Organizers Plan Online Medical School 170
slashdot_commentator writes "Job has you down? Thinking of starting a second career? How about finally getting that medical degree you've been putting off? A group of more than 50 schools in 16 countries are working to create an online medical school, in part to combat the "brain drain" that occurs when medical students go abroad for their education but do not return later. ... Organizers said that because degrees would be granted by individual participating schools, all of which are accredited, students should not have to worry about accreditation problems."
Med School vs. Internship (Score:2, Informative)
Only after medschool, when you are an intern, do you get to work with patients, and only with the supervision of a resident. No character on ER (except for some one-episode people who are trying to figure out what rotation to join) are med students. Rather, they are all interns or residents.
I hope this helps in your evaluation of the feasability of this program (MHO - somewhat feasable, but may lack hands-on cadaver work.)
Re:Med School vs. Internship (Score:5, Informative)
As for the intern bit, yes, most physicians learn most from the first post graduate year, but you ABSOLUTELY do touch patients before your internship. You get to intubate, learn how to ascultate heart and breath sounds, interview patients assist with surgeries, set broken bones, suture wounds etc...etc...etc... all in your third and fourth years of medical school. Typically under the supervision of attending and senior residents of course.
I would be truly scared of anyone who did not have that experience before starting an intership and residency.
Costly (Score:5, Informative)
$24,917 * 7 = ~175k
Which, ironically, is about the cost of the tuition for the 7 years of med school for only one student. If they get two students, they will already be doubling their money
HowTo become a doctor [howstuffworks.com]
I've tried this.... (Score:3, Informative)
The general way an online course works is through the extensive use of message boards which allow the students to interact with each other. Real time chat and whiteboard software are also used. Supporters claim that the experience equals that of a real classroom, but my first hand experience is that it does not. Several days ago, I was discussing online classes with a former instructor of mine. His wife teaches some online courses and she contends that her online students are getting perhaps 60% of the education they could receive in a physical classroom - and this is from an instructor who in my experience truly cares about her students.
The first course I took was Intro to Philosophy. The instructor would post a weekly lecture and assign all the typical reading required in a Phil 100 class. Then you had lists of questions to answer and post to the board where everyone else was supposed to respond to your answers, and you responded to theirs. Then you responded to their responses, etc, etc, etc. One day I got tied up and couldn't log on for almost 36 hours - there were nearly two hundred new messages waiting. I ended up dropping the course after the second week because the sheer amount of material combined with math and chemistry courses was overwhelming.
This summer, I took and completed a humanities course entitled _Survey of World Literature_. The class received absolutely no input from the instructor other than the weekly lecture. The only time the instructor made her presence known was to answer direct questions posted in a special ask the instructor board (usually of the I forgot to do an assignment can I please turn it in late whine.) Wildly inaccurate and misguided posts from students went unchallenged by the faculty member in charge. I suspect that the instructor may not have even read the individual postings, but I can't prove it.
Online courses may be very good for people of a particular personality - one who is very self driven, who isn't really into the face-to-face interaction of a classroom setting. In general however, I just don't feel like the technology has reached a point where the education delivered is of the same caliber.
Crocuta
Re:Bad idea (Score:5, Informative)
During the first two years of the curriculum, about 70 percent of the students' time would be taken up by distance learning, and the remainder by working in a community setting like a clinic or hospital. After that, the proportions would shift to about 30 percent computer-based learning and 70 percent working in a practice setting.
I don't know what's worse, the post or the idiots that modded it up.
Re:you get rushed into the ER.. (Score:2, Informative)
Surgeons have been performing surgery remotely! Through a computer!
Hell, I even helped develop a virtual laparoscopic surgical simulator (3d spacial recognition and other goodies). Know where surgeons currently learn? On live patients. Wouldn't you rather have a surgeon who's gone a couple rounds with a simulator rather than someone who has no experience?
Re:Halfway there. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Awesome Idea , but I think the point was lost (Score:2, Informative)
If you're interested in the history of higher education, as I am, you can read about it in greater detail in Samuel Eliot Morison's The Founding of Harvard College.
Doable for 1.72 Years of Med school (Score:1, Informative)
I am a fourth year med student - this is dumb (Score:3, Informative)
What's unfortunate is that the students will still be getting the most important part of their training in their home environments. The clinical years are where the majority of applicable skills are learned. The quality of residents, attending physicians, and individual departments help determine how much exposure students get to the cutting edge of modern medicine.
These students might get a better pre-clinical education than they would have. However, they run the risk of adopting all the bad habits of American medicine (focus on pathology, not the patient) without the benefits of its strengths (appropriate application in a compassionate setting).
In short, the best and brightest from other countries will still leave their home countries...
(And just in response to other comments, medical students have much of the same experiences and training as interns and residents just without the actual responsibility)
Invicta{HOG}
Re:Good idea, but... (Score:3, Informative)
For the benefit of all the other readers who *also* won't read it...
The program initially is set up with about 70% online learning and about 30% clinical experience. That clinical time is spent at a hospital or participating school. After the first couple of years, the emphasis shifts to clinical study, with 70% of the time now being spent in clinical rotations and 30% online learning.
Oh, on a side note, Franklin university has some very nice online programs that are real, regionally accredited programs. I'm finishing my last CS course there while I work full-time, and have generally been pleased with the system in comparison to the other schools I'd previously attended. http://alliance.franklin.edu/ for info.