Our Story

We noticed a gap between classroom learning and clinical learning and what started as a chat between teaching fellows led us from the North East of England to Glasgow, then Vienna and back.

We noticed a number of our medical students often did not get to see all of the acute clinical presentations which were in their log books. Although these presentations were covered in classroom teaching we wanted to improve the fidelity of this teaching.

We developed an innovative session using the UK medical documentary series ‘24 Hours in A&E’ as an adjunct to case scenarios which we developed.

We selected clips of patients patients whose level of acuity made student exposure less likely, for example: abdominal aortic aneurysm, fast atrial fibrillation, anaphylaxis and acute pulmonary oedema.

We searched for the conditions using the ‘learning on screen’ resource which is available to all universities with an ERA licence. It allows educational use of television programmes to UK universities with an ERA licence). The episodes were edited to two-to-five minute clips which can be done via the learning on screen website. Using these clips we followed the patient from admission to discharge. After each clip the students were given a task: prescribing, requesting investigations, interpreting results or role-playing communication.

The sessions were pitched at medical students in their clinical years with tasks similar to those which they might be expected to perform in their exams or as a first year doctor. 

The sessions were evaluated and the results have been presented at the ASME conference in Glasgow and the AMEE conference in Vienna.

We have designed this website as a means to share our resources in the interests of free open access to medical education.