Myra Lynch

I became a Member of the Irish College of General Practitioners in 1998, and I have worked as a GP for the past 25 years. I have always had an interest in medical education. General practice covers every aspect of medicine, from cradle to grave, and I believe is the most fertile ground for the practical education of our medical students.

It is a concern to me that we have falling numbers of GPs in our communities. Research has shown that meaningfully exposing medical students to general practice during their training, increases the likelihood they might choose it as a career.

We first began hosting RCSI Undergraduate medical students in our GP practice in Carpenterstown, West Dublin, in 2021, during the COVID epidemic. We wanted to develop our practice by getting involved in educating the next generation of healthcare professionals.

I enrolled in RCSI’s Postgraduate Diploma course in Health Professions Education, so I could more effectively communicate my knowledge and experience.

The course was held online, weekly, and my fellow course participants came from all different healthcare professions in Ireland and abroad. This inter-professional learning and co-operation is a powerful aspect of the course.

We learned what influences us in how we learn, how we teach – one to one, small group, large group, how and why we assess students. We looked at curriculum development and research in medical education.

The course was practical; we delivered some teaching ourselves and assessed each other. We also learned how to create effective digital teaching tools. Our small group research project looked at the effectiveness of a personal tutor programme for undergraduate medical students in Ireland. I have learned that knowledge and experience is not enough to be a truly effective teacher, and at the end of this course I feel better equipped to support our medical students on their journey.