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Substance misuse teaching in undergraduate medical education

Carroll, J; Goodair, C; Chaytor, A; Notley, C; Ghodse, H; Kopelman, P (2014) Substance misuse teaching in undergraduate medical education. BMC MEDICAL EDUCATION, 14 (34). pp. 1-8. ISSN 1472-6920 https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-14-34
SGUL Authors: Ghodse, Abdul Hamid Kopelman, Peter Graham Goodair, Christine M

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Abstract

Background: Over 12,000 hospital admissions in the UK result from substance misuse, therefore issues surrounding this need to be addressed early on in a doctor’s training to facilitate their interaction with this client group. Currently, undergraduate medical education includes teaching substance misuse issues, yet how this is formally integrated into the curriculum remains unclear. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with 17 key members of staff responsible for the whole or part of the undergraduate medical curriculum were conducted to identify the methods used to teach substance misuse. Using a previously devised toolkit, 19 curriculum co-ordinators then mapped the actual teaching sessions that addressed substance misuse learning objectives. Results: Substance misuse teaching was delivered primarily in psychiatry modules but learning objectives were also found in other areas such as primary care placements and problem-based learning. On average, 53 teaching sessions per medical school focused on bio-psycho-social models of addiction whereas only 23 sessions per medical school focused on professionalism, fitness to practice and students’ own health in relation to substance misuse. Many sessions addressed specific learning objectives relating to the clinical features of substance dependence whereas few focused on iatrogenic addiction. Conclusions: Substance misuse teaching is now inter-disciplinary and the frequent focus on clinical, psychological and social effects of substance misuse emphasises the bio-psycho-social approach underlying clinical practice. Some areas however are not frequently taught in the formal curriculum and these need to be addressed in future changes to medical education.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2014 Carroll et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article,unless otherwise stated.
Keywords: Social Sciences, Education & Educational Research, Education, Scientific Disciplines, EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES, CURRICULUM, ABUSE, STUDENTS, DOCTORS, Medical Informatics, 1302 Curriculum And Pedagogy, 1117 Public Health And Health Services
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Population Health Research Institute (INPH)
Journal or Publication Title: BMC MEDICAL EDUCATION
ISSN: 1472-6920
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Dates:
DateEvent
17 February 2014Published
Web of Science ID: WOS:000334384800001
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/107042
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-14-34

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