Remarks by the Medical and Surgical Corporations of the United Kingdom on the reports of the Visitors of Examinations 1881-2.

Date:
[1882?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks by the Medical and Surgical Corporations of the United Kingdom on the reports of the Visitors of Examinations 1881-2. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    21/56 (page 19)
    11) unless the College were prepared to incur a very heavy expense, k. Q. Coll. Again, it would tend to lessen the interest felt by the Clinical Ii£kl, Examiners at present in investigating new cases with the candi- dates—an interest which leads the Examiners to put new and searching questions at each step of the physical examination of a patient. With the Visitors, the College believe that in a Clinical Examination it is most desirable that the candidate should be required not only to write out the details of the case of the patient whom he is told off to examine, but also to answer questions put to him by the Examiner while actually engaged in investigating the case. The Clinical Examiners of the College endeavour to ascertain how far the candidate has been trained to carry out a careful Physical Examination, and, as a result of such an examination, to arrive at a correct opinion as to the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of the case. The Visitors ci'iticize the final Examination of the College in two particulars. First, they consider that too little use was made of the microscope. At the same time, they admit that at the single examination inspected by them, one of the Examiners in Medicine submitted a number of microscopical objects to all the candidates, who were asked to say what the different objects were, and questioned about them and their pathological signifi- cance. The College are of opinion that this was all that was required; and it may be stated that every candidate is liable to be subjected to a similar test of his knowledge of microscopy at any examination for which he may chance to present himself. At page 19 the Visitors institute an unfavourable contrast between the care taken to test the candidates’ knowledge of the use of instruments in 1874 and the neglect in 1881. This imputed neglect, however, is only apparent, as successive Examiners since 1874 have frequently examined the candidates with regard to the use of instruments; and the omission to do so at the recent visitation was attributable to the varying conditions of the examination, which the College consider to be a merit in theii system as carried out by their Censors and Examiners. The College do not wish their Examiners to examine on exactly similar lines on all occasions. Commenting on the Primary or First Professional Exami- nation, the Visitors note that i-ecipi’ocity in recognising this B 2