Report presented to the Metropolitan Counties Branch of the British Medical Association / by the Committee appointed to consider the subject of the education of the general practitioner of medicine [...] signed cy C.Macnamara for the Committee.

  • Macnamara, C.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report presented to the Metropolitan Counties Branch of the British Medical Association / by the Committee appointed to consider the subject of the education of the general practitioner of medicine [...] signed cy C.Macnamara for the Committee. 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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    specified, and that, it is hard to keep them hack by making a compulsory rule, such as that referred to. This may be true, but rules must be made for the majority of students, and we are convinced that very few young men, however talented they may be, are capable of effectually performing the responsible duties which devolve upon qualified practi- tioners, before they are 22 years of age. Question 4. Do you approve of the introduction of an examination in Elementary Anatomy and Physiology at the end of the first year of medical studies? Seventy-nine per cent, of the general practitioners, but only 58 per cent, of our medical teachers, arc in favour of introducing an examination in Elementary Anatomy and Physiology at the end of the first year of a student’s curriculum. The Medical Teachers’ Association, some ten years ago, came to the conclusion, that it was desirable there should be a professional examination for medical students at the end of the first year, and they recommended the Educational Committee of the General Medical Coun- cil to enforce this principle: the council declined the medical teachers’ suggestion on the grounds, that there was il a disadvantage in having so many examinations, as regards both students and examiners.” The bearing of the remarks made by a large number of the general practitioners on this subject, is to the effect that, of all the students who enter at our medical schools, no less than 24 per cent, fail to qualify so as to be able to enter the ranks of the profession. Thisstatcmentwasmademanyyears ago, and recent experience seems to confirm it; for, in a number of The Lancet lately published, it is stated, that “ in one of our largest medical schools, only 43 per cent, of the students ever obtain their diploma to practise, and that during the past year, 43 per cent, of the students failed to pass their primary examination; ” and this condition of things is said to exist in spite of the “ test ” examination which the authorities in most of our medical schools enforce,