Education Project - Consultation

Ethics and law has been embedded in undergraduate medical education since 1993 when the General Medical Council (GMC) published Tomorrow's Doctors which stated that 'graduates must know about and understand the main ethical and legal issues they will come across' (paragraph 29).

In 1998 the Institute of Medical Ethics (IME) was involved in the production of a Consensus Statement* by teachers of medical ethics and law in UK medical schools that proposed a core curriculum for ethics and law. Now more than ten years on, as part of its Education Programme and in light of the GMC consultation on Tomorrow's Doctors, the IME is coordinating a review of the content of the ethics and law core curriculum. The curriculum will span undergraduate medical education and the first two foundational years - F1 and F2. The curriculum is aimed to be vertically and horizontally integrated and it is recognized that certain topics should be introduced early whilst others are more appropriately left to later years.

Revision of the core curriculum was a main theme of the IME 4^th annual conference, held on 23^rd January 2009. Delegates were asked to consider which topics from the Consensus Statement should remain part of the core, and which may be considered non-essential. These findings have been collated and, with the assistance of the IME Steering Group, a new revised core curriculum has been drafted.

There are ten core topics for all of which general learning outcomes have been drafted. However, medical schools clearly will have discretion about how they deal with the core topics. It is to be emphasised that the teaching and assessment of the core is not solely the responsibility of designated teachers of medical ethics and law and that it is the responsibility of each medical school to provide adequate teaching time and resources to enable adequate exposure to the core topics.

During its deliberations the Steering Group took the view that the core curriculum could be based upon assumptions about the value of a foundation in ethics and law and identified key aims of teaching ethics and law.

The following are among the stakeholders that the IME is now contacting to canvas their views on the draft revised core curriculum:

• Teachers of ethics and law within UK medical schools
• Clinical teachers via ethics and law leads
• IME 4th conference delegates
• General Medical Council
• Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board
• Academy of Medical Educators
• Association for the Study of Medical Education
• Council of Heads of UK Medical Schools
• Higher Education Academy
• British Medical Association
• Departments of Health for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
• Medical Defence Societies
• Medical students via ethics and law leads and via the medical student organization MEDSIN
• Royal Colleges via their ethics committees
• Foundation doctors in their first and second years after graduation
• Patient representatives

In addition we would welcome comments from any other individuals and groups with an interest.

Here is the revised core curriculum for consultation . We should be pleased if you would take some time to consider it and then complete this consultation document.

Please download and return the completed consultation document by email to:

Consultation Core Curriculum
E-mail: consultation@instituteofmedicalethics.org

 

 or print it off, and return it by post to:
 

Professor Gordon Stirrat,
Centre for Ethics in Medicine,
Third Floor, Hampton House,
Cotham Hill, Bristol BS6 6AU.

 

The consultation period will end on Friday 31st July. All responses will be considered in producing a final draft. This then will be subject to consideration by the Steering Group and a final version will be produced and widely disseminated. The IME will then:

• map the core curriculum topics to the relevant sections in GMC Good Medical Practice and the revised Tomorrow's Doctors
• work with the IME assessment working group to produce examples of specific learning outcomes that can be adapted by individual medical schools in line with their specific curricula
• facilitate implementation of the revised core curriculum.

Further, if you are a teacher of medical ethics and law in a UK medical school you are invited to join the IME discussion forum by applying to

Carolyn Johnston and Elaine Paris,
Education Project Management
E-mail: educational@instituteofmedicalethics.org