President: Dr David Rowen FRCP
A meeting of the Southampton Medical Society was held on the 3rd April 2024 at the Ampfield Golf Club. The President was in the chair. The minutes of the last meeting were approved.
The President introduced our speaker Prof. Chris Stephens who spoke to the title “ Travels in Medical Education - a journey”.
Prof. Stephens began by outlining his journey in medicine from GP to Professor of Medical Education in Southampton University which became a department in its own right.
He qualified in 1979. He joined the army on a medical student short service commission and after qualification was posted to the Army Air Corps as their MO. After this he joined the Victor Street Surgery in Southampton as a GP partner. He was interested in medical education and did a Masters Degree in his spare time. It was Professor Mick Arthur who was also interested in the concept of a ‘safe learning environment’ and appointed Chris in a new Medical Education Department. The emphasis was on a modern curriculum.
Chris found he was making contact with Medical Schools abroad after the Egyptian Government asked if he would help setting up a new medical school in Cairo. Egypt was a police state and he considered that he had to to refuse this invitation. There were other unsuitable approaches from unstable and war torn countries as well and Chris felt unable to assist them as learning and supervising in this type of environment is not really possible. Other difficulties he came across were numerous such as having to turn down Saudi Arabia Princess Nourah University, even though it is a large university, as it was open only to female staff and students and there were numerous practical difficulties. They did however form links with the international medical schools in Helsinki, Dar es Salaam and Kassel in in Germany. He had travelled the world in assessing a large number of medical schools who wished to form connections with Southampton which was an interesting privilege.
Another change he introduced was to move the 4th year project to the third year so the student could leave with a full degree after finals.
The President thanked Professor Stephens for his talk and said his department had gained a great deal of respect and it was a well deserved appointment when he was appointed Professor.