Comparing trends in medical education between the United Kingdom and Australia: A personal perspective

Abstract

Medical schools must create doctors who can address health workforce challenges. This article compares broad trends in medical education between the United Kingdom and Australia. Medical schools both help develop and are constrained by the health workforce. Innovations developed in Britain, like medical doctor degree apprenticeships, are unlikely to address workforce issues. Australia's medical curricula have more effectively adapted to its workforce needs.

Keywords:

• Curriculum
• community-oriented
• curriculum
• education environment
• management
• trends
• profession
• medicine

Disclosure statement

The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Douglas Roche

Doug Roche is a Clinical Lecturer in the Clinical and Communications Skills unit of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London. Doug holds Doctor of Medicine and Bachelor of Medical Science degrees from Griffith University, in Queensland, Australia. After completing his internship at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, he has subsequently completed Basic Physician Training with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, predominantly based at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. He was most recently Chief Medical Registrar for The University of Queensland, and is currently completing a MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing at the London School of Economics and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.