New students often enter medical training with narrow concepts of what constitutes ‘medicine’. The wider ideals of public health are commonly viewed as abstract or less relevant than clinical skills and given lower priority than subjects such as anatomy or surgery. Medical school curricula across Australia are struggling to incorporate all recommended knowledge areas, and it can be hard to argue for space for content which is perceived as less ‘clinical’. Within the Joint Medical Program (JMP), which operates between the Universities of New England and Newcastle, the core principles of public health and evidence based medicine (EBM) were taught as a compulsory unit in first year. However, during the recent development of the new MD program, it was decided to deliberate break this ‘silo’ approach and replace it with an interconnected model across all courses in order to better integrate these concepts and emphasise the importance of them within clinical practice. These changes, facilitated through a focus on the spiral teaching of key concepts reinforced over the years, have resulted in better engagement of students, which in turn assists them to gain a greater appreciation and understanding of public health and its role within the wider health system.
Dr Stuart Wark