Document Detail


Commentary: Flexner and Dutch medical education: a misinterpretation?
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20980851     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Abraham Flexner's 1910 report, Medical Education in the United States and Canada, was hardly noticed in the Netherlands, and though his 1925 book, Medical Education: A Comparative Study, was extensively discussed in the Dutch Medical Journal, it did not and could not affect medical education in the Netherlands. Until the 1970s, the medical curriculum in the Netherlands consisted of four phases: the propaedeutic year (premedical sciences), two preclinical years, two theoretical clinical years, and one-and-a-half to two years of clerkships. When in the 1970s interest in curriculum innovation arose in the Netherlands, it was based on developments in North America that challenged "Flexnerian" norms in medical education. As hardly anyone in the Netherlands cared to study Flexner's work closely, his name became synonymous with the conventional curriculum just as it had in North America. However, the Dutch conventional curriculum was quite different from the American conventional curriculum, so attributing its origins to Flexner's work was a serious misrepresentation. In this commentary, the author clarifies common misconceptions about the history of Dutch medical education and argues that the curriculum as Flexner saw it differed considerably from the Dutch medical curriculum a century ago.
Authors:
Eugène J F M Custers
Publication Detail:
Type:  Historical Article; Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges     Volume:  85     ISSN:  1938-808X     ISO Abbreviation:  Acad Med     Publication Date:  2010 Nov 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-10-28     Completed Date:  2010-12-02     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  8904605     Medline TA:  Acad Med     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  1672-4     Citation Subset:  AIM; IM    
Affiliation:
Center for Research and Development of Education, School of Medical Sciences, University Medical Center, Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands. ecusters@umcutrecht.nl
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Curriculum*
Diffusion of Innovation
Education, Medical / history*,  trends
History, 20th Century
History, 21st Century
Models, Educational*
Netherlands
North America

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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