UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE AND VETERINARY MEDICINE
MBChB PROGRAMME COMMITTEE
Note of the meeting of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine MBChB Programme Committee
held at 10.30 am on Tuesday, 24 April 2012 in the Board Room (SU302), The Chancellor’s Building, Little France.
Present:
Professor I Power
Dr W Reid
Professor A N Tuner
Dr F Kristmundsdottir
Professor J Davies
Dr I Johannessen
Dr E Duvall
Mr J Casey
Dr P Johnson
Dr A Jaap
Dr S Riley
Dr H Cameron
Professor K Boyd
Dr M Cullen
Dr J Skinner
Dr R Phelps
Dr L Fialova
Dr J Harden
Mr B Allan
Mr M Begg
Mrs M McGill
Dr N McCormick
Miss E Rowson
Mrs C Tomlinson
In attendance: Dr F Pender
1.
Director of Clinical Teaching - Convenor
Convenor, MBChB Programme Executive Committee
Director, Undergraduate Learning & Teaching
Director of Student Affairs
Year 1 Director
Year 2 Director
Years 1&2 Deputy Director
Year 3 Deputy Director
Year 4 Director
Year 5 Deputy Director
Director, Student Selected Components
Director, Centre for Medical Education
Honorary Associate PTH for Medical Ethics
PTH, Personal Professional Development
PTH, Emergency Care, Clinical & Resuscitation Skills
co-PTH, Medical Informatics
Deputy PTH, Medical Ethics/PPD
Deputy PTH, Social Sciences & Public Health
Deputy PTH, Clinical Communication
Manager, LTS e-Learning Unit
MBChB Manager
Assessment Officer
Admissions Officer
Committee Secretary
Centre for Medical Education
WELCOME AND APOLOGIES
ACTION:
Professor Power welcomed members to the meeting and ensured they were in
possession of the agenda and papers.
Apologies were conveyed from Professor S Maxwell, Dr K Boyd, Dr P Midgley and
Dr H Rodgers.
On behalf of the Committee, Professor Power congratulated Professor Jamie Davies
on the award of the Robert Kendall prize for teaching in Medicine. The nomination was
made by medical students at their recent EUSA 4th annual teaching awards ceremony.
A copy of the award announcement was circulated.
2.
DULT’s INTRODUCTION
Professor Neil Turner had now taken up the post of Director of Undergraduate Learning
and Teaching (DULT) vacated by Professor Allan Cumming.
Professor Turner explained that currently he was in post for 18 months and that he would
like to address clarity of roles and communication at an early stage. Professor Turner
hoped to meet with Committee members, and other groups, over the next few months
and welcomed their views and ideas regarding organisation of structures.
Professor Power welcomed Professor Turner as DULT and recorded the Committee’s
support.
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3.
MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON 7 MARCH 2012
Professor Power took members through the action which required to be taken, noted in
the right-hand column of the minutes of 7 March. The minutes were approved.
4.
MATTERS ARISING/ ACTION FROM THE MINUTES
It was agreed that the action points had either been addressed or were in hand and would
be presented to a future meeting.
Matters arising:
4.1
Personal tutors – update (deferred until June meeting)
4.2
Student assistantships – update (Dr A Jaap)/
TRAK – update (Dr R Phelps)
Dr Jaap was pleased to report that the student assistantship which ran for the first
time this year had recently been completed. This had been a major logistic exercise
to attach 248 students to clinical units to undertake tasks they would encounter as
an F1.
Informal evaluation of the exercise suggests that this ran very smoothly and feedback
from students has been extremely positive. Supervisors’ (ie Foundation Doctors)
reports on their students were captured electronically through EEMeC.
Several students had, for various reasons, to withdraw before or during the assistantship but it has been possible to reschedule this during their final Year 5 block.
Formal collection of feedback from Year 5 students is underway through EEMeC and
will be collected from the Foundation Doctors via the DOTS system.
(Post meeting note: the latter has been delayed because the email addresses of the
Foundation Doctors could only be collected from the reports they submitted.)
Dr Cameron remarked that a summer vacation project application had been submitted
to College Office to recruit a student to take forward interviews with graduating
students and Foundation Doctors regarding the assistantship but confirmation had not
yet been received.
Professor Turner stated that informal feedback he has received suggests that the
student assistantship had been extremely successful. Both Professor Power and
Professor Turner thanked Dr Jaap for all the work involved. Dr Jaap acknowledged
the assistance of Jennifer Hill and also Dr Cameron and colleagues for getting the
Foundation Doctors up to speed.
Dr Phelps reported on the progress with the TRAK system. Agreement was reached
last summer between NHS Lothian and the University for a protocol. This has now
evolved and from September 2012 Year 3 would receive a seminar given by Dr
Phelps providing information regarding the safe use of the TRAK system.
Dr Phelps confirmed that basic level TRAK access did not require training.
Students will then be required to read some documentation and complete/sign a
form (available on EEMeC) agreeing to comply with NHS Lothian governance,
following which they will receive a log-on for basic level TRAK access. This will equip
them for their learning as they progress through clinical attachments and was seen as
a major step forward. It was agreed that students should be given a deadline for
submission of the form and the seriousness of signing the form emphasised to them.
It was agreed that failure to comply with the submission deadline would mean that the
November Board of Examiners could make the decision that such students would not
be permitted to progress/attend clinical teaching.
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Dr R Phelps/
Dr H Rodgers/
Year 3 BoE
It was acknowledged that a “catch up” programme required to be put into place for
the current Years 3 and 4 but that there were resource and administration considerations, particularly regarding auditing of the signed forms.
Year 3 Co-ordinator/
Dr R Phelps
Dr Phelps informed the Committee that he had been in discussion with Dr Simon
Edgar, Director of Medical Education for NHS Lothian, who was hopeful funding would
be available in the future to make TRAK training sustainable/appoint a trainer.
5.
PRIORITIES/STANDING ITEMS:
5.1
GMC Requirements and project plan – QABME 2009 and “Tomorrow’s
Doctors” 2009
• curriculum structure
MBChB Development plan – 2011-13 - no further update
OPALplus project - no further update
•
educational content – student assistantships (see 4.2 above)
• learning processes – no further update
• QA processes - no further update
5.2
Academic Feedback
• NSS 2012 – update (Mrs M McGill)
Marion McGill reported that the Medical School was now 5th in the league
table of Schools in the University for the NSS with response rates of 7374%, compared to last year’s response rate of 59%.
The increased response rate was felt to be largely due to the setting up of
computers with the NSS survey and students encouraged to complete it
prior to the Year 5 examination information evening. The information
evening was brought forward to allow this to happen and it was therefore
hoped to repeat this exercise next year.
6.
MAPPING THE EDINBURGH MBChB (for approval) (Dr H Cameron) Paper 11/PC/38
The document was displayed via projection and will be uploaded retrospectively with final
revisions.
Dr Cameron explained that a significant amount of work had been undertaken by the
Programme Theme Heads (PTHs) looking at the “Tomorrow’s Doctors” 2009 document.
She went on to explain that work had been done over the last year to look at Edinburgh’s
12 outcomes which map onto the GMC’s 16 outcomes. Edinburgh has named the detailed
statements Level 4 Learning Outcomes (L4LOs) and over the last 6 months an exercise has
been undertaken to look at the GMC’s detailed programme outcomes to check that Edinburgh
delivers all of these and whether Edinburgh delivers anything additional and how this should be
formulated. The current exercise was also used to clarify which of Edinburgh’s Programme
Theme Heads take responsibility, with the Centre for Medical Education, for overseeing the
curriculum development, delivery and assessment for each of the GMC detailed learning outcomes. (And this role must be differentiated from taking responsibility for delivering and
assessing the detailed learning outcomes.)
The document which was circulated to Committee members is arranged according to Edinburgh’s
programme outcomes. Dr Cameron had received only a few comments regarding minor
refinements/omissions and she did not therefore intend to take the Committee through the
entire document. Dr Cameron went through the themes where revisions/omissions had been
proposed.
Following viewing of the document and discussion, it was agreed that:
Presentation, Diagnosis and Management section should be fleshed out.
Pharmacology and Therapeutics section should be re-worked and would be taken back to the
PTH (examples should accompany this request).
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Dr H Cameron/
Dr A Elder/
Prof S Maxwell
A decision on whether the title of Medical Informatics theme should be amended to “Medical
Information” to be considered outwith this Committee.
Dr H Cameron/
Dr R Phelps
Medical Ethics, Legal and Professional Responsibilities – reference to patient safety should be
deleted.
Dr H Cameron
Dr Cameron had requested comments from PTHs on why Edinburgh’s L4LOs differ from the
GMC’s and would be grateful if they were able to provide her with this information.
PTHs
7.
YEAR 2 PROPOSALS (Dr I Johannessen) – Paper 11/PC/39
•
to curtail exam compensation
Weightings for Year 2 exam marks are currently 40:60 for Semesters 1 and 2 and a
Semester 1 mark of between 55-59 can be compensated for by a good Semester
2 mark, in line with Year 1.
It is acknowledged that transition to University can pose a challenge to students and
it therefore seems reasonable to allow some degree of compensation in Year 1. It is,
however, proposed that compensation between Semester 1 and 2 exams in Year 2 be
curtailed and that students will be required to achieve a pass mark of 60% for each
Semester. Year 1/2 Committee is in agreement with this approach.
This proposal was approved.
•
to establish a separate ICP OSCA exam
Within the present MB ChB curriculum, the assessment of the CSPPD theme contains
an end-of-year OSCE (70%) plus in-course assessment of ICP Patient Studies (20%)
and First Aid & Resuscitation (10%). In order to progress students are required to pass
both the OSCE and CSPPD overall.
Following External Examiner comment on last year’s Year 2 OSCE and in view of
recent psychometric assessments of past OSCE results by the CME, it was considered
that the internal consistency and reliability of these results would be improved by adding
to the content and substance of assessment. The ICP organisers have, in liaison with
Dr I Johannessen/
CME and Year 2, suggested that a one-hour single best answer OSCA-based exam be Year 2 Assessment
introduced at the end of Semester 2, with a view to combining the OSCA and OSCE
Panel
results to produce a more robust measure of student competencies.
Initial proposals are for a one-hour/40 question format of which 30 questions will be
based on ICP content (The Consultation and Presentation, Diagnosis & Management)
and 10 questions on Emergency Care, Clinical & Resuscitation Skills.
The term CSPPD is no longer used in official descriptions of the Year 2 courses.
From 2011/12 the course has been called “Introduction to Clinical Practice”. Please
refer to http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/12-13/dpt/utmedpr.htm
It is proposed that the changes would take effect from academic year 2012/2013.
This proposal was approved.
8.
PLANNED 6-YEAR MBChB (Prof A N Turner)
Professor Turner reported that there was an aspiration for more students to undertake an
intercalated year with the view that eventually that all students would undertake this
additional year. However, reaching the above position is complex and the system would
require to be phased in over a period of time. There are therefore no radical plans for this
to come into force at the present time. It was also acknowledged that this would involve
significant funding implications.
The possibility of obtaining several additional places for an intercalated year, has, however
been explored and Marion McGill confirmed that for academic year 2012/13 10 additional
places had been secured - total 100 places.
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Discussion regarding the pros and cons of this followed. It was agreed that this should be
re-considered in due course at a meeting of the Committee but in the meantime any views
on this should be directed to Professor Turner.
9.
QUALITY FRAMEWORK FOR PBL (Dr F Pender) – Papers 11/PC/40A&B
Dr Pender reported that PBL continued to develop and it was considered appropriate
to put into place a quality framework against which the experience could be assessed
to ensure the PBL remains fit-for-purpose.
The overarching framework has been developed (Paper 11/PC/40B) and the document has
been endorsed by the PBL Management Group. The document sets out the expected
arrangements required to support the delivery strategy and enhancement aspirations to shape
PBL learning in the Edinburgh MBChB. Each of the standards requires to be met annually and
a report presented to the appropriate Year Committee.
10.
STAFF CHANGES:
The Committee was informed of the following staff changes:
•
Child Life & Health module organiser - outgoing Professor David Wilson;
incoming Dr Richard Chin
•
Medical Informatics co-theme leader – Mr Michael Begg standing down;
Dr Richard Phelps will continue alone as the theme leader
Professor Power thanked Mr Begg for his contribution to the Medical Informatics theme.
Mr Begg responded that LTS would still provide support to Dr Phelps, focusing particularly
on Year 1.
11.
YEAR 5 ROTATION 4 CHILD LIFE & HEALTH EXAM (QMP SOFTWARE)
(Dr N McCormick) – Paper 11/PC/41
Online examinations form a significant part of assessment and Dr McCormick wished to
inform the Committee of an incident that had occurred during the above exam on 7
March 2012.
Dr McCormick explained that the Questionmark Perception (QMP) proprietary software
was managed from Information Services (IS) rather than LTS within the College.
On starting the exam, a majority of candidates found that they were unable to scroll beyond
the fifth question. A member of IS staff was on hand and the problem addressed. The exam
was re-set and recommenced for all candidates.
IS have investigated the problem further and have concluded that the problem was likely to
have been caused by too many candidates logging-in to the exam simultaneously. The same
log-in procedure has, however, been used in all previous Child Life & Health QMP exams
without any problem.
Professor Turner confirmed that the Year 5 Board of Examiners had looked very carefully at
This incident and considered whether any student had been disadvantaged. The Exam Board
were agreed that the incident had been well managed and the results stood.
12.
AOCB – none.
13.
DATE OF NEXT AND SUBSEQUENT MEETING
Monday, 18 June 2012
Wednesday, 22 August 2012 (to be chaired by Prof A N Turner in Prof I Power’s absence)
both at 10.30 am in the Board Room, Chancellor’s Building.
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Committee
14.
INTERRUPTION OF STUDIES - Reserved Business (Tabled) (Dr F
Kristmundsdottir) – Paper 11/PC/42
One request from a Year 1 student and two from Year 3 students for interruption of studies
due to ill health were approved.
A further request from a Year 1 student for interruption of studies due to family issues was
also approved.
Dr Kristmundsdottir also raised the issue of a student currently on leave of absence (granted
31 August 2010) to allow training for possible selection for the 2012 Olympic Games in rowing.
Dr Kristmundsdottir explained that the British team selection has not yet been announced
(although the student had been selected for World Cup team). It was therefore possible
that an extension to the period of absence from the MBChB programme may be requested.
In this event, the student’s case would require to be re-visited and a decision made regarding
at what stage of the programme the student should re-enter.
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