Healthy Skepticism Library item: 20301

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Publication type: Journal Article

Lempp H, Seale C.
The hidden curriculum in undergraduate medical education: qualitative study of medical students' perceptions of teaching.
BMJ 2004 2; 329:(7469):770-3
http://www.bmj.com/content/329/7469/770?view=long&pmid=15459051

Abstract:

OBJECTIVE:

To study medical students’ views about the quality of the teaching they receive during their undergraduate training, especially in terms of the hidden curriculum.
DESIGN:

Semistructured interviews with individual students.
SETTING:

One medical school in the United Kingdom.
PARTICIPANTS:

36 undergraduate medical students, across all stages of their training, selected by random and quota sampling, stratified by sex and ethnicity, with the whole medical school population as a sampling frame.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:

Medical students’ experiences and perceptions of the quality of teaching received during their undergraduate training.
RESULTS:

Students reported many examples of positive role models and effective, approachable teachers, with valued characteristics perceived according to traditional gendered stereotypes. They also described a hierarchical and competitive atmosphere in the medical school, in which haphazard instruction and teaching by humiliation occur, especially during the clinical training years.
CONCLUSIONS:

Following on from the recent reforms of the manifest curriculum, the hidden curriculum now needs attention to produce the necessary fundamental changes in the culture of undergraduate medical education.

Keywords:
Attitude* Curriculum/standards* Education, Medical, Undergraduate/standards* Female Humans London Male Perception Students, Medical/psychology* Teaching/standards*