Teaching hematology to second year medical students: results of a national survey of hematology course directors

Abstract

Increasing clinical productivity expectations at academic medical centers and new faculty effort reporting requirements for NIH-supported investigators challenge the tradition of faculty volunteerism for medical student teaching. To better define the structure, content, and financial support of second year medical school hematology courses nationwide, we mailed a survey to the hematology course directors at 85 of the 125 accredited US medical schools. The 58 course directors who returned the survey represent all regions of the US and both public and private medical schools. Median class size was 150 students (range 40-200), and some courses included a substantial proportion (up to 33%) of other types of students. The median number of hours per course was 33 h (range 8 to 74). Approximately 50% of the total teaching time was devoted to lecture (range 5 to 100%). Web-based teaching was used by 62% of course directors. The median number of faculty responsible for teaching the second year hematology course was 12 (range 1-36). The hematology course directors identified a number of obstacles, including difficulty in recruiting teachers, the lack of well-defined content, and the very modest budget (less than $1,500 for most courses). Only three of the course directors indicated that they received salary support for this role. These findings suggest that a national effort to define learning objectives for the hematology courses and to share teaching materials among medical schools is warranted. Little financial support is provided for the hematology course, and these findings compel the identification of resources to pay faculty for teaching medical student required courses.

Lessons Learned from the ASN Renal Educator Listserv and Survey

“…Educators in other specialties have noted similar findings. In a survey of hematology course leaders performed by the American Society of Hematology, 45% noted difficulty recruiting faculty to teach, and many voiced frustration regarding the lack of academic reward for teaching (4). Two potential sources of bias, however, may have led to underestimation of compensation in the present survey.…”

“…and G.A.H., who are both course leaders in kidney pathophysiology. Content was validated by a subgroup of the ASN Workforce Committee as well as analysis of a similar survey conducted by the American Society of Hematology (4). At the authors' institutions, the survey was determined to be exempt from additional review, and a waiver for consent was granted from the institutional review board (G.A.H.)…”

A prospective, randomized crossover study comparing direct inspection by light microscopy versus projected images for teaching of hematopathology to medical students

“…This trend of increased digital methods and decreased laboratory time is echoed by surveys of hematology course directors (Broudy and Hickman, 2007) and histology and anatomy course directors (Bloodgood and Ogilvie, 2006;Drake et al, 2009). At MMS, both virtual microscopy and projected images of histopathology are now used as an adjunct teaching method in a number of year one and two organ specific courses, including hematology.…”

“…A recent survey of hematology course directors found that projection-based learning was widely used by course directors, and laboratory skills (20%) and microscopy (60%), were used less commonly (Broudy and Hickman, 2007). A recent survey of hematology course directors found that projection-based learning was widely used by course directors, and laboratory skills (20%) and microscopy (60%), were used less commonly (Broudy and Hickman, 2007).…”

Informing Curriculum Development in Health Sciences

“…Sometimes, however, the students questioned the usefulness of some of the matters presented for their future practice and the lecturers felt that they had too little evidence to support a credible answer. The research literature on undergraduate haematology curriculum is minimal: a single study (Broudy & Hickman 2007) surveyed the undergraduate programmes at medical schools in the USA and found a great diversity of content and teaching methods among them. By contrast, the postgraduate haematology training is oriented by model curricula, originating from the American Society of Haematology and the European Haematology Association.…”