Capacity utilisation in medical education.
It is uncertain as to whether medical schools are operating to their maximum capacity or whether they could further maximise their capacity. It is also uncertain what problems medical schools might run into by striving to drive maximum capacity utilisation. Certainly there is no shortage of reports on why and how medical education providers should scale up, and yet there is inadequate scholarship on how medical education might do this in practice. It makes economic sense for medical schools to operate at maximum efficient capacity and yet adverse effects might result if schools are driven too hard. The main casualty of nearing the maximum efficient capacity is likely to be staff and staff morale. Staff will start to suffer from stress as a result of continually working to their limits. It is better to get buy-in from staff before implementing major changes that might increase capacity utilisation.
BMJ Learning, BMA, London, UK.
Kieran
K
Walsh
D004501:Education, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008503:Medical Staff / Q000523:psychology; D012577:Schools, Medical; D013337:Students, Medical; D000078329:Workforce; D016526:Workload