School of Medicine, University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
J Cancer Educ. 2020 Dec;35(6):1227-1236. doi: 10.1007/s13187-019-01586-3.
This study aimed to determine final year students' core oncology and radiation oncology knowledge and attitudes about the quality of teaching in medical programmes delivered in Australia and New Zealand. Does the modern medical programme provide core oncology skills in this leading global cause of mortality and morbidity? An online survey was distributed between April and June 2018 and completed by 316 final year students across all 21 medical schools with final year cohorts in Australia and New Zealand. The survey examined teaching and clinical exposure, attitudes and core knowledge for oncology and radiation oncology. Several questions from a survey done of graduates in 2001 were repeated for comparison. We found that clinical exposure to oncology and its disciplines is low. Students rated oncology and haematology the worst taught medical specialties at medical school. Students reported the most confidence identifying when surgical management of cancer may be indicated and much lower levels of confidence identifying when systemic therapy and radiation therapy may be helpful. The majority of students had no formal course content on radiation therapy and more than one third of final year students erroneously believed that external beam radiation therapy turned patients radioactive. Exposure to oncology practice and the teaching of core oncology knowledge remains low for medical students in Australia and New Zealand. Many areas of oncology teaching and knowledge have worsened for medical students in Australia and New Zealand over the past 20 years. Well-established gaps in the core oncology knowledge of medical graduates must be urgently addressed given the increasing incidence of cancer and ongoing underutilisation of radiation therapy in particular.
本研究旨在确定澳大利亚和新西兰医学课程的最后一年学生对肿瘤学和放射肿瘤学核心知识的掌握情况以及对教学质量的态度。现代医学课程是否为全球主要的死亡率和发病率原因提供了核心肿瘤学技能？2018 年 4 月至 6 月期间，我们通过在线调查对所有 21 所医学学校的最后一年学生进行了调查，这些学校在澳大利亚和新西兰都有最后一年的学生。该调查研究了肿瘤学和放射肿瘤学的教学和临床经验、态度和核心知识。为了进行比较，我们重复了 2001 年毕业生调查中的几个问题。我们发现，学生对肿瘤学及其学科的临床接触机会很少。学生将肿瘤学和血液学评为医学院教学最差的医学专业。学生报告说，他们最有信心确定何时需要手术治疗癌症，而对何时需要系统治疗和放射治疗的信心则低得多。大多数学生没有接受过放射治疗的正式课程，超过三分之一的最后一年学生错误地认为外照射放疗会使患者具有放射性。在澳大利亚和新西兰，医学生接触肿瘤学实践和学习核心肿瘤学知识的机会仍然很少。在过去的 20 年中，澳大利亚和新西兰医学生的许多肿瘤学教学和知识领域都有所恶化。鉴于癌症发病率不断上升，特别是放射治疗的利用不足，必须紧急解决医学毕业生核心肿瘤学知识方面存在的明显差距。
