title: A pain in the neck--medical student attitudes to the Orthopaedic spine.
abstract: Considerable deficiencies exist in the teaching of Orthopaedic medicine. This study aimed (i) to determine if spinal surgery was the Orthopaedic specialty that students found most difficult, (ii) to appraise attitudes towards teaching of the spine, and (iii) to suggest ways teaching might be improved. A questionnaire on Orthopaedic teaching was given to 238 final year medical students in Ireland. Perceived difficulties with spinal surgery were compared to seven other Orthopaedic sub-specialties. Suggestions made on how to maximise teaching potential included 69 (29%) for more tutorials, 43 (18%) for more lectures, 26 (11%) suggested a more structured training programme and 17 (7%) for increased use of online resources. The spine is one of the least popular Orthopaedic subspecialties and considerable deficiencies exist in its education.
authors.affiliation: Orthopaedic Department, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Eccles St, Dublin 7. patrickgroarke007@gmail.com
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Groarke
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Flanagan
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lenehan
mesh_terms: D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D008511:Medicine; D009985:Orthopedics / Q000193:education*; D013131:Spine / Q000601:surgery*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*