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Student Life

The growing role of patients in medical education

BMJ 2016; 353 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.i1773 (Published 30 June 2016) Cite this as: BMJ 2016;353:i1773
  1. Alice Buchan, final year medical student
  1. University of Oxford, UK

Should more medical schools employ expert patient teachers?

The use of plastic dummies to assess how medical students carry out a pelvic examination is a thing of the past at Oxford University. At this medical school, the speculum examination in the gynaecology objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) station is carried out by lay women, instead of using plastic models. Since August 2015, students have been assessed on their abilities to interact with and conduct a vaginal examination on clinical teaching associates (CTAs). These trained expert patients teach intimate examinations using their own bodies and give students feedback that you just don't get from a plastic pelvic model.

Although assessment led by CTAs is novel, examination teaching by CTAs is not new. They have been teaching vaginal examination for several years in Oxford, and similar programmes have been running in the United Kingdom and the United States for decades.1 Researchers from King’s College London found in 2003 that students taught by gynaecology CTAs had higher assessment scores than those taught using only traditional teaching methods.2

The expert patient will see you now

Medical education has always included patients, but traditionally in a more passive role rather than as an active teacher. However, the idea that patients are experts who can interact with medical professionals as equals goes back at least as far as the 1980s—with the rise in the concept of the “expert patient” who brings expertise on their own body, life, and health to the consultation.3

The CTA programme is just one model of patient led teaching. The Patient | Carer Community, which is based at the University of Leeds, includes carers’ perspectives as well as those of patients. Their experiences form a powerful part of some teaching sessions. Patient involvement in education can go beyond teaching into …

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