Director's note

Welcome to the Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education (CMHSE), part of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University.

CMHSE assists in the enhancement of curricula and manages a health professions education research and development program of international status. To build on this, CMHSE will soon establish a program of multidisciplinary educational research in healthcare education.

The Centre has focused on the redevelopment of the medical curriculum, working closely with health care and other academic disciplines and institutions on the design and conduct of research and evaluation activities.

To enhance curricula development, the CMHSE provides teacher-training opportunities, including short courses targeted at curricular change, and a Graduate Certificate in Health Professional Education.

Current interests of the Centre include: assessment of clinical competence; teaching in clinical environments; curriculum design in work-based learning; and graduate attributes. Another is rural health and, working with the Faculty's School of Rural Health, CMHSE will assist in developing medical curricula that reflect a commitment to the teaching of rural health, and cultivate development of research initiatives and opportunities.

The Centre plays a key role in the internationalisation of health care courses in the following areas: structuring the resource underpinning for the new curricula, including information technology systems; staff development and educational research training; and interaction with external and postgraduate institutions at a State and Federal level.

Brian Jolly
Director