gms | German Medical Science

Research in Medical Education – Chances and Challenges International Conference

20.05. - 22.05.2009, Heidelberg

Quality assurance in postgraduate education – development and evaluation of a guideline for instructors

Meeting Abstract

  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Cornelia Mahler - Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Abteilung Allgemeinmedizin und Versorgungsforschung, Heidelberg, Germany
  • author Christiane Eicher - Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Abteilung Allgemeinmedizin und Versorgungsforschung, Heidelberg, Germany
  • author Thomas Ledig - Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Abteilung Allgemeinmedizin und Versorgungsforschung, Heidelberg, Germany
  • author Marco Roos - Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Abteilung Allgemeinmedizin und Versorgungsforschung, Heidelberg, Germany
  • author Joachim Szecsenyi - Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Abteilung Allgemeinmedizin und Versorgungsforschung, Heidelberg, Germany

Research in Medical Education - Chances and Challenges 2009. Heidelberg, 20.-22.05.2009. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2009. Doc09rmeG3

doi: 10.3205/09rme39, urn:nbn:de:0183-09rme391

Published: May 5, 2009

© 2009 Mahler et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Poster

Background: The department of General Practice and Health Services Research at the University Hospital Heidelberg established an event of continuing medical education in 2004, which takes place twice a year on the hospital campus: the “Heidelberger Tag der Allgemeinmedizin” [1]. This postgraduate education program is designed to give general practitioners (GP) and their team evidence-based information on issues of everyday practice in primary care in an attractive environment free of industrial sponsoring. A wide range of varying topics are offered in interactive workshops. This enables an exchange of experience among colleagues and helps transfer theory into everyday practice. Experienced general practitioners who collaborate with the department in various projects also act as instructors/tutors of the workshops. These GPs have high medical expertise and comply with the role of an “information provider“; they have mostly not yet been aware of their “teaching role model” or their role of being a “learning facilitator” [2]. To ensure that the workshops are not solely lectures but also comprise an interactive part these GPs need to be encouraged to reflect, analyse and change their teaching activities. As varying instructors participate each time it seems to be a suitable approach to hand a teaching-guideline to the instructors in order to achieve and maintain high quality.

Question: Do the instructors of the “Tag der Allgemeinmedizin” regard a guideline for teaching helpful in preparing and conducting their workshop? Can the guideline assist quality assurance?

Methods: A guideline for instructors was developed for the 8th Heidelberger Tag der Allgemeinmedizin (April 2008) outlining some principles of learning and teaching methods. This was sent to all 44 participating instructors in January 2008 accompanied by the program. A self-administered questionnaire was handed to the instructors on the day of the event to answer the question above as well as to receive information on organisational aspects.

Results: 30 questionnaires (68.2%) were returned. 26 instructors answered the questions concerning the guideline. Nearly all of them (n=21) had read the guideline. 8 of the 14 instructors who had previously experienced didactical training regarded the guideline equally helpful as all instructors with no didactical training (n=10).

Conclusions: All in all the guideline was considered helpful by all instructors regardless of their educational experience. It was used as a possibility for personal contact not only regarding matters of organisation but also for conceptual workshop issues. A guideline seems to give important instructive assistance. At the same time it can be used for quality assurance within a department/faculty to give a clear idea which aspects are considered important and to set criteria/standards for good and effective workshops.


References

1.
Szecsenyi J, Wiesemann A, Stutzke, O, Mahler C. "Tag der Allgemeinmedizin" - Ein Beitrag zur Entwicklung einer gemeinsamen regionalen Plattform zwischen Hausarztpraxen und einer Universitätsabteilung. Z Allg Med. 2006;82:449-455. DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-942191. External link
2.
Harden RM, Crosby J. AMEE Guide No 20: The good teacher is more than a lecturer - the twelve roles of the teacher. Med Teach. 2000;22(4):334-347. DOI: 10.1080/014215900409410. External link