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Thoughts and insights from medical students
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Can you sign my book please?
It is strange to make it all the way to medical school and be confronted with the promise of adult learning having largely come from mainly school backgrounds. It is stranger still to be asked to have an attendance book signed after every clinical session within the hospital.
It is the mixed message which causes the most consternation. In my experience, adult learners take responsibility for their own learning and therefore don't need an attendance book signing to prove it. I am also aware that not all medical schools adopt this practice. I therefore struggle to understand the proper motive for enforcing book signing by those medical schools who do use it. I hope I'm not the only one to feel affronted by this kindergarten approach. I know that many of my colleagues refer to their attendance book as their "baby book". It's not hard to see why! Should the medical schools concerned decide to drop this strategy in favour of old fashioned trust, they might be pleasantly surprised to see the result. Given how much screening takes place to sort out the candidates they wish to admit, it is bewildering to witness this archaic approach to medical education.
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We have rules handed down to us by the GMC dictating how much time a student must spend being taught, and our University dictates how much time a student must be present to be allowed to sit any exams.
In an ideal world, we would not have to chase up on students, they would all turn up to everything, and they would all pass their exams. In reality, attendance is patchy, doctors/nurses/AHPs turn up to teach to find many absentees, and important sessions are missed with no catch up sessions offered.
We have a responsibility to the local (and not so local) population to train good doctors, and we have to be able to stand up and tell the GMC that we have made all efforts to ensure we train good doctors. To be able to do so, we have to be able to say that the students attended all the lectures, and the only way to do this is to make sure they sign in.
Picture this - student A decides to "bin" the kidneys. He doesn't really understand it, and instead of turning up to the renal lectures he focuses on everything else. In his exams he bombs the renal parts, but aces the rest, and walks out with an easy pass, but no distinctions. He gets his first job as the FY1 on the renal ward.....