A REVIEW OF UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING IN ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Abstract

At least 10% of consultations in General Practice are for musculoskeletal problems. It would seem appropriate that the diagnosis and management of common musculoskeletal problems should form an important part of the “core” curriculum of any undergraduate medical training. Time is always short in an undergraduate teaching program and the pressures not to overload the curriculum are constant. The planned increased in student numbers is likely to stretch the ability of most teaching departments to provide a high level of undergraduate training in musculoskeletal disease.

A postal survey of the provision of undergraduate teaching in T& O was performed in the UK. All 23 medical schools in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were. To gain further insight into non-specialist general training in T& O after qualification a survey of the Vocational Training Schemes (VTS) for General practitioners in the Northern Deanery was performed.

Ninety-one percent of Medical Schools replied. The average length of the orthopaedic attachments (all years combined) was five weeks. However, all but two programs were combined with other clinical subjects. The dilutional effect of these other subjects resulted in the average duration of the T& O attachment being reduced to 2.7 weeks (range 1.5 – 6). All the modules in orthopaedic surgery except one included trauma within the curriculum.

There are four VTSs in the Northern Deanery. All of these had schemes that included A& E but not for every trainee. No scheme had either a rheumatology or orthopaedic surgery placement, although some exposure to rheumatology occurred during attachments in general medicine.

This study shows that there is a significant discrepancy between the amount of time, within the curriculum (4%), devoted to musculoskeletal/orthopaedic teaching and the number of consultations in General Practice (10%); this discrepancy is not made up during VTS placements. In addition, such short exposure to a large subject may encourage superficial learning which medical education is specifically trying to avoid.