Minutes of the meeting of the Warwick Medical School Intra-School Committee
2nd October 2007, 19.00.
Medical Teaching Centre, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL.
In Attendance:
Simon Roughneen – ISC Chair
Dora Hemson – ISC Secretary
James Watson – ISC Representative Yr 1
Tara Craggs – ISC Representative Yr 2
Claire Wallace – ISC Representative Yr 3
Seb Morton – ISC Representative Yr 4
Naomi Brown – MSC Representative
Peter Ptashko – Education Officer and Deputy President (Students’ Union)
Tom Hannan – MedSoc President
Jo Dawes – SSLC Representative for Year 2
Timothy Preece - Phase 2 Management Group (Year 3)
Michelle Saunders – MedSin Representative
Michelle Jones – Marrow Project Coordinator
Jo Prentice – Sexpression Coordinator ?
1. Introduction and Welcome
The Chair thanked members for attending and asked the members to introduce themselves for the benefit of the new elected members.
2. Apologies for absence
Apologies were received from:
Gwydion Rhys
Gavin Maggs
Yasmin Abbas
Will Regan
Tom O'Connor
3. Previous minutes
The minutes of the ISC meeting held on Tuesday 4th September 2007 were approved.
4. Matters Arising
There are currently no outstanding action points from previous meetings
5. Agenda items
5.1 Car Parking at UHCW – Simon Roughneen
The committee heard a report presented by Simon, concerning the current situation with car parking. Simon has been liasing, with both WMS and UHCW, after ISC concerns of student safety. Concerns were raised for those students, whose placements dictate they leave hospital late at night, and are unable to park on site. Especially considering that the surrounding area can be known to be ‘rough’.
After discussions between WMS/UHCW, courtesy of Mike Glover (School Secretary), a proposal of 5 options have been given, for the ISC to consider.
1. The UHCW General Office issues the permits as at present but we identify 30 as being for Medical Students only. It would be down to the students to return the permits to the office when they were no longer required and we would need to hope that the General Office was able to manage the system without issuing permits to other staff or students.
2. The permits are issued to a dedicated team at UHCW for an upfront annual payment and they manage issue of permits and collection of money from the students. However there is a workload issue with this and it is not clear whether there would be the capacity to take it on in her team. Also cash handling might be a problem.
3. University pays the annual charge for the permits and manages the permits issuing to students who would pay for the week and return them to the School office. But this would require additional trips to the University and there would be similar capacity issues – do we have anyone available to operate the system. Also what would we do if a permit wasn’t returned to the office, how would we chase the student?
4. The students club together and pay the annual charge for the permits then manage their own rota system to ensure that they are issued to those that actually need them in any particular week.
5. A hybrid of 3 and 4 with the School initially funding the permits, students managing the system and paying over money for parking more gradually through the year.
The committee voted 9/9 in favour for Option 3, however, the committee do not agree that the students should have to pay for their own safety, it is thought that the University should be required to cover the annual fee. With regards to the capacity issues, suggestions were made by the committee that:
A) The passes could be retained by the placement, which requires students to stay late, and be allocated from there (eg. obs. & gyny., on call late shifts).
B) That the passes could be the responsibility of that clinical stream, to allocate amongst themselves, helping to promote friendly cooperation
C) That the passes could be allocated at JAHD to those that need them for the forthcoming week.
It was also emphasised by James, that with the cohort size increasing, this is the type of problem, which needs to be thought carefully about.
Simon, informed the committee, about the University’s wish to encourage Green Transport. Cycle maps of Coventry are available via Simon from the Greenwing Society. There are also proposals for an express bus link, which would go from Leamington via University campus to UHCW. In theory this was thought to be a good idea.
ACTION OCT 2007 5.1 Simon will report back to Mike Glover, with our chosen option, with the added proviso that WMS pay the annual charge. He will also re-calculate the permits that would be needed, using data from the past survey and information from Amy Allinson. He will create a new survey for student opinion to establish
a) Numbers of passes needed
b) Interest in Green Travel options, such as the bus option and best times
5.2 ISC Welfare Representative Training – Seb Morton
Seb detailed the agenda for the Welfare Training Evening for ISC members to be held 6pm Wednesday 21st November.
The evening will involve talks by Dr Gillian Grimshaw, Professor Yvonne Carter, Professor Ed Peile, Dr Anne-Marie Slowther, Richard Worsley, Ms Deborah Markham and Peter Ptashko/Ed Callow. The topics will cover the Fitness to Practice process, the Academic Progress Group, Educational Supervisors, the other Welfare resources available to Students and the role of student welfare representatives.
ACTION OCT 2007 5.2: Seb to email out invites to Staff, ISC Representatives, ISC Secretary and Chair.
5.3 2007 Cohort size and impact on education – James Watson
James described the problems that the current 2007 Cohort are experiencing with regards to their 204-year size. The lecture theatre does not have the capacity to house all the students, with a proportion having to sit in an overflow room. This room is video-linked to the main lecture theatre, however there is often no staff supervision, or facility to question the lecturer, which students find unsatisfactory. It was suggested that maybe portable chairs could be used at the front of the lecture theatre.
The problems also extend to group learning. James described situations at UHCW, where 48 students where allocated to one GLF. Students had difficulty hearing the GLF, and there are worries that huge group sizes negate the concept of ‘group work’.
There are further concerns that the problem in Cohort size may also compromise clinical placements in the future. On application, the 2007 Cohort were under the impression WMS had a 1 consultant to 2 students clinical teaching set-up. Michelle S. said there was still a problem with Phase II students, being allocated consultants with no ward patients, or team, with teaching only available at clinics.
ACTION OCT 2007 5.3: James is to address his year, asking for their concerns, and report back to Peter and Simon. Peter agreed to contact Professor Yvonne Carter and Dr. Carolyn Rodgers (as acting Phase I Coordinator), with regards that WMS should have the facilities to accommodate the entire Cohort, and emphasise the impact this is having on education.
5.4 ISC Communication Focus Group Report- Simon Roughneen
Simon presented the preliminary report of the WMS ISC Communication Focus Group (CFG), available on the ISC website. The meeting aimed to discuss the communication issues surrounding the core curriculum issues and General Communication within WMS.
Communication Issues facing Year 1 students – the CFG suggested it might be useful to email an electronic copy of the exam results to students. WMS were concerned with the welfare of the students, as they had a scenario where a student became completely un-contactable and needed advice. It was suggested by Mary Elliot that the email would be in addition, not as a replacement, which means students could still come into University. Naomi also highlighted that she thought coming onto the medical school site for results, often created Welfare Issues, and many students asked others to pick up their results anyway. Also Clare asked why the 2005 Cohort’s QE & Viva list, was published as candidate names?
Communication Issues facing Year 2 Students – Deborah Markham had said the allocation of educational supervisors was moved back, following feedback from the 2004 cohort. However, the ISC felt that the transition from Phase I to Phase II was the most difficult. It was suggested educational supervisors should be allocated earlier on, so students have got to know them before the start of Phase II, with less of a focus on PDP’s till later. Seb said he was working towards organising a talk halfway through the junior rotation covering topics such as general welfare, portfolios and electives.
Cross year themes – the timely and accurate dissemination of exam results
The CFG realised that circumstances do change unavoidably. However 2 scenarios were raised, when the 2004 Cohort’s ICE results were 45 minutes late, and the Phase I Viva results were a day late. This delayed release of results, heightened an already extremely stressful time.
General Communications within WMS
The CFG felt the tone of some emails sent out by the Medical School is often cold and sometimes borders on hostile. It was asked that specific examples be provided, so Simon has asked for anyone who has received an inappropriate or hostile communication to contact him.
The idea of using SMS and Facebook to communicate with students was not thought to be a good idea. People felt this was an invasion of privacy, and perhaps phone calls would be more acceptable. The ISC decided to survey the student body’s response.
The recent communication from WMS with regards to the mass emailing system was queried. Peter did not think there was a University guideline stating this; the Union utilise an ‘opt out’ clause. It was felt that as graduates, if we did not want to receive a message, we could choose to delete it. Many clubs and societies do rely on this to disseminate information, and as a whole it is good to increase awareness of social activities and promote inclusion.
ACTION OCT 2007 5.4 – Simon to survey the years on issues mentioned
- Invitations will continue for WMS, ISC reps to attend the CFG meetings.
- Set up an opt in/opt out register for emailing and clarify the University Regulations
- Report back at the next ISC meeting
6. Other business
Neil Johnson has invited a member of the ISC to attend a meeting about the new Physician Assistant. Simon has volunteered to attend the meeting and report back to the ISC, there were concerns of possible competition for training/learning resources, and that it was being marketed to the same group of people, with graduate qualifications.
The ISC have also been invited by Neil Johnson to invite a representative, to attend a meeting on developing professionalism and FEFs on 10th October 2pm. Seb is to attend.
Professor Peile wants to establish a meeting with representatives from the ISC and Medsoc to discuss ‘Image does it matter – What Should I do about it’. Simon and Tom are to attend. It is open to members of ISC, Medsoc and any other interested students on how to raise the profile of the school. The Department of Health, on 17th September 2007, published guidance on dress for medical staff essentially advising bare arms from the elbow down with no watches, rings or jewellery and the wearing of white coats is outlawed in clinical environments. In light of this, and after a letter from Dr Robert Blacklock, Professor Peile has produced a draft paper recommending changes to the dress code for examiners and students during examinations. The faculty board has been asked to consider the following:
a) Student dress:
i) The requirement to wear white coats for FPEs is discontinued with immediate
effect.
ii) Plastic aprons are to be made available for any situation where patient
examinations could result in dress contamination.
iii) All students who are required to examine patients should have bare arms from
below the elbow and should not wear watches or rings.
iv) The WMS policy on hand washing for examinations (commended by the
GMC) should continue to be in use.
b) Examiner dress:
i) Where examiners are only required to shake hands with patients or students
smart business dress will continue to be appropriate.
ii) An acceptable alternative for examiners is locally approved clinical attire which can include logoed polo shirts or similar.
c) Examinations are an official function and the reputation of the Medical School must be enhanced it is therefore an absolute requirement of all examiners and students that they take appropriate care over their appearance in such matters as hair, nails and shoes etc. and that stained, creased or contaminated clothing is at all time unacceptable.
The Med School of Rock is to take place on 30th October; this will be put on the ISC calendar. The calendar is expanding, and Simon wishes to expand to all society events, to publish host flyers, academic deadlines and exam results dates. Medsin/Medsoc is also producing a Joint society calendar.
The Graduation Ball is taking place 24th May 2008
Mary wanted to raise the issue of the PACs system, how some final year UHCW students at the end of their block, will lose their access for 2 months, at a time when they most need it. It was advised she email Sandra Davison to get new passwords. It was also reported, many students can’t access the PACs anyway, Simon will talk to Sandra Davison.