The need for reform of the medical examination system / by T. Pridgin Teale.

  • Teale, T. Pridgin (Thomas Pridgin), 1831-1923.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The need for reform of the medical examination system / by T. Pridgin Teale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    to-day is this, Does the student spend his time during- this stage to the best advantage ? As far as I can see he does not. For in place of being relegated to the hospital for his training during this second period, he is obliged to attend the school for theoretic lectures in medicine and surgery, and for examinations in connection with these lectures, and these examinations so dominate his views that he spends his time in hospital, not watching the changes in his patients, but on the look-out for ready-made answers to questions. If urged to make records of cases, he does so reluctantly, for he knows that from an examination point of view it does not pay ; and if, towards the conclu- sion of his course, he is offered the position of resident pupil in a large and busy hospital, he often refuses it, because he is going in for his * final,’ and, of course, the one thing essential is to pass. His medical education, therefore, notwithstanding a large amount of hospital atten- dance, is literary rather than practical.” “ Moreover, education, as at present conducted, teaches us to see with the eyes of others rather than with our own.” “ Further, the regulations are armed with a revolver in the shape of examinations, which enforces the obedience of students. Nothing else could keep alive such a system—one which, as it were by violence, keeps theory and practice apart.” Akin to this question of impairment of clinical study, and really a part of it, is the general outcome of our present system. Let me quote from the report of our Visitor and Inspector on the Final Examination of one of our leading universities, whose candidates have gone through a three years’ course in arts before becoming medical students, and who, if any, ought to show satisfactory results of medical training. The report says : “ In no case was the answering of any of the six candi- dates we heard examined brilliant, in the majority it was poor; but they had a sufficient knowledge of clinical medicine to warrant the examiners in passing them.” In an examination of a Conjoint Board the Visitor and Inspector report: ‘‘Many of the candidates appeared to have a mere book knowledge of these subjects; and, when asked to explain their answers, or to give some reasons for the statements they enunciated as if by rote, were unable to do so.” Sir William Stokes, in opening the session at Meath Hospital, in October, 1895, makes the following statement as the result of bis long experience as a teacher and as an examiner: The student, wearied