Teaching and learning showcase

Our staff and students from across our programmes are quite rightly proud of innovative and excellent teaching and learning.

A few examples below showcase some initiatives. We are constantly developing and evolving, learning in our own practice.

Student Involvement in Curriculum Development

A student-led initiative to include LGBT health in the undergraduate medical curriculum (MBChB)

Studies have identified that medical curricula in the UK give limited attention to the health needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) patients. An audit of the MBChB curriculum at the University of Edinburgh highlighted that there was very limited coverage of LGBT health. To address this we recruited a group of 6 medical students to work on a project.

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This involved:

Stage 1: Development of learning resources and event. i) Digital stories: The students worked with the LGBT Health and Wellbeing (a voluntary organisation in Edinburgh), University of Edinburgh LGBT student societies and a range of other networks to identify LGBT volunteers willing to share experiences of healthcare. The students undertook nine interviews with these volunteers, recorded and transcribed them and then edited them into short digital stories. ii) Literature review: the students undertook a review of relevant literature on LGBT health and produced this in a format suitable for their peers. iii) Event: the students planned and organised an evening event for medical students.

Stage 2: Pilot In March 2016, the team ran the ‘LGBT Healthcare’ event for nearly forty of their peers using the learning resources. The event included a panel of LGBT individuals, community representatives and medical practitioners. It was very well-received by those attended with average feedback score of 8.6 out of 10.

Stage 3: Embedding in the curriculum. A whole morning event was developed, modelled on the pilot event, and was delivered to year 1 medical students in February 2017. This involved 4 workshops and a Q&A session. We have also packaged the learning resources (digital stories and literature review) that were created and have made them available online as an open educational resource, to all Edinburgh medical students.

Evaluation: The teaching event was evaluated very positively by the Year 1 students. For example one student said, “I’m just glad we are getting this teaching”. 93.4% agreed or strongly agreed that the event improved their understanding of LGBT health.

It made me realise that this is something I need to be aware of as a doctor

I'm just glad we are getting this teaching

Having people with experience in this area talk to us made it more relatable

Master of Public Health

Some examples of innovative and excellent practice in learning and teaching from our Master of Public Health programmes

Learning and teaching showcase - Master of Public Health website