Survey of undergraduate teaching in genitourinary medicine in Britain

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether the time allocated for undergraduate teaching of genitourinary medicine has changed since 1984 and to determine the impact of HIV/AIDS on the teaching of the specialty.

Methods: A self completion questionnaire was sent to the consultant in charge of each department of genitourinary medicine attached to a UK medical school.

Results: Replies were received from all twenty seven medical schools. Most schools (24/27) offer a course of lectures accompanied by clinical teaching; however, one medical school does not include teaching of genitourinary medicine in the undergraduate curriculum at all and two others are unable to offer all students clinical tuition. The mean time devoted to lectures is 6.7 hours (range 0-15 hours) made up of 4.8 hours of genitourinary medicine lectures and 1.9 hours of lectures on HIV/AIDS. The mean time allocated for clinic-based teaching of each student is 9.2 hours (range 0-27 hours). On average the time allocated for lecturing and clinical teaching of the speciality has decreased since 1984 although there is considerable variation between schools (time for clinical teaching and lecturing combined ranges from 0-41.0 hours).

Conclusions: The findings of this survey suggest there is considerable variation in both the quantity and quality of undergraduate teaching of genitourinary medicine provided throughout the UK.