It is essential to take a frequent breaks from the entombed darkness of pixel-lit study and escape from the monotony of medical learning. I like to stretch the legs and take a brisk walk in the fresh air to consolidate my book learning experience.
It is often on jaunts such as these that I am able to put the written word into practice.
I believe this is the very essence of Problem Based Learning (PBL)…although it’s usefulness may not be immediately or readily apparent, there will come a time when the convergence of disparate facts will meld with years of cerebral cogitation as you come face to face with a ‘real-life’ emergency…just like it says in the books
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About Mike Cadogan
Both my nursing degree and now my medical degree have been delivered using PBL curriculum. I can definitely say that it is the ideal way for learning how to think on your feet, actually absorb information, and adapt to transferring fact-memorizing into clinical practice.
It can be tedious at times, as all group work can be…but then again the sooner one learns to play nice in the medical sandbox the better off one will be.
I like the concept of ‘playing nice in the medical sandbox’…unfortunately this has never been one of my best attributes.
I never engaged in PBL during my education (having been trained in the art of monotonous self-flagellation) but now have to teach students using my new-found ‘social interaction’ skills.
I’m still waiting to see if the process actually produces more compassionate and empathetic physicians… I wait with baited breath
In my experience some people are just too loud and obnoxious for PBL… There always seemed to be one of them in my group…
I really enjoy PBL and feel it’s a great way to learn information and recognise patterns. I don’t think PBL is the place for creating more compassionate and empathetic doctors (of course with every case you usually consider the biopsychosocial implications), rather just reasoning skills. Other avenues (i.e. communication coaching, early patient interaction) seem better equipped to foster compassion and empathy.
Then again, I often wonder with some people if anything is going to make them a more caring doctor. I guess they’ll just be surgeons.
I enjoyed PBL in the first half of my degree as it was fun to see the topics the coordinators would choose in an attempt to engage us and fail miserably. It was also fun having your knowledge challenged by someone who actually didnt have any clinical experience and often the wrong/made up information. If I wasn’t amused by anothers failures on a particular day I could always just fall asleep for a little while to make up for the loss of sleep where I would research the topic on my own anyway. I also enjoyed the tutorials close proximity of the Tavern, not that I would necessarily go to the tavern but I could make jokes about going to the tavern before, during or after the tute.