Article
Promoting an Interprofessional Agenda – An overview of the 13th Graz Conference on medical education
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Published: | December 14, 2009 |
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Outline
Welcome/Begrüßung
The primary aim of traditional medical education in Austria was to graduate scholars rather than practitioners. Thus students had “to know” rather than “to do”. The reforms of the Austrian medical curricula that took place around 2000 have attempted to strengthen the training aspect in our students’ education.
But an essential part of this training, how to work in the multiprofessional environment they will encounter in their workplace, has so far been largely neglected. The issue here is not only the knowledge aspect about the roles of the different health care professionals. Just as important is the development of effective team working skills which require positive attitudes. In contrast to the Austrian situation, interesting educational models have been established in other countries [1], [2], [3]. The 2009 instalment of the Graz conference on medical education, held September 24-26 in Innsbruck, highlighted some important issues:
- Role modelling and other determinants in making professional doctors (Hulsman, Amsterdam)
- A report of a curriculum initiative at the Medical University of Graz (Berichte über Erfahrungen mit Studiengängen für Medizinische Berufe in Österreich, Rásky, Graz)
- A report of a curriculum initiative at the Medical University of Salzburg (Berichte über Erfahrungen mit Studiengängen für Medizinische Berufe in Österreich, Schreier, Salzburg)
- Nursing education (Die Zukunft der Pflege – Pflegewissenschaftliche Studien des Institutes für Pflegewissenschaft der UMIT, Them, Hall i. Tirol)
- Interprofessionality in Undergraduate Education (workshop conducted by members of the MME Bern cohort 8).
Bioethics in the medical curriculum (Mauron, Geneva; Schmoelzer and Stronegger, Graz), Accreditation of curricula (Neubauer, Graz; Lischka, Vienna), and Faculty development (Stosch, Cologne; Reibnegger, Graz) were other topics covered in the conference. Further workshops were conducted on gender aspects (Beyer, Innsbruck) and the image of the physician (Lichtenwagner, Innsbruck). A poster party and a lot of networking time by 55 participants from 5 countries rounded out the event. All this was facilitated by the wonderful hospitality extended to us by our hosts from the Medical University of Innsbruck. The detailed program as well as the presentations given can be found at the conference web site: http://grazconference.oeghd.at.
References
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