title: Student-selected components: bringing more ENT into the undergraduate curriculum.
abstract: Exposure to otolaryngology is currently minimal in the UK undergraduate medical curriculum. This may lead to difficulties in attracting graduates into higher ENT surgical training and in ensuring a reasonable standard of ENT knowledge amongst primary care practitioners. A recent innovation, of which many ENT units may be unaware, is the introduction to the undergraduate curriculum of 'student-selected components'. Like the traditional elective, this allows students to undertake an attachment to a speciality and department of their choice. Units which do not regularly teach medical students but which have a welcoming and enthusiastic approach to undergraduate training may well be ideal hosts. This paper introduces the concepts underlying student-selected components, outlines the preparation required and offers a template for such an attachment, for which ENT is ideally suited.
authors.affiliation: Medical School, University of Newcastle, Middlesbrough, UK.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Newbegin
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Rhodes
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Flood
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Richardson
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D010036:Otolaryngology / Q000193:education*; D013038:Specialization; D006113:United Kingdom