Longitudinal Teaching, Pro and Con

Family medicine educators have long pondered why medical school is taught differently that college. Most medical school courses are "taught by a parade of guest lecturers, managed by a course director. Why this difference? And what are its implications?"  Tony Glaser

Given the concepts of whole organ systems and whole persons and the need for an approach to families or communities, it makes little sense to be so divisive. Why cant' a family physician teach it all. After all, many of our FP departments have done a good portion of the first two years, with high marks. 

Robert Garrett wrote:

"The things that a master teacher gets across are: the way the knowledge in a discipline hangs together (based on some important general principles), how this discipline is related to other cognate disciplines (and how it relates to the actual practice of medicine), and the excitement that comes along with understanding and mastering an important area of knowledge, so that one can do one's job better in the future. There just aren't enough master teachers to go around, however, and no one seems to see the importance of developing more of them."

To see how master teachers in medical education are rural preceptors, see the following:

Why a Preceptorship Is Better

Verby Articles and Research

Invisible Faculty - Joe Hobbs  This article is posted with permission of Family Medicine, published by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine.

1. Allow the focus on small groups
2. Accommodates different types of learners
3. May be more suitable for training students preparing for careers in mental health, geriatrics, primary care, service to the underserved. These include more mature learners, those needed a slower pace but with the right characteristics for underserved placement and service, those who have family needs.   Learning Forestry
4. Debt Free/Obligated   a major contributor to many problems, in return not so much an obligation as the school accommodates their needs so that they do not have to leave a needed location and have community support to stay, get education, and continue in the community
5. Integrated Clinical - the earlier the more relevant, and the better Continuous exposures and connections          Meeting the Needs of Underserved Rural and Inner City Areas with Accelerated Graduate Training
6. Integrated with Communities that the Graduates Will Serve Community Driven Approach                  Dispersed education