Dear Sir
We are most pleased that our report generated interest and discussion among Rizan and colleagues in their journal club. We agree with Rizan et al. that the learning of clinical skills can, and should be facilitated through multiple modalities including peer physical examination (PPE).
It may not have been clear that our reported findings focused only on the PPE component of a formal clinical skills programme which also uses teaching videos, audio-visual aids, demonstrations, and high- and low-fidelity models as appropriate. This programme is the introduction to our overall clinical skills curriculum which also incorporates a variety of learning approaches involving simulated patients and contextual experiential learning. As noted in our article, the vast majority of students practised PPE during class time as well as on their own time, which would suggest they perceived value in this practice, whether done as part of the formal programme or informally.
Nonetheless, we do see an important role for the setting-specific, structured use of PPE in the learning of clinical skills in medical school for practical (e.g. resource and time constraints) and educational reasons (e.g. multi-source feedback), with consideration for student informed consent (Wearn and Bhoopatkar Citation2006), and sensitivity to cultural and gender issues (Rees et al. Citation2009).
Julie Chen, Amber Yip, Cindy Lam, and Niv Patil, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. Email: [email protected]
References
- Rees CA, Wearn A, Vnuk AK, Bradley P. Don’t want to show fellow students my naughty bits: Medical students’ anxieties about peer examination of intimate body regions at six schools across UK, Australasia and Far-East Asia. Med Teach 2009; 31(10)921–927
- Wearn A, Bhoopatkar H. Evaluation of consent for peer physical examination: Students reflect on their clinical skills learning experience. Med Educ 2006; 40(10)957–964