Partnerships in Medical Education: An Exploration of Library Service Models for Postgraduate Medicine at Macquarie University (Report‪)‬

Australian and overseas models of medical education are being reviewed in response to our changing health care environment. The growth of biomedical knowledge, along with other factors such as medical workforce shortages, subspecialisation and diminishing training resources have necessitated a re-evaluation of many training programs worldwide. Methods of assessment are changing and there is growing recognition for clinicians' skills to encompass lifelong learning, teamwork, insight and reflection. The expectations and learning styles of technologically astute Net Generation students are also influencing the ways in which medical education is evolving. Authors in the US, Canada and Europe have written extensively on the need to revise time-based surgical apprenticeship programs that utilise rote learning and exit examinations. Long recommended the implementation of competency-based education that links progress to competencies rather than duration of training. (1) Surveys conducted in the US and Australia have questioned the value of exit examinations in predicting future surgical competence. (2) Morgan et al. recommended performance assessment in Australia be competency-based, incorporating insight, reflection and lifelong learning skills. (3) The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' training programs are being revised in 2008 to include competency-based assessment. (4) The College also defines key roles of surgeons, including 'Scholar-teacher' and 'Communicator' which encompass essential attributes of lifelong learning and teamwork. Training programs are expanding across Australia, with at least seven new medical schools established since 2000 to address local workforce shortages while incorporating educational reforms and inter-institutional collaboration. (5) Although the intern shortfall is being addressed by these new schools, current specialist training programs will not, however, be able to cope with demand as more interns seek to move into postgraduate education.