Abstract
BackgroundIn 1996 The University of Liverpool reformed its medical course from a traditional lecture-based course to an integrated PBL curriculum. A project has been underway since 2000 to evaluate this change. Part of this project has involved gathering retrospective views on the relevance of both types of undergraduate education according to graduates. This paper focuses on the views of traditional Liverpool graduates approximately 6 years after graduation.MethodsFrom February 2006 to June 2006 interviews took place with 46 graduates from the last 2 cohorts to graduate from the traditional Liverpool curriculum.ResultsThe graduates were generally happy with their undergraduate education although they did feel there were some flaws in their curriculum. They felt they had picked up good history and examination skills and were content with their exposure to different specialties on clinical attachments. They were also pleased with their basic science teaching as preparation for postgraduate exams, however many complained about the overload and irrelevance of many lectures in the early years of their course, particular in biochemistry. There were many different views about how they integrated this science teaching into understanding disease processes and many didn't feel it was made relevant to them at the time they learned it. Retrospectively, they felt that they hadn't been clinically well prepared for the role of working as junior doctor, particularly the practical aspects of the job nor had enough exposure to research skills. Although there was little communication skills training in their course they didn't feel they would have benefited from this training as they managed to pick up had the required skills on clinical attachments.ConclusionThese interviews offer a historical snapshot of the views of graduates from a traditional course before many courses were reformed. There was some conflict in the interviews about the doctors enjoying their undergraduate education but then saying that they didn't feel they received good preparation for working as a junior doctor. Although the graduates were happy with their undergraduate education these interviews do highlight some of the reasons why the traditional curriculum was reformed at Liverpool.
Highlights
In 1996 The University of Liverpool reformed its medical course from a traditional lecture-based course to an integrated PBL curriculum
There have been studies examining the impact of curriculum reform on the first year post graduation [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11] and various quantitative studies have asked graduates retrospectively to evaluate their undergraduate education, [12,13,14,15,16] but there have been few qualitative studies asking graduates in retrospect to evaluate their undergraduate medical education
All UK doctors have a statutory duty be registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) in order to practice medicine
Summary
In 1996 The University of Liverpool reformed its medical course from a traditional lecture-based course to an integrated PBL curriculum. A project has been underway since 2000 to evaluate this change Part of this project has involved gathering retrospective views on the relevance of both types of undergraduate education according to graduates. This paper focuses on the views of traditional Liverpool graduates approximately 6 years after graduation. Whilst there were good reasons for reforming traditional curricula, few studies in the UK have examined traditional graduates' attitude to their undergraduate medical education prior to curricula being reformed. This paper aims to redress the balance by discussing interviews held with medical graduates from a traditional course approximately 6 years after graduation
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