Alan
I cannot comment on the politics of academia but it is obvious by what you
write that you can, with some authority. On the face of it, your
suggestion for an independent accreditation body seems eminently sensible.
I am only surprised that such a body doesn’t exist at present – perhaps it
does in a separate guise? I may be entirely wrong, but in the UK, I
thought that the Society was responsible for setting the syllabus for the
degree course and previously the old DPodM. To that extent I assumed that
the profession was playing a lead role in determining content. (Am I wrong
in this assumption?) So who determines the program in Oz?
The other points you raise gave me much food for thought. It is curious
how the obvious is sometimes so difficult to see. Your point about
different courses and their impact on the finished article – the graduate
is a good example. In Britain there are some 13 or 14 schools who prepare
podiatrists to a common degree yet sometimes it is fairly easy to tell
which school a clinician graduated from – sometimes within minutes of
meeting them. I hadn’t thought of before as somehow important in relation
to individual capabilities in the workforce, but the point you make is an
interesting one. Perhaps this also contributes to the attrition rate as
you suggest. Do any of the schools keep data on what has happened to past
graduates? Are some schools more susceptible than others? Even if they
were, what conclusions could we draw from it? Interesting argument here;
if the ‘Ivy League’ schools produced graduates that were so academically
superior that, once in practice, they quickly became disenchanted and
left; ergo; does pushing the boundaries in clinical teaching at
undergraduate level, really benefit the profession in the long term?
Look forward to reading other comments on this.
Best wishes
Mark Russell
On Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:37:12 +1000, Alan Crawford <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>Please accept my apologies if I am misinterpreting your original
submission Mark but I feel you were treading carefully so as not to
offend, when really you had serious concerns about podiatry education in
general. Maybe it is time to get to grips with the fact that education is
the most important component of the podiatry profession whether at U/G,
P/G or continuing education short course level. Unfortunately it appears
as though the professional councils who should influence education may in
reality leave much of the decision making to the academic staff in the
various universities. For years I have requested( in Australia) that the
profession initiate an external accreditation body to become involved in
the accreditation of any new course and to review existing courses when
appropriate to do so. We have now got such a body, but as there is a
considerable cost in having a course accredited only one course to my
knowledge has undergone the process. The high cost of accrediting the
course , which the university has to pay, defeats the object of the
exercise as the Universities are quite happy to accredit the courses
themselves and ignore the external group who in reality may make
recommendations the university would rather not here.
>Historically the podiatry curriculum in each podiatry program has been
developed by the podiatry staff within the guidelines for academic
programs in each university. This is why some courses have a strong
science, medical core and others may have a stronger emphasis on
behavioral sciences. One university may support a four year program while
another refuses to do so. This is why I say it is well beyond the time
whereby the profession in collaboration with university staff, decide what
constitutes an U/G podiatry program which will best prepare graduates for
contemporary podiatry practice and provide a pathway to P/G studies
through research programs. While the professional bodies may not be able
to influence the universities to include all that is desired, at least it
demonstrates that a professional body and the State authorities who
register the graduates are working as one to produce both the best
program and graduate possible.
>Currently in Australia and it may be the same in the UK, entry to
podiatry programs differ in terms of academic qualification and I
seriously doubt that any two courses offer anything like similar programs.
If entry to courses and course content differ significantly, how can we
say the graduates are equally capable of contemporary podiatry practice?
If we do accept this scenario then maybe we should be accepting the fact
that we are educating and producing some graduates who are capable of
working at a level which is beyond that of current practice. Could this be
why the attrition rate from the profession is high and more of our
graduates are using the course for entry to medicine? As an example we
have our students study 3 hours per week for a full semester in
pharmacology which is taught at a very high level, with no outlet for
using drugs other than those a member of the public can buy in a
pharmacy.
>Until we as a profession are willing to sit down with the people who have
made a career in education, and discussed where we were, where we are and
where we hope to go WITH THE PROFESSION beside us, we will have these
discussions for the next foreseeable future. Lets not get too precious,
lets just discuss education as people discuss biomechanics, warts and all,
because we can always buy some wart off in the pharmacy!!.
>Thanks Mark for generating the discussion, feel free to take the gloves
off. Cheers Alan
>
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