. technology, in their teaching and assessment of the subject.
AB - The last two decades of medical education have been marked by a persistent push towards curricular reform. Anatomy as a discipline, the unshakable foundation of medical teaching for hundreds of years, has been at the centre of this development. Although it is widely agreed that for doctors to be competent, they need an adequate knowledge of anatomy underpinning medicine, there is much less agreement over the quantity required, and who should decide and define it. Many clinicians feel medical students are being under-trained in this basic medical science before reaching the clinical stages. Professional accreditation boards advocate the reduction of factual information in undergraduate medical courses. Anatomists complain of a progressive erosion of the time allocated to the subject. Caught in the midst of this controversy is the student of anatomy who is left bewildered and confused about what is required from him to become a safe and competent health professional. The way forward might, first, be for medical schools to facilitate discussions between students, anatomy professors, and clinicians to bring these divergent perspectives into alignment. Second, the anatomists need to re-invent themselves in two principal frameworks: first, to present the subject in the context within which it will be utilised by the student, and second to employ the overwhelming learning tool of today, i.e. technology, in their teaching and assessment of the subject.
KW - Anatomy
KW - Curriculum
KW - Medical education
KW - Undergraduate
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84857093552&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84857093552&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.12816/0003083
DO - 10.12816/0003083
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84857093552
SN - 2075-051X
VL - 12
SP - 570
EP - 575
JO - Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal
JF - Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal
IS - 1
ER -