THE ROLE OF THE SKILLS LABORATORY IN THE INTEGRATED CURRICULUM OF THEFACULTY OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH-SCIENCES, UAE-UNIVERSITY

The old curriculum of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMH S), which was recently revised, still applies to the 1989 student inta ke. It comprises 2 preparatory years, 3 medical years and 2 final clin ical years. Clinical teaching is introduced from the first medical yea r. Clinical skills are first learned in the Skills Laboratory (SKL), u sing simulations, before application to real patients. The SKL role is primarily knowledge consolidation, motivation and integration. A form ative objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) was recently in troduced as a teaching tool. Weaknesses of clinical skills were identi fied. Tutors' feedback and guidance resulted in a significant improvem ent of students' performance and helped standardize procedures. It was concluded that the SKL is a useful clinical teaching setting, especia lly when clinical teaching is introduced early in the curriculum. It p rovides both horizontal and longitudinal integration through a motivat ing curriculum. The formative OSCE was a successful exercise for furth er integration and standardization, and it significantly improved stud ent skills performance.