An Experimental Case-Conference Programme for Obstetrics and Gynaecology Clinical Students

Abstract

Since the founding of the University of Limburg (1974), in The Netherlands, an innovative medical curriculum has been guided by educational principles of problem orientation, continuous assessment, student initiative and attitude development. The teaching of medical ethics was built into the preclinical curriculum from the start. However, the clinical years remained largely unaffected, and only recently has an effort been made to extend the educational philosophy to this more or less traditional part of medical education. Within this context, an experiment of clinical ethics teaching was introduced in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology (Ob/Gyn) clerkships. The objectives, methods and results of this experimental programme are described...The success of the teaching is based on three features of the programme: 1) its student-centered approach; 2) the programme is designed in a way similar to regular patient conferences; 3) the programme is taught by a team....