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• E-MedNews 21, June 2010

E-MedNews 21, June 2010

Following the departure of Caroline Whiting to southern climes in Southampton, unfortunately the School is lacking someone to ensure that we issue Med News four times per year.  However, we will be doing our best to produce an edition every 6 months instead.  All contributions are welcomed.

Margaret Hollins and Sarah Philpott
Joint Editors

 

Contents

News from Keele

News from Shrewsbury

News from Stafford

Student news

Staff news

Sporting Events

Book Reviews

Hello and Goodbye

Congratulations

 

 

 

New Skills Laboratories in the Clinical Education Centre

The project is a collaboration between The School of Medicine, Undergraduate Nursing and NHS Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education, led by Professor Jester and Professor Hays.

Modern methods of Medical Education have moved away from teaching by lecture and towards small group or individual learning, along with a greater emphasis on learning with real patients. Postgraduate medical teaching tends to require larger ‘wet room’ space where surgical skills can be practised. Undergraduate Nursing education, due to the nature and size of the groups often needs to undertake large space teaching. The “old” accommodation which was built in 2004 could not fulfill the needs of these multiple users and prevented expansion and development of teaching at the site.

The new layout has created a suite of skills laboratories which meets the demand for multiuse space. Small rooms that are in close proximity for small group teaching are capable of expansion to larger spaces to accommodate new styles of structured examinations and large group teaching.  To provide this, the underused Resource room has been converted into nine separate rooms and adjoining rooms have been  refurbished to create a larger, more flexible space for clinical and communications skills teaching. The flexibility is provided by moveable partitioning with enhanced acoustics, enabling small and larger rooms to be created, replacing the carpet with vinyl flooring and fitting washbasins in some rooms. The size of the existing technicians’ office has been increased to accommodate extra staff to support the teaching.  The development also includes new technology to video students practising their competences and teaching scenarios.

Every effort was made to provide facilities capable of fulfilling the needs of multiple users. In this way maximum flexibility was achieved.  To quote Professor Hays at the beginning of the project “the end result will be a very good facility with flexibility. It will be the envy of most UK Medical Schools which can only dream of having such a large, well equipped skills lab facility”.  I think we have achieved our aim to produce a flexible space to meet the ever changing needs of clinical education.

   

Keele shines in the National Student Survey, 2009

Coming 9th out of 29 UK medical schools in the 2009 National Student Survey was a result that everyone at Keele can be proud of.  Results are published on www.unistats.com, where prospective students and anyone advising them can use the information to help make choices about where to study.  The feedback is also useful for universities, helping to give ideas about where the student experience can be enhanced.

Opinions for 2010 are now being collected at The National Student Survey website.

Academic Staff Development: Dates for your diary

We have two afternoon academic staff development courses planned for the Medical School over the next few months on:

29th September we are holding a workshop titled ‘How to get Published’ Developing Strategies for success.

The workshop has been developed for clinicians and academics who have not published extensively. It is envisaged that some strategies will be developed including how to write for educational or clinical journals, which journals to choose and how the referee system works

On 8th December Celia Roberts is facilitating a session entitled ‘Ethical / Legal Aspects of Education: Cross-cultural Issues in Teaching’

Celia has published extensively in the medical and education arena around issues of ethnicity and her special interest is the impact of assessment.

New staff development programme for clinicians with a teaching commitment at UHNS

The following sessions have been organised to help develop clinicians with a teaching commitment at UHNS.

Primarily designed for clinicians who do not have a lot of teaching experience, they may particularly appeal to staff in training grades, or consultants who do not have formal educational training such as the Certificate in Medical Education, or to colleagues who wish to update their skills in these key areas.  

Registration for all of the sessions is at 1.30pm, and they all finish at 5pm, attracting 2.5 hours CPD. 

7th July 2010 – Student/trainee assessment
8th September 2010 – Dealing with underperforming students/trainees
17th November 2010 – Computer-based education: The KLE.

For further details or to register on a course please email to: m.turner@hfac.keele.ac.uk

 
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

On 13th April 2011 Keele is hosting a one day Educational Conference aimed at all staff; this whole day staff development event is the first that Keele Medical School has  hosted and will be a mix of key note speakers along with interactive workshops. Please make an advance note of this date! Further details will be announced soon.

Dr Clive Gibson
Director of Academic Staff Development

 

 

 

Latest news on Keele’s website

Keele University is updating its web presence. A new Content Management System (CMS) will enable non-technical staff to update and maintain webpages. The new site will use standard design templates that will ensure consistency and corporate branding across Keele’s entire web presence.

The School of Medicine’s website now follows this central design, and will continue to grow to include even more information, movies and virtual tours.

You can view Keele’s new website at www.keele.ac.uk  The School of Medicine’s new website is at www.keele.ac.uk/health/schoolofmedicine/

 

 

 

 

 

  

     

Medlink 2009

On December 16th, members of the admissions team, with two enthusiastic medical students, attended Medlink to talk to delegates about Keele.  The Medlink exhibition at Nottingham University is visited by approximately 4,000 potential medical students and their parents, so non-stop talking was required, from 9am until 5.30pm.  This much talking is not a problem for admissions staff and medical students, so a really enjoyable day was had by all.  Let’s hope our visit results in plenty of applicants for 2011 entry.

 

Module 4 update

Module 4 begins on August 23rd, marking another exciting step in the implementation of the new Keele undergraduate curriculum.

The development of this Module has been led by Miss Aideen Walsh, Consultant Surgeon and Dr Doug Corfield, Reader in Physiology, who have been working with a large academic and administrative team based in primary and secondary care trusts across Staffordshire and Shropshire.

Since this is the first year in the new curriculum in which students have been dispersed across the wider campus, the Hospital Deans Mr Rob Kirby (UHNS), Dr John Jones (SaTH) and Dr Anne Taylor (Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust) and the Academic GP team have been crucial in the preparation of this Module.

Students will be rotating through five 8 week units based in the hospitals, including surgery, child and mental health ,integrated medicine 1 (including neurology) ,integrated medicine 2 (including musculoskeletal) and women’s health.  Each block also includes 1 week of Higher Consultation Skills learning in general practice.  There will be a 4 week Student Selected Component at the end of the year during which students will be encouraged to explore their preferred career option in more detail prior to their Foundation Programme applications.  Hospital placements will be “firm-centred” and the emphasis will be on diagnosis, therapeutics and patient management as well as some integrated biomedical, behavioural and social scientific learning.

By the end of the year, students will be well prepared for the student assistantships that will form the basis of Module 5.


Dr Peter Coventry
Undergraduate Curriculum Development Lead

 

 

Module 5 Update

As Module 5 co leaders, Messrs Paul Wilson and Mike Mahon and I, presented our plans to the General Medical Council QABME visiting team in March this year and were very pleased with the feedback they gave us.  The new final year, we feel, combines the learning outcomes of “Tomorrows Doctors 2009” with our Keele ethos of “graduating excellent clinicians”.  The structure will comprise two 15 week blocks, one in General Practice and the other in secondary care (rotating between medicine, surgery and critical care).  There will then be an exit examination and an elective period, followed by a return to Keele for a Foundation Year preparatory or shadowing block.

We are especially excited by the learning opportunities offered by this long attachment in General Practice and the ability for medical students to really feel useful and part of a team.  We will be expecting our medical students to run consulting sessions alongside their GP tutors and to perform more than 500 patient contacts during those 15 weeks.

This model of GP assistantship will also be present in the secondary care block allowing for students to practise and become more confident in the completion of tasks that they will be expected to fulfill from Day1 of their Foundation Year jobs.

Embedding the continuity of the primary and secondary care components will be the same workplace based assessment tool across both (GeCOS) and a mechanism of educational supervision allowing students to be more prepared for the continuing professional development systems in place in the postgraduate world.

Paul, Mike and I have very much enjoyed a team approach to the development of Module 5 and we think this is reflected in the development of integration between primary and secondary care, built on strong scientific knowledge base.  We will let you know the updates between now and September 2011.

Dr Sheena Gibson
Community & Medical Education Lecturer & Module 5 Co-Lead

 

Electives social evening at SECC

An Electives Information Evening for 4th years was held on 30th November 2009 in the Shropshire Education and Conference Centre, Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.  Several Foundation Year 1 doctors were on hand to recount their elective stories and a number of 5th years also attended to give advice on more recent developments.  The evening was a huge success, with everyone agreeing that it had been helpful and informative.  The event was repeated in March 2010 for the students based there at that time.

 

 

Oakridge Building at Stafford

During the past academic year, a new educational facility has opened at Stafford Hospital.  The Oakridge building, adjacent to the existing Post Graduate Medical Centre and Library, has been developed to provide additional training facilities for all staff at the Trust.

However a particular emphasis has been placed on the needs of Keele undergraduate students based in Stafford and Cannock hospitals.  New facilities include a fully equipped clinical skills suite, a surgical skills laboratory, 3 teaching/seminar rooms and 2 IT training rooms.  Along with these teaching facilities, the centre is home to the Undergraduate Office and Hospital Dean.  All rooms are fully equipped with the latest multi-media equipment. It is anticipated that students based at the Trust will now have all of their clinical skills training sessions on site, rather than having to travel back to the CEC.

The hospital library has also been undergoing a programme of improvement, with significant new stock to support the Keele curriculum.  A new self-scanner means that library users can borrow and return books electronically, and a new librarian has been appointed to allow an extension of opening hours both during the week and at weekends.

 Staff in the undergraduate department at the Trust are proud of their new facilities, and looking forward to the new student intake in August.  Further developments are being planned to continue to improve the educational experience of undergraduates based in Mid Staffs.

Melanie Cartlidge
Hospital Undergraduate Manager

 

KMS Christmas Ball 2009

Thanks to everyone who came to the 2009 KMS Christmas Ball at the Britannia Stadium.   The whole night was a huge success and well done to ‘Optimus Prime’ who won the best mask award!! It was great to see so many students there from all the years and great that even more people than last year attended. Thanks also to everyone who donated money to Keele Marrow. A final thank you goes to MPS who donated money to sponsor the ball.

Sohel Samad
Module 3 Student

 

 

 

Keele Surgical Society: The Hunterian Museum visit

On Saturday 5th December 2009, 30 students visited the Royal College of Surgeons in London to see the Hunterian museum.  The Hunterian museum contains thousands of anatomical specimens most of which are collections from John Hunter the famous anatomist.

The visit also included a special tour of the museum with Professor Harold Ellis.  Professor Ellis is Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the University of London, Anatomist at GKT Medical School, Ex Clinical Anatomist at the University of Cambridge and author of Clinical Anatomy and Lecture notes on General Surgery.  He has worked in the NHS for 61 years and is an extremely highly regarded surgeon.

Students on the visit marvelled at the skeleton of the ‘Irish giant’ Charles Byrne, listened to Professor Ellis tell the graphic story of how bladder stones used to be removed and got the chance to test their surgical skills on a simulated laparoscopic surgery box!  Professor Ellis was a very entertaining speaker and has offered to lecture for Keele in the New Year!

Some students even found time on our busy trip to visit the Old Operating Theatre of 1822 on St Thomas's Street to see the 'Speed surgery in the 19th century' demonstration.  One lucky Keele student even volunteered her leg for the amputation demonstration!

KSS were delighted to be able to provide this opportunity.  For more information about KSS, please contact keelesurgicalsociety@live.co.uk.  You can also join their Facebook group ‘Keele Surgical Society 2009-2010’ to keep up to date with their events.

 

Life Support and Defence Quiz

Congratulations to Module 2, PBL group 11 (see picture) for winning the first annual Life Support and Defence (LSD) quiz.  They achieved a very high score in a quiz that tested multiple areas of academic medicine, psychosocial medicine and classic TV themes!!  Well done PBL 11.  The trophy and photograph are on display in the glass cabinet at the entrance to reception for all to see.

 

 

 

 

 Graduation Ball 2010

On 5th June 2010, Crewe Hall was descended upon by approx 150 students, staff and family/friends to enjoy a Hollywood themed evening.  Marilyn Monroe and Johnny Depp were just two stars to make their presence known (albeit in a stiff cardboard fashion!).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Funky Doctors (not real Doctors) helped the evening go with a “swing” as champagne flowed and the dancing started.  Unbeknown to the guests, the Graduation Ball Committee had left small present boxes for each guest which contained chocolates and a surprise raffle ticket which was drawn towards the end of the night.

Overall, a great night was had by all.  Thanks go to the Graduation Ball organising committee which consists of:-

Jocelyn Male, Laura Faulkner, Rehana Sadiq, Ros Rabone and Beth Squire.  Becky Jones and Anna McNamara also gave support from Shrewsbury.

   

(Pictured:- Mrs Lorraine Salt, Mr Rob Kirby, Miss Kirsty Hartley and Dr Andrew Hassell)

 

GP Society

An evening to mark the launch of the GP society will be held in October 2010, so watch this space for more info!  In the meantime, why not join the Facebook group 'Keele GP Society' and find out further information about being involved in the society, including helping out at the societies fair during freshers week.

 

 

Teddy Bear Hospital

For many people (myself included) the thought of entertaining 60 three and four year old for nearly two hours is terrifying. However, 17 second year students signed up to do just that at Wyndcliffe Primary School in Birmingham on 3rd March.

The Teddy Bear Hospital scheme is a nationwide student-lead project to encourage healthy living in young children and introduce them to doctors and hospitals from an early age. Each child brings in a teddy and then visits 8 stands collecting stickers and goodies along the way:

1)    Surgery The children dress up in miniature scrubs and assist in an operation on a bear that has swallowed a key.

2)    First Aid Teaching how to call an ambulance and put on a bandage.

3)    GP Each bear is examined with thermometers, stethoscopes etc and given a “Pawscription”.

4)    Disability Awareness The children use crutches and blindfolds to experience what it is like to have a disability.

5)    Health and Hygiene After learning about brushing their teeth and combing their hair the children use the UV light box to try and wash off the “invisible germs”.

6)    Healthy Eating At the teddy bears picnic children have to decide which foods are “paws up” healthy and “paws down” unhealthy.

7)    Safety The children have to stop a naughty bear playing with dangerous items in the kitchen.

8)    Fitness The children listen to their heart rate before and after going over an assault course.

 

 
Perhaps the hardest thing of all was keeping control of the children. Every time the whistle went to change stands they would all run off excitedly to what they thought was the next stand. This invariably led to some comic incidents whereby medical students were running in all directions clutching bears trying to catch three year olds!

The children certainly enjoyed themselves and I heard many of them telling their parents at home time how they went to a teddy bear hospital today so hopefully they have learnt a few things too.

Jennifer Hands
Module 2 Student

 

 

 

Michael Friel at Yale

I was lucky enough to be selected for the Yale Clinical Elective Scholarship (reserved for one Keele student each year, as an offshoot to the Bioethics exchange).  My elective was in two parts, the first consisting of an anaesthesiology clerkship and the second one was research based.  The clerkship consisted of assignments, case write-ups, lectures and problem-based learning discussions, Grand Rounds, Clerkship Experience Logs to help monitor progress and evaluations.  A typical day would start at around 06:45 when we would be assigned to an Attending (Consultant) and a Resident for the day.  Before the case began, we would go and introduce ourselves to the patient and enquire a little about their medical and surgical history.  We would then go to the operating theatres and help set up the equipment.  After the initial few days, I was given the opportunity to become more involved.  This included, ventilating, intubating, extubating and taking bloods, with plenty of teaching throughout the operations.    The days were busy and study had to be done in the evenings as well, but if we kept a steady pace then the work load was manageable, and we were provided with an endless stream of caffeine.  After the formal clinical elective, I was invited to become a member of the research team.  This enabled me to extend my stay and become involved in some great projects.  I plan to visit again soon to continue with our work in pain management and education.  

Michael Friel

 

Keele Pre-hospital and Emergency Care Society

KPHECS was formed in conjunction with Keele Community First Responders, for students with an interest in pre-hospital or emergency care. We aim to expose students to all areas of emergency care whether it is the ambulance service, Staffordshire BASICs doctors, search and rescue, air ambulance, A+E doctors, or even the fire brigade. After a very successful year for the society, we were awarded the Society of the Year 2010 by Keele University Students Union.

In addition to this, I am delighted to announce that Keele University Medical School have very kindly given the society the money needed to start ambulance observation shifts for our members. This will mean that, in partnership with Staffordshire BASICs doctors, members will be able to go on shifts with paramedics responding to all of their emergency 999 calls and help deliver potentially lifesaving treatment. Thus, providing anyone with an interest in pre-hospital or emergency care an extremely valuable and insightful opportunity. Hopefully this will also create a very good relationship between West Midlands Ambulance Service and Keele University Medical School.

Anyone interested in joining the society and going on an observation shift please email: keeleprehospitalcaresociety@googlemail.com

The society would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank-you to the medical school.

Elizabeth Holmes
3rd Year medical student
President KPHECS & Co-ordinator Keele Community First Responders

Keele Community First Responders

Working for West Midlands Ambulance Service, Keele CFR provides emergency cover responding to 999 calls, and providing potentially lifesaving treatment on Keele Campus and a large proportion of the surrounding area. We have now been running for over 2½ years, and are now responding to more calls than ever before, and providing a near 24 hour service. A multiple RTC, suicide attempt, CVA, MI, anaphylaxis, and cardiac arrest are just some of our recent calls. As a self-funded group we are always looking for people to join our team or to help fundraise. If anyone is interested please contact me on the following email address:

Elizabeth Holmes
Co-ordinator Keele Community First Responders
3rd year medical student

 

ALT Conference

In September 2009, I attended the annual Association for Learning Technology (ALT) conference in Manchester.  ALT is ‘the leading UK body bringing together practitioners, researchers, and policy makers in learning technology’.  The focus of the conference is to disseminate examples of good practice in the application of technology to education, and to provide an environment allowing networking with colleagues from different institutions.

Of particular interest were sessions covering the burgeoning area of mobile computing and in particular the use of hand held devices such as mobile phones and iPods and their ‘fit’ with existing educational practice.  Coverage was made of the potential of this technology and the ability to exploit this in providing quality learning and assessment experiences.  Within the school we are now beginning to take a deeper look at mobile technology and to consider how best to apply this within the curriculum.

Adrian Molyneux
Lecturer in Learning Technology

 

 

 

Fundamentals of Assessment Course

Last month, we attended the Fundamentals of Assessment course at St George’s in the University of London. The course was aimed at people involved in medical education, which turns out to be a very diverse group of people. There were junior members of medical schools like us, but also administrators from assessment teams, heads of department, clinical teachers, vets, dentists, pathologists and medico-legal experts.  People of all ages and experiences from all over the UK (plus a few from Canada).

We spent two days learning some of the principles involved when we measure the ability of medical students and doctors. Theories were passed around the table and new skills learned.  We became proficient in writing MCQ and EMQ examination questions, OSSEs/OSCEs, work placed assessments and continuing assessment, and learned the importance of multi-source feedback for students.

As a result, we now understand some of the theory behind why we assess students and the strengths of the methods we use here at Keele University Medical School. We discussed various other methods and outlined their strengths and weaknesses, and found out what fundamental elements must be included for an assessment to be appropriate.  There was discussion of the principles of validity, which is whether the assessment really tests the thing it is supposed to be testing, and reliability, which is whether scores are consistent and fair. Sometimes these goals can be in conflict, which is why we have to have lots of different kinds of assessment.  We also learned to question the content of assessments and verify that appropriate marking schemes where utilised, to ensure there was reliability in the assessments used.

We also tried some of the practical skills involved in creating assessments, from writing MCQs or OSCE stations to making blueprints to ensure that the whole curriculum is covered by the assessment system.  We both found it an extremely valuable course comparing experiences and sharing advice with colleagues from many different backgrounds.  There was great interest in Keele’s PBL system and our integrated curriculum, and it was very interesting to compare expectations of students between here and some of the more traditional medical schools.

Dr Rachel Berkson             &         Miss Sarah Lockey
Lecturer in Bioscience                    Teaching Assistant

 

Race for Life

On Tuesday 8th June 2010, 13 ladies from the Medical School at Keele joined 5,00 other  local ladies at Trentham Gardens to take part in the Race for Life 5km event.

With a team motto of “Walking is the new running”, the team consisted of:

Angela Lovatt, Beth Barlow, Janet McNicholas, Jill Goodwin, Kirsty Hartley, Kim Parks, Kerry Edge, Margaret Bourke, Paula Franks, Penny List, Rachel Ansell, Sarah Philpott and Silvana Tulumello

The event is to raise money in aid of Cancer Research and at the time of going to press, the team has raised over £600 in sponsorship, with money still coming in.

Many thanks to those who sponsored the team.  A great night was had by all and all in aid of a fantastic cause.

All 13 ladies finished the event feeling a sense of accomplishment and pleased the rain had held off!!!

Bring on next year’s event!!! (We will be looking to expand our team ladies!!)

 

 

Valiant staff go down fighting

  

As Keele tradition dictates, the undergraduate students’ once again this year challenged the staff to a 6-a-side football match at the end of their annual inter PBL tournament. Having kindly declined the students’ offer to enter a team into the full tournament we instead opted to keep our powder dry for a one off match at the end of the afternoon.  Unfortunately, we timed our arrival poorly and instead of playing a rag bag group of stragglers faced the full power of the winning 4th year team fresh from their victory in the final.  The result was what can only be described as a mauling.  Despite having played for several hours already (as one student observer kindly pointed out!) the students won at a canter, eventually running out 8-0 winners. Thanks once again to all the staff and students who took part.

Pictured above:- Dr Lindsay Bashford (without whom the score would have been far more embarrassing), Dr Gordon Dent, Dr Paul Horrocks, Dr Stuart McBain, Mr Adrian Molyneux, Miss Sarah Lockey and Miss Sarah Jones.

 

 

The Lindsay Bashford Cricket Cup

The inaugural battle for this splendid new trophy, donated by the School of Medicine’s Director of Academic Undergraduate Studies, ended in a comfortable win by 95 runs for the Students.

The Students batted first and Pratik Shah set the tone with a sumptuous display of powerful batting.  He raced to 75 before graciously retiring, when Massey (40) and Blackburn (60), plundered the bowling on the way to a commanding 238 for 2.  Varadhan was the pick of the Staff bowlers, taking both wickets.

The Staff innings started well enough but wickets tumbled quickly and only some controlled aggression from Varadhan (63) saved the staff from defeat of the magnitude suffered earlier by their footballing counterparts.  A supremely nonchalant take by Chohan, one-handed high above his head, was a fitting end as the Staff finished at 143 all out.

Thanks to umpires Lindsay Bashford and Talha Malik and also to Margaret Hollins and her colleagues for a splendid tea with which to end the day.

M Turner
Student Appraisals Administrator

 

 

RSM Book Reviews

 

Clinical skills for OSCE (3rd Edition). N, Burton.

This book, written by medical graduates, is valuable and focused towards core OSCE skills for medical students in their clinical years.

The book is indexed by systems, making it ideal as an introductory text highlighting over 100 key topics, as well as for use as a revision guide.   Each of the scenarios contains a prelude to the task for that station, followed by a brief overview with tips, and a step-by-step guide of how to carry out the station.  The layout of the books is such that it makes it simple and very easy to follow when the pressure is on during revision time.

This book provides a good review guide to the core skills that need to be learned, prior knowledge needs to be sought to appreciate the usefulness of the book.

This is a very good book covering virtually all the possible OSCE stations that you are likely to find yourself in for MBChB.

Overall: Although a little dear, it will see the medical student through to their finals.  However, as with many books, one must bear in mind that some of the protocols might be out of date, so it is advisable to look at other resources for up-to-date information.

Reviewed by Raj Gill – 4th Year Medical Student

 

 

 

Puzzles for Medical Students Differential Diagnosis

Any book that can make revising for finals fun is welcome any day!  At first glance I was sceptical about the usefulness of the book as a study aid but was pleasantly surprised.  

The puzzles cover a wide variety of common topics that are core knowledge in the medical curriculum.  Each puzzle itself takes about twenty minutes to complete and there are two main formats used – word searches and crosswords.  The presentation of the answers is concise with additional information to consolidate what you may or may not already know.  So, within half an hour you have covered a specific topic area without reading a chapter of a textbook.

However, sections on breast and emergency medicine definitely do need to be expanded from the single puzzle format it currently offers.  In addition I feel that colour and diagrams within the summary notes for each puzzle answer may add to the strength of the book.  

Overall, I think this book is definitely worth its weight in gold.  Revising for finals, I found relief in puzzle solving without the guilty feeling of not revising.  

Reviewed by Ruby Baig – 5th Year Medical Student

 

Medical Statistics Made Easy 2nd Edition

A very thorough and easy to use book, aimed for all healthcare professionals and students. This textbook is ideal to help build a solid understanding of a subject that can seem daunting at times.

The book is written without assuming the user has any prior statistical knowledge and therefore can be used by beginners. It starts from basic first principles such as;  mean, mode and percentages building up to more ‘complex’ statistical methods.   I found the layout of the book to be its major plus point and a clever way to break down this subject.

The design of the book is explained at the start and I recommend everyone to read this chapter before using the book, to ensure you make the most of the simple but useful tips provided by the authors.

Every chapter has the same headings; this can help the user to build a basic framework on how to approach most statistical tests.
Every chapter is given a star rating; the higher the rating out of 5, the more important or common the statistical method being taught. This allows an individual to either skip to the 5 star sections if they are short of time or pay more attention to more common statistical techniques.

This is then followed by a thumbs up system, which outlines the difficulty of each section; the higher the thumbs up, the easier the sections are to understand.

The author has tried to combine explaining what a certain statistical test means and when it should be used, throughout the sections. This helps the individual to not only understand what a statistical test is, but helps them put there learning into practice. Hence this book can be used as an aid to when writing papers and when carrying out relevant statistical analysis.

Towards the end, there is a ‘Statistics at work’ section here real life examples are used to demonstrate why and how different statistical techniques are used to analyse a certain piece of work. Here is an opportunity for users to apply the knowledge they have gained from working through the book and helps to reinforce the content of the textbook.

The entire book is supplemented with a good use of examples including, graphs and tables. It also contains some exam tips; these are good for students so that they can focus on common exam type scenarios instead of being engulfed but the entire book, which in itself, if used from start to end is an excellent statistics course.

Overall, the book is a good aid to medical statistics, and its design allows it the flexibility to be used by students for exams or by qualified professionals who are publishing and reading papers. It is simple to use and despite the complexity of the topic there is not too much information on every page.

For future perhaps the use of colour could enhance the users learning experience especially if this textbook was to be used as a statistics course. However, all in all it is a very useful guide to understanding statistics and I believe achieves its aim to help making medical statistics easier.

Reviewed by Manpreet Lakhan - 5th year medical student

Hello and Goodbye

HELLO

UHNS Hospital Campus
Elaine Mann – Part-time receptionist
Ruth Kinston – Lecturer in Accident & Emergency Medicine, based at UHNS
Sheila Evans – Part-time Teaching Support Assistant
Mrs Joy Bagguley – Part-time Clinical Skills Teacher, UHNS – Starting 5th July 2010


Keele Campus
Dr Chris Harrison – Senior Lecturer in Medical Education
Julie Wilde – Part-time Placements Administrator
Miss Joanne Allerdyce - Teaching Assistant Anatomy (Commences in September 2010)


Mid Staffs Hospital Trust – All commencing their posts on 2nd August 2010
Dr Terri Bentley – Support Tutor in Medicine
Dr Tom Price – Support Tutor in Locomotor
Dr Andre Leonard – Support Tutor in Neurology
Mr Mike Dobson – Support Tutor
Congratulations to – Anne Taylor who has been appointed as Hospital Dean


South Staffs and Shropshire Trust, Stafford – All commencing their posts on 2nd August 2010
Dr Susan Baker - Lecturer in Psychiatry
Dr Vijaya Ramani Das - Lecturer in Psychiatry
Dr Robert Dennis - Lecturer in Psychiatry
Dr Maha El-nadeef - Lecturer in Psychiatry
Dr Kristina Hofberg - Lecturer in Psychiatry
Dr Bindu Poornamodan - Lecturer in Psychiatry
Dr Jayanth Srinivas - Lecturer in Psychiatry
Dr Helen Whitworth - Lecturer in Psychiatry

 

Goodbye – Sylvia Arino

At the end of July, Sylvia Arino, full-time administrator within Postgraduate Medicine, will be retiring after 14 years working at Keele.

Since 1993, Sylvia has supported a long line of academics and students in healthcare.  Initially part of the Postgraduate Medical Institute, Sylvia worked with Professor Elder and Mr Mark Deakin on surgery research and surgical professional courses at Thornburrow Drive.  In 1999, she became administrator for the MSc Geriatric Medicine and the MMedSci programme.  When Postgraduate Medicine merged with the new Undergraduate Medicine section to form the School of Medicine, Sylvia continued to administer the MMedSci and relocated to the City General site at the Courtyard Annexe.

Sylvia's student files are legendary and her calm manner has aided many a student panicking over deadlines and module requirements.  Her organisational skills have been relied on by clinicians and academics alike and woe betide any module leader who tries to submit handwritten feedback on student assignments.

It goes without saying that she will be sorely missed.  In fact, we can't imagine how we are ever going to manage without her.  We would like to express our gratitude for all the hard work she has done over the years and wish her a long and happy retirement.

 
Welcome back to Suzanne Whiteman - Suzanne now works at Keele on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

Congratulations to:

Jane Walker who married Tony on 12th March and is now Mrs Jane Hunt.
Lorraine Clews - who has been nominated by students for the university’s Teaching Excellence Award scheme.
Hannah Reidy on her permanent appointment as Teaching Support Administrator
Paul Horrocks – Senior Lectureship promotion from 1st October
Adrian Molyneux on becoming Lecturer in Learning Technology

 

Achievements/Qualifications

Gemma Bailey – Certificate of Anatomical Technology and Science with highest marks possible – well done!!
Margaret Bourke – ECDL Part 1
Teresa Bridgwood - ILM Level 2 Team Leading
Emma Foxhall – NVQ3 in Business & Administration and ECDL Part 1
Steve Harper – Foundation Degree in Computing
Sarah Hart – Research Supervisor Training & Development Programme
Hazel Horridge – ILM Level 3 First Line Leadership & Management
Jane Hunt - ILM Level 2 Team Leading programme
Karen Jackson – ECDL Part 1
Penny List – Research Supervisor Training & Development Programme
Angela Lovatt – NVQ3 in Business & Administration
Janet McNicholas – NVQ3 in Business & Administration
Annette Machin – BA Hons in Business Management
Indira Natarajan – Diploma in Geriatric Medicine
Sarah Philpott – HNC in Business Management with distinction
Denise Probyn – ILM Level 2 Team Leading programme
Heather Rushton – ECDL Part 1
Lynn Sagar - Cisco Certified Network Associate Part 1 - Networking Fundamentals and ILM Level 3 First Line Leadership & Management
Jemma Tellwright - ILM Level 2 Team Leading programme

Congratulations - Patter of tiny feet

Nikki Kuiper and her husband (Jan) on the birth of their baby daughter, Ellie
Stuart McBain and his wife (Keira) on the birth of their baby daughter, Isla Kate