A psychological regard of medical education : Bradshaw lecture (abridge), delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, November 2nd 1933 / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Myers, Charles S. (Charles Samuel), 1873-1946.
Date:
1933?]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: A psychological regard of medical education : Bradshaw lecture (abridge), delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, November 2nd 1933 / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    is found to employ movements quite different from those which he employs to perform it at his normal speed. Because there may he many different styles of procedure adopted—e.g., by various surgeons of equally high skill—that is no reason why the student should not be instructed in the general principles which must underlie all good methods and be taught how to avoid bad operative procedure. The indus¬ trial psychologist recognises that there is no one best way of doing anything, but that there are a number of equally good ways suited to different persons ; he also recognises that there are undoubtedly bad habits of work into which the operative must not be allowed to fall. Similarly there are good and bad methods of the doctor’s approach to and general handling of his patient. Yet how seldom is adequate instruction given to-day in such technique, and how rarely is the medical student examined therein. At the universities it is notorious that the ablest professors may make the worst lecturers. Yet, alike at the universities and at the medical schools, no attempt is made to select or to train teachers, whereas to those who are preparing to teach in elementary and secondary schools systematic instruction and subsequent examination in the science and art of teaching are given. It is not surprising, then, that undergraduates complain of the inadequate teaching they too often receive, and of the number of unwanted lectures they are forced to attend. Facts, they rightly argue, may for the most part be learnt from text¬ books ; “ tips ” and mnemonics (if alas ! necessary) from special “ grinds ” ; it is the coordination of facts and their application, the acquirement of technical skill, which they seek to learn through their teachers. Moreover, from the start to the finish of his medical education, the student is taught by specialists in far too watertight compartments-—by chemists, bio¬ logists, anatomists, pathologists, pharmacologists, gynaecologists, oculists, and a host of others. The average medical student will become a general prac¬ titioner, with one thousand insured persons, and often more, under his care. Yet from the start to the finish of his education he never comes in touch with one of his own future kind. Even in the general wards of a general hospital he is taught by consultants who are usually specialists in some branch of medicine or surgery, or at all events cannot pretend to as full a knowledge of the whole of either of these subjects as