Author: Dorrit Pollard-Davey

Faculty Education Office staff fundraising for charity supported through new MBBS module

A team from Medicine’s Faculty Education Office are raising money for the charity Days for Girls, supporting a team of MBBS students heading out to rural Nepal in May.

In 2016, the School of Medicine collaborated with the ICSM Students’ Union and charity Community Action Nepal, to produce ‘Imperial College Enables’, giving students the opportunity to experience healthcare systems entirely different to that of the UK.

The project grew in 2017, and from the work the students did on their visit to Nepal came a relationship with the charity Days for Girls, which supports young women around the world by distributing female hygiene kits and education materials about menstruation.

Many women in rural Nepal struggle to manage their periods, some using rags and many forced to stay indoors for the duration, and the level of education about menstruation is low.

During the students’ visit, word spread quickly between the rural communities, and many women walked many miles to a health post to collect a hygiene kit. The students soon ran out of the kits, which are colourful bags containing washable sanitary pads and underwear.

Each kit can last up to three years, and costs just £5.14 to produce. The kits are also sewn and put together in Nepal, offering the extra benefit of employment for local people.

In May 2018, students will return to the Nepalese health posts previously visited, as part of a new second-year MBBS module, Clinical Research and Innovation. The aim is to prepare these students with 1033 hygiene kits – the number of female students currently in the School of Medicine.

The FEO team spearheading the fundraising initiative alongside Head of MBBS Years 1 and 2, Professor Mary Morrell, are Jo Williams and Margaret Rodger, Programme Officers for MBBS Years 1 and 2; Hannah Pietruszewska, Education and Finance Officer; Labbie Farrell, Programme Assistant for MBBS Years 1 and 2; Emma Blyth, Instructional Designer; and Agata Sadza, Blended Learning Specialist. (more…)

Medical Education Research Unit launches 2018 programme

The Faculty of Medicine Medical Education Research Unit (MERU) launches its 2018 programme of events today, and all are invited to the launch event this evening to find out more about MERU’s work and to network with current members.

Medical Education Research Unit event

Now entering its fourth year, MERU conducts and supports innovative educational research activity to evaluate and enhance Imperial’s teaching and curriculum.

It aims to build a community, including both staff and students, uniting them through an interest in medical education research. Made up of a multidisciplinary group of staff from Imperial, its NHS partners and sister unit at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Singapore, the Unit also recruits and encourages interested students to become involved in existing research projects and to consider conducting their own research.

The Unit also supports members by offering financial support to those attending medical education conferences, and advises on ways to develop research questions into feasible studies that yield publishable data, as well as guidance on ethics applications.

Over the past three years, MERU has funded more than a dozen original research projects, made 64 travel awards allowing members to attend conferences, and delivered monthly meetings and workshops to small groups of interested staff. The Unit also offers one-to-one support to any members requiring it, and brings together those with similar research interests to allow them to assist and advise one another in their various projects. (more…)

Imperial medical students recognised in GMC professionalism teaching resource competition

Two final-year Imperial medical students have been acknowledged jointly by the General Medical Council and the Medical Schools Council for their design of a teaching session on professionalism.

Sixth-year MBBS students, Luke Reader and Sam Easdon, created a lesson plan which aims to ‘introduce students to a discussion on honesty and integrity in interactions with peers, colleagues and patients’.

Initially shortlisted, the two were then awarded a runner-up position, claiming one of the top spots from the 97 overall entries to this year’s competition.

The lesson suggests beginning by asking students, ‘What is honesty and integrity to you?’, and facilitating a discussion encouraging students to reflect on their personal definitions of these themes. (more…)

Imperial College School of Medicine recognises excellence in undergraduate teaching

The undergraduate School’s annual awards ceremony took place on Wednesday 15 November at Imperial’s Charing Cross campus.

Awards table
The awards are presented jointly by the School of Medicine and the School of Medicine Students’ Union

In conjunction with the Medical Students’ Union, teaching staff of all levels and disciplines are recognised with a variety of awards, spanning both clinical and non-clinical teachers, personal tutors, teaching fellows and student support roles.

Students who nominate staff members are invited to speak about the recipient prior to each award’s presentation. This year, each noted in particular the care and attention given to individual students, and the emphasis put on the importance of learning, by the staff members recognised. (more…)

Innovative teaching spaces built at Charing Cross’s lab block

Over the summer months, three lecture theatres in the Lab Block at the Charing Cross campus underwent extensive refurbishment. The changes are in line with the College’s Learning and Teaching Strategy, and the spaces have been redesigned to facilitate different, more effective teaching methods, and better accommodating small group teaching.

While the 10th floor space remains in a tiered, theatre structure, it has been fully redecorated and includes new seating and brighter lighting.

10th floor space before and after

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