E-Med News. Edition 9

May 2007


Contents
The new Keele curriculum update
Student Support update
The role of the Academic Conduct Officer
Ethics, Law & Medical Regulation
Recruitment Events
JASME Conference update
Student Careers Committee
Fundraising Event

 

The New Keele Curriculum Update

The new Keele curriculum (formerly known as Curriculum 2007) is developing nicely and on target. The details of Year (Module 1) are close to being finalised, and I would like to thank Rosemary Fricker-Gates and Peter Coventry for their hard and pioneering work in co-leading that development without the increased level of support that has become available for further curriculum work. Based on student feedback, we are developing a more interactive, 'discovery-based' approach to the PBL sessions, so that students might enjoy a bit of sleuthing within each problem case. This model of PBL will evolve to more complex cases in Year (Module) 2, the development of which has begun under the co-leadership of Gordon Dent and Mark Cowling. I appreciate that many of those involved in Module 1 development will also be involved in Module 2 development, but the phased development process should mean that workloads overall should not increase, just change focus. Many thanks to all who are participating in this.

Professor Richard Hays - Head of the Medical School

Student Support update

The Student Support service is nearly a year old and continues to be much in demand. We are delighted that we are able to respond to this demand by the appointment of Dr Saskia Jones-Perrott as a tutor in Shrewsbury and the imminent appointment of a further tutor both at Keele and at the UHNS campus. This will mean a choice of tutor to see and also an increased range of time availability (much needed as we are in dire danger of developing a waiting list for appointments!) The service continues to be available to all within undergraduate and postgraduate medicine and aims to "signpost" students to relevant help both in and out of the University, as well as act as a specific resource for problems that are unique to the professional aspects of medicine and medical courses. Monthly e-mails act as a contact reminder for the service as well as a regular update. We are happy to talk to you about any problem and offer help and advice.

Dr Carol Gray - Director of Student Support

The Role of the Academic Conduct Officer

I will be taking over this role from Dr Paula Roberts in September 2007. What does this person do you may ask? – I did and received a job description with seventeen bullet points!

In summary, each School within the University has an Academic Conduct Officer (ACO) who, along with one or more Deputy ACOs (Mr Vinay Jasani in the case of the School of Medicine ) is responsible for dealing with alleged cases of plagiarism by undergraduate and postgraduate students. In practice this involves an initial short talk to all students at the beginning of their academic course making them aware of the regulations, promoting good academic practice, advising on electronic checking and noting the potential consequences of breaches.


The next phase involves markers of coursework who suspect plagiarism to report instances to the ACO or DACO for checking. This may take the form of electronic checking, for example, using the JISC Turnitin software system. After appropriate procedures have been followed, including consulting the Directorate of Academic Services to check regarding any previous offences, penalties may be incurred. The latter range from a simple warning through to being given a zero mark for the whole module in which the offence took place and of course its appropriate consequences. In addition, appropriate Examination Boards, Progress Committees, Fitness to Practice Committees and so on are informed.

Finally, ACOs make annual reports to School Learning and Teaching Committees, review the information available to students and staff within the School, and meet up with other ACOs to ensure cross-university consistency.

I hope I haven't plagiarised too much of the University regulations here – the reference is www.keele.ac.uk/depts/aa/regulationshandbook/reg8.htm#cheating .

Mr Mike Mahon - Director of Anatomy

Ethics, law and medical regulation

Medical regulation is undergoing a period of change following publication in February this year of the government White Paper, Trust, Assurance and Safety . While major change is unlikely to happen quickly it seems the GMC is set to retain its core powers of maintaining and controlling admission to the register and quality assuring medical education. In future, the composition of Council is to be balanced between medical and non-medical members, and the GMC is going to be responsible for the re-licensing and re-certification of doctors. The powers of adjudication are to be separated out and a regional pool of GMC affiliates established for use in cases involving challenges to doctors' fitness to practise .

Other recent developments at the GMC include the initiation of a project on developing guidelines to encourage entry of disabled people into medicine and retaining them in the profession. In addition, as part of a public consultation on draft national guidelines on procedures for student fitness to practise, a series of workshops were held during March at medical schools around the UK, led by Keele's medical law and ethics specialist, Dr Roger Worthington.

Dr Roger Worthington - Lecturer

Recruitment Events

 

Visit Days 2007

Over 100 medical applicants and their families attended one of four Visit days; for candidates with an offer to study at Keele University . The aim of the Visit Day is to help applicants make a more informed choice of where to study by enabling them to find out more about the University, the medical curriculum, view our facilities and to meet staff and students. Dr Andrew Hassell and Dr Lindsay Bashford gave talks to the applicants' parents, whilst the applicants themselves were able to sample our approach to Problem Based Learning. Staff and students across both the University and Hospital sites were involved in tours of the facilities and in answering queries.

This year overall applications to most other Medical Schools have fallen, but this has not been the case for the MBChB degree where 1200 applications were received for 130 places.

Open Days 2007

“So You Want To Be A Doctor?” Medical Careers Day – 28th March 2007

The School of Medicine , in association with the Royal Society of Medicine, hosted the “So You Want To Be A Doctor?” careers day for the fifth time on 28th March. About 250 school pupils from years 10-12 attended the day, held in the Medical School building on the Keele campus.

They enjoyed a packed programme including sessions on “Why Choose a Career in Medicine?”, “Entry Requirements and the Interview”, “The Student Years” and “Pathways in a Medical Career”. In the afternoon there were interactive sessions including laboratory work, quizzes and an admissions question and answer workshop.

Speakers included Professor Ian Johnson, Nottingham Medical School , Professor Peter Dangerfield, Liverpool University , Dr Paul Miller, Royal Society of Medicine and Dr Andrew Hassell, Director of Undergraduate Programmes at Keele, together with former medical students from St George's Medical School and Keele University .
 
Delegates at the Careers Day come from as far afield as Birmingham, Worcester, Bristol, Wales, Belfast, Derby, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, Yorkshire, the Isle of Man, Edinburgh, Lancashire, Clevedon and Merseyside, as well as Sandbach, Shropshire, Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle.

JASME Conference Update

The Junior Association for the Study of Medical Education, (the junior branch of the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME)) conference is to be held at Keele from 11th – 13th July 2007. The theme is Inequalities in Medical Education and will focus on issues such as widening participation in medicine, what students rights are should they become disabled while at Medical school, and the implications of the disproportionate increase in female students. Conference organiser (Rachel Parsonage year 3 medicine) has confirmed that speakers will include Professor Parveen Kumar, Dame Lesley Southgate, Dr Roger Worthington, Dr Bob Clarke, Professor Danny Dorling and Student BMA Representative Miss Emily Rigby. For more information on the JASME 2007 conference, contact Rachel Parsonage (m4a25@keele.ac.uk).

Student Careers Committee

 

Worried about Your Future? The Keele Medical Student Career Committee Career Fair is what you need

Amidst the nationwide anxiety surrounding medical careers, Keele medical students are making exciting moves forward. March brought with it the formation of the first ever Keele Medical Student Career Committee; a group of medical students from all years who want more careers guidance so much that they are willing to devote time and energy into developing high quality resources around careers advice. The group has been initiated and facilitated by ex-Keele medical student and current Foundation Year 1 doctor, Elizabeth Cottrell, with academic support provided by Dr Andrew Hassell, Director of Undergraduate Programmes.

Even more exciting is the forthcoming Careers Fair, to be held on Saturday 16 th of June at Keele University Medical School , Keele Campus. All Keele medical undergraduates are invited. Through the fair we aim to disseminate information and, hopefully, address concerns.

The Career Fair will be a one day event. It will consist of structured sessions on topics, such as MTAS applications, and informal stalls where people can drop in for advice throughout the day. We aim to get key local clinicians and academics to contribute. If the day proves very popular we aim to run a similar event again in the new academic year.

Interested? Look out for more information coming your way soon via the website the Career Committee will soon be launching, fliers and from your Career Committee year representatives.

Anna Sutherland, Keele Medical Student Career Committee Member
Elizabeth Cottrell, Keele Medical Student Career Committee initiator and facilitator

Fund Raising Event


Staff from the Keele Campus took part in a fund raising day on 16 th March in aid of Comic Relief.

 Staff were allowed to “dress down” for a £1 donation with a condition that one item of clothing had to be RED.


A tombola style stall and “Who's Behind The Nose” scratch card were held over the lunchtime period in the atrium. Staff and students were invited to participate with many donated prizes to be won, including golf clubs, toiletries and alcohol. Winners of “Who's Behind The Nose” won cash prizes.

Many thanks to those who participated in either donating gifts or spending their student loans on raffle tickets!

The final total raised at the end of the event was a whopping £225.45 which has gone to a very good cause.

We hope to repeat the event in future years and look forward to you all joining us.

 
K Hartley & S Philpott (Event Organisers)