European Journal of Internal Medicine
Volume 18, Issue 2 , Pages 101-103, March 2007

A new direction for medical education in Ireland?

  • Paul Finucane

      Affiliations

    • Medical School Development, University of Limerick, Limerick, Republic of Ireland
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +353 61 202695; fax: +353 61 330027.
  • ,
  • John Kellett

      Affiliations

    • Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Nenagh, Ireland

Received 25 May 2006; accepted 26 September 2006.

Abstract 

In recent years, new concepts of educational theory and practice have stimulated new approaches to medical education in many countries. For various reasons, medical education in Ireland has been slow to change such that there are now increasing concerns about educational standards. In addition, Ireland currently produces too few doctors and is therefore highly dependent on overseas doctors to maintain its health service. The responsible agencies are finally about to address these problems through a major expansion of medical education coupled with a strong agenda for educational reform. While the reform process will clearly be influenced by the experience of other counties, Ireland now has a great opportunity to take innovation in medical education a step further. For example, there is now an opportunity to develop new strategies to ensure the social accountability of medical education, to increase its community orientation and to foster interprofessional teaching and learning.

Keywords: Medical education, Ireland, Reform

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PII: S0953-6205(06)00237-8

doi:10.1016/j.ejim.2006.09.001

European Journal of Internal Medicine
Volume 18, Issue 2 , Pages 101-103, March 2007