Dear Sir
Recently there has been much focus on IPL in medical education. From what I have gathered this has been slow to start and seems predominantly simulation based. As a result, I went about designing an IPL-based simulation project, combining medical and nursing students dealing with the management of acute scenarios (nothing novel I might add).
As a keen reflector I pondered on the lack of divergence in this regard and wanted to share an experience. Over a year ago, during my internal medicine rotations, I was asked by my consultant to prescribe a particular drug for a patient with acute colitis. It wasn’t a routine steroid preparation and I had never prescribed this agent (infliximab) before. I informed my boss that I was unaware how to proceed and he asked me to speak to one of the GI pharmacists for advice on dosage, and blood monitoring. He was also concerned about the patient’s nutritional status and asked me to touch base with the hospital’s dietician. Several days into treatment the patient’s condition did not improve as is often the case with severe colitis sufferers and she had to undergo surgery. With minimal post op complications, we were charged with implementing her discharge and our team arranged physiotherapy input as needed. As you can see one patient had benefited from a compliment of five different multi disciplines.
We know that simulation is not the only platform of teaching utilised and despite the many modalities, the lecture hall still forms the basis of theory delivery. So why has IPL not made its way over to this most frequent form of delivery? Students are typically narrated disease and clinical features but this is very doctor specific. We should ensure that future lecture deliveries and even seminars/tutorials/bedside teaching incorporates not just clinician teaching but other health disciplines in order to capitalise fully.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.