E-Med News 11, September 2007 - Keele University

School of Medicine

Edition 11, September 2007



Contents

New Associate Teaching Hospital for School of Medicine

Update on Keele curriculum

Academic General Practice Update

Interprofessional Education (IPE) Update

Graduation Event 2007

Recruitment and New Starters

ASME Conference

JASME Conference & Update

Medical School Open Day

Personal Achievements

Appointment Update


New Associate Teaching Hospital for School of Medicine

Thursday 6 th September saw the start of a new development for the Medical School , when the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust formally became an Associate Teaching Hospital for Keele. For a number of years, medical students from Manchester and latterly from Keele have spent short periods of time on clinical placements at Shrewsbury and Telford, but this is the first time when “core” year 3 teaching will take place at the Trust. Every medical student at Keele will spend a period of at least 18 weeks at Shrewsbury and Telford , and these periods will include time spent at general practices and other community facilities in Shropshire . The Medical School development at Shrewsbury will therefore be formally titled “Keele University School of Medicine – Shropshire Campus”.

Dr. David Maxton, Director of Clinical Undergraduate Studies at the Trust, and Dr. Peter Coventry, Community Medical Education Co-ordinator, have been working hard for over a year, together with the School's Deputy Undergraduate Manager, Mrs. Susanna Barratt, developing the teaching facilities and resources, and encouraging participation by their clinical colleagues. A team of some 17 module leaders, tutors and support tutors have been recruited, and all are keen to develop the Medical School 's activities in Shropshire .

The first cohort of 32 students from year 3 are accommodated near the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital . In August 2008, 32 students from year 4 will also be taught at the Trust, together with increasing numbers of final year students, until the Trust has about 96 Keele medical students being taught there most of the year round. It is planned to construct blocks of new residential accommodation on site at Shrewsbury , to accommodate the expanding student numbers. Building work has just commenced on an extension to the existing Staffordshire University School of Health building on the site, which will provide an interprofessional Health Library and teaching accommodation for Keele medical students, and this extension should be open in August 2008.

Our picture shows the first group of Year 3 students, together with Professor Richard Hays, Head of School, Dr. David Maxton, Mrs. Susanna Barratt, Dr. Warren Perks and Dr. John Jones.

New Associate Teaching Hospital for School of Medicine


Update on the development of the new Keele curriculum

Now that Year 1 of the new curriculum is ‘live', the energy of the curriculum development team has turned to the other four years. Year 1 is of course not complete until it has been ‘road tested' and de-bugged, a process that will require the contribution of all participating students and staff, but that is a different task. The development of the five year course is still following the framework agreed earlier in the process, but we are now filling out the details. The Year 2 module team has two co-leaders – Gordon Dent and Mark Cowling – as is consistent with our policy of dual, clinical & non-clinical module leadership. This policy was commended by the QABME team earlier this year. The same curriculum Themes will continue, the Units are taking shape, and the weekly work around PBL cases is being refined. Under our model, Year 2 is where a small number of highly selected graduates may enter the course, and the educational design intends taking advantage of the mix of students and experiences to enhance learning of all students. The target for completion of Year 2 is October and the detailed work on Year 3 is about to commence, to be completed by around March 2008. These timings are important as we are aiming to achieve QABME approval for both of these modules during the 2007/08 QABME cycle, for which the first visit will be on December 13 and 14.


Academic General Practice

Over the last six months the Academic General Practice Team has seen considerable changes.   Robert McKinley took up the post of Professor of Academic General Practice in March. The team has been further boosted by the appointment of Simon Gay and Chantelle Todd as lecturers in Academic General Practice alongside Janet Lefroy, Peter Coventry and Sheena Gibson. Simon is well is well known to the school having made a substantial contribution to teaching in many areas and we are delighted to welcome him to a substantive post. Chantelle has had teaching experience at undergraduate level in Birmingham and has been a sessional tutor at Keele during the past year, she is a local GP where she has been a practice teacher and we look forward to her bring her skills into the school. We now have a strong team of committed general practitioner teachers and academics with the ability and ambition to put Keele in the map.   The team's current priorities are to increase teaching capacity in general practice and to develop the role of general practice in the Keele 2007 curriculum while maintaining the quality of current teaching in practices. They have launched a major recruitment drive in Shropshire in support of the Shrewsbury Campus teaching and in South Staffordshire . In parallel to this they are working with new and existing practices to help them to improve their premises and increase their teaching capacity. This will ensure that general practice provides the major contribution to the curriculum that is necessary to ensure that Keele delivers a properly balanced curriculum.


IPE update

At present Keele university's Health Faculty is in the process of developing a new interprofessional education programme. The current working definition of interprofessional education, as provided by Caipe, is “Occasions where two or more professions learn from and about each other in order to improve collaboration and the quality of healthcare”. The current redesigning of the medical curriculum has provided an excellent opportunity for the Keele medical course to fall in line with the Department of Health's initiatives to include interprofessional education in all undergraduate health curricula.

As a recent conscript to the interprofessional education sub-committee, I have been infused with expectation for the excitement that organising a combined educational programme for over six hundred undergraduate and postgraduate students from nine different health care and social disciplines will provide. The students will undertake a visionary programme of case based learning in multidisciplinary groups that will allow them to fully explore the complex roles, responsibilities and relationships between all professional groups that form our modern healthcare system.

We have recently recruited a cadre of enthusiastic interprofessional education tutors that have undertaken and survived an intensive training programme that will drive our eager students into a brave new world of interdisciplinary cooperation and harmony. I guess we will all watch with interest as the future of healthcare provision will be formed by healthcare students' opinions, experiences and aspirations.


Graduation Event 2007

On 10th July, the third cohort of finalists based at Keele University Medical School graduated from Manchester University. 37 students were successful, and many of these will be staying at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire for their Foundation Year training.

Our photos show a group of the finalists attired in their graduation robes, and a group of Medical School staff who travelled to Manchester to see the graduation.

Graduation

Graduation


Recruitment and New starters

It has been another busy year in the Medical School Admissions Office, with over 1200 UCAS applications processed and 400 interviews scheduled.

Interest in the course has remained buoyant despite other universities' noting a drop in applications. However, the number of applicants accepting our offer after interview has fallen slightly. This year for the first time we entered ‘Clearing' after the release of the A level results. After three hours of being inundated by callers, we had sufficient very strong applicants to hold some late interviews for the course. We therefore welcomed 137 students for year 1 of the MBChB course on 24th September 2007 . This year we are pleased to see the first intake from the Health Foundation Year for Medicine (6 year MBChB) progressing to year 1 of the course.


ASME Conference 2007 “Medicines role in future healthcare provision”

The conference was conveniently set in the glorious surroundings of Keele University for the 50 th anniversary golden jubilee conference.

The conference was preceded by a series of workshop sessions providing plenty of food for thought on a wide range of medical educational topics.

As the conference began in earnest, an opening address by the Head of Keele Medical School set out a visionary view of the future direction of medical education. This was followed by a packed programme of key note speeches and parallel sessions providing an eclectic variety of medical education research perspectives. The first day was rounded off by a wine and curry reception in the delightful surroundings of Trentham gardens.

The second day opened at a pace with a rabble rousing sermon from the editor of theDelegates of ASME in Keele Hall Lancet, Richard Horton, who called for a “renewal of the social contract between the community and the medical profession”. More excellent parallel sessions followed and the day was rounded off by an opulent banquet in the fine surroundings of Keele Hall with a grand finale fireworks display to mark ASME's 50 th anniversary. 

ASME Conference

The conference was very well received by the attending Keele staff and proved that ASME's annual conference will certainly make a worthy annual date for anyone with an interest in medical education.

ASME Conference


JASME 2007 Conference

The Junior Association for the Study of Medical Education (JASME) 2007 conference was held at Keele from 11 th – 13 th July. 49 delegates from UK medical schools attended plus 1 delegate form Denmark for the 3 day conference with the theme of ‘inequalities in medical education'.

Speakers included Professor Parveen Kumar, (author of the famous Kumar and Clarke) and Dr Bob Clarke (facilitator of the clinical skills ‘Ask Dr Bob' workshop sessions). Other speakers included our own Dr Roger Worthington who delivered a fascinating talk on disability in medicine, Professor Danny Dorling who discussed widening participation in medicine, concluding that medical students are perhaps not as disadvantaged as they think. Anne Tynan, author of ‘push the boat out' reported on disability and medical and veterinary students and Dr Grahame Buckley discussed the impact of the gender imbalance in medicine. On Friday 13 th it was the turn of students. Maja Basnov travelled all the way from Denmark representing the IFMSA to deliver a workshop on writing for publication.

In addition to the conference being evaluated as a success, even better news for Keele was that from the 2007 JASME committee, Cath Colquhoun 4 th year medical student was voted in as the 2008 JASME chair. In addition, Rachel Parsonage was voted in as the newly formed role as the 2008 JASME Research and Training co-ordinator. Both Cath and Rachel are extremely excited about the prospect of developing JASME further this year. 

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JASME, which is the junior group of ASME, aims to support medical students and junior doctors interested in medical education and research.   Over the coming year, JASME will be offering a series of workshops helping people to get started in research. There will also be a mentorship scheme available via ASME members for people who want to do research.   There will be other workshops throughout the year looking at issues such as Global Health medical education.   If you want to get involved, contact Catherine on cath@jasme.org.uk  or m4b25@mgb.keele.ac.uk . Membership costs £10 per year and includes online access to the Clinical teacher.


Medical School Open Day

The University held a General Open Day on Sunday 19 th August 2007 . 640 visitors attended the medical school session, including around 200 prospective applicants.

Dr Lindsay Bashford introduced the day with a welcome talk and overview of the new curriculum. Dr Gordon Dent followed with an Admissions talk, and a Q&A session. Two students volunteered to answer questions about campus life at Keele. Visitors were able to roam in the Anatomy Resource Room and Laboratories, where interactive materials were on display, and staff and students were available to demonstrate equipment and answer questions. Dr Paul Hoban and Dr Suzanne Whiteman were available to answer questions from the visitors.

The feedback was positive with visitors confirming that the event was well organized and the Open Day had given them a good overall impression of the Medical School . Many visitors commented on the warm and welcoming impression created by staff and student helpers, who were described as ‘approachable', ‘friendly', ‘helpful' and ‘knowledgeable'. Visitors left with a good impression of the building and facilities, commenting that although busy, everyone had created an atmosphere of calmness, and a structure to the event.

This was a good team effort by all staff and student helpers. We hope the hard work results in an increased number of UCAS applications for the Medical School for 2008 entry.


Congratulations

Archery: Jane hits bullseye to claim world title

Jane Walker showed her endurance, as well as her shooting prowess, as she claimed the World Field Archery title in a Swiss monsoon - just three years after taking up the sport.

The 40-year-old member of Clayton Woodsmen racked up the points on a course which became treacherous in deteriorating conditions in the valley of the river Thur, near Toggenburg.


Jane Walker

Picture courtesy of Staffordshire Sentinel News & Media Ltd

Jane WalkerWalker, who picked up the European title two years ago, watched as her rivals fell by the wayside in the unorthodox discipline which relies on physical fitness as much as a dead-eye.

"My closest contender retired on the fourth day because it was so wet and cold," revealed the mum, from Clayton.

"It is like hunting in that you are going up and down over mountainous terrain while shooting at targets, which are usually pictures of animals. You can be anything from five yards to 60 yards away from the targets, they are waiting for you and you need to be alert."

Using a compound bow, the favoured equipment of English archers, Walker amassed 1,616 points as she shot at 28 targets in each of the four courses stretching over a gruelling five days.

"There are not many archers in my freestyle compound class, so I thought I had a good chance to win," she added.

"I train every Wednesday night at Northwood Lane Community Centre and compete most weekends so I do quite a bit."

Walker got involved in archery after watching son, Billy, aged 11, in action and is now looking for sponsorship to fund her defence of the titles. If you are interested, please email j.walker@hfac.keele.ac.uk.


Medical School Staff Race for Life

On Tuesday 12 th June 2007 Jenny Banks, Lorraine Salt and Lorraine 's two sisters Heidi and Natasha took part in the Race for Life for Breast Cancer Research. Their friend Emma is 30 years old and recovering from Breast cancer. They completed the 3 mile (5km) race in times ranging from 36 – 40 minutes. The ladies would like to thank everyone who supported them by raising money for such a worthwhile cause. In total they raised £180.00. THANK YOU

Race for Life


Staff Gaining Qualifications


Kirsty Hartley for gaining her ILM Level 3 in Coaching with an 84% pass mark

Adrian Molyneux who gained his MSc in Computer Science and qualified with distinction


New Appointments

Contact details for all staff members can be found at: http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/ms/staff_info/Administration Posts


Sarah Jones – Assessments Administrator

Sarah Jones took up post as Assessments Administrator at the end of August. Sarah will be based at the Keele Campus, in the assessments office and will provide administrative support for the various forms of assessment on the course.  Sarah previously worked at Crewe Leighton Hospital providing administrative support for Foundation Year 1 doctors.  Sarah is a welcome addition to the team.


Denise Probyn – Year 1 Administrator

Denise, our new Year 1 Administrator, took up post on the 3rd September having previously worked at Manchester Metropolitan University since 2001.  No doubt Denise's experience of supporting academic staff and students at Manchester will see her in good stead for the challenges which will lie ahead providing administrative support for the first intake of students onto the new undergraduate medical curriculum at Keele.