An analysis of fifth year Paediatric teaching

Abstract

Much teaching in paediatrics is done at the patient's bedside. The clinical ward round should integrate all the pertinent features of the case. A prospective study was undertaken at the Johannesburg Hospital to evaluate such teaching. Twenty-two fifth year medical students and ten paediatric consultants were studied during the students1 first exposure to clinical paediatrics. Analysis of the teaching showed that there were significant differences between ideal objectives set by the Department, what was actually taught during the clinical ward round and what students perceived as having been taught. Futhermore, consultants defined more objectives for the teaching session when this was done prior to the tutorial than after the tutorial. The correlation between objectives considered taught by consultants and those perceived by students as having been taught, was poorer when consultants defined their teaching objectives before the tutorials compared with when consultants defined their objectives after the tutorials. These findings indicate unrealistic expectations in terms of what tutors are able to cover in a ward round when the objectives are pre-defined. Further analysis of the data revealed a bias towards objectives which were inappropriate for students with limited clinical experience.