Dr Dason Evans

Profile

I am passionate about:

1. Teaching others about teaching and learning;
2. Improving clinical skills teaching, learning and assessment (particularly learning);
3. Supporting students (and doctors) in academic difficulty.

I have worked at Queen Mary, on and off, since 2000 – influenced by many fantastic colleagues and students (some of whom are now colleagues).

Until I came on secondment to Malta in January 2024, I was the lead for clinical skills for the Queen Mary MBBS curriculum – those hands-on skills that form the human interface between medical knowledge and the patient. In the past I have had significant/leadership roles in developing and running the first intercalated BSc in medical education in the UK, running an innovative and award-winning academic support programme, designing/running modules in our in-house Masters in medical education as well as an international FAIMER masters. I have led on the design of a number of clinical skills centres and spent two years previously in Gozo, helping to set up clinical skills and clinical teaching here – it is great to be back. Internationally I have worked for many years with colleagues in Pakistan around reforming undergraduate programmes and faculty development, and I lead on an innovative clinical skills thread in the undergraduate medial curriculum in a joint programme between Queen Mary and Nanchang University, China.

My role at Queen Mary, Malta is to lead on setting up and delivering a faculty development programme to help us all develop our knowledge and skills around teaching and helping students learn.

Clinically I have been a sexual health doctor for many years, and so I am committed to diversity and expression of individuality. Of course, I have taught, researched, and written a bit about undergraduate and postgraduate sexual health education.

With my colleague and good friend Jo Brown, we wrote two editions of the leading textbook on study skills for medical students, along with some book chapters around academic support. I have co-authored a textbook on learning in the clinical environment, that started out as a project with an ex-student.

Teaching

I have been teaching for the last 25 years or so, and have experience with lecturing, facilitating, role modelling, mentoring, supervising projects, line management, OSCEs and written assessments, personal tutoring, supporting those in difficulty, and sitting on fitness to practice committees. During the pandemic, I became reasonably experienced in delivering synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning.

I am committed to active learning – all my teaching is interactive, even large-group lectures, and requires the learners to engage with the material that they are learning.

Research

Research Interests:

Unlike the very best researchers in education, who generate theory and new ways of seeing the world, my interests lie much more within applied research – finding the best ways (or least-worst ways) to do things. If it involves a clear research question that would obviously be useful to answer, then I am likely to be interested.

Current and ongoing areas of interest include:

• Reducing the harms done to learning by the OSCE assessment method
• Improving learning in the clinical learning environment,
• Improving bedside teaching
• Improving student participation with online preparation for flip learning

Publications

Books & Book Chapters

Evans, D. E. & Brown, J. (2017). Chapter 18: Students in Difficulty. In: Cantillon, P., Wood, D. & Yardley, S. (eds.) ABC of Learning and Teaching in Medicine. 3rd ed.

Evans, D. E. and J. Brown (2010). Ch 17: Supporting Students in Difficulty. In ABC of learning and teaching in medicine, 2^nd ed. P. Cantillon and D. Wood. Chichester, Wiley-Blackwell

This chapter, which was completely rewritten for the third edition, is in one of the leading textbooks of medical education, with extensive international distribution.

Evans, D.E. & Brown, J. (2015). How to succeed at medical school: an essential guide to learning,

Second ed. Chichester, West Sussex; Malden, MA, John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Evans DE, Brown J. (2009) How to Succeed at Medical School: an essential guide to learning: Blackwells/BMJ books.

Jo and I set about writing this book to try and extend the impact and reach of the advice that we were giving medical students about how to improve their approach to study at medical school. It has become the leading text on study skills for medical students and is increasingly recommended in other health professions.

The first edition sold 4,576 copies distributed between 52 different countries, and the second edition 2,625 copies across 36 countries from Australia to Vietnam. The first edition has been translated into Korean and Japanese.

Evans, DE and Patel, N (2012): 101 things to do with spare moments on the ward, Blackwell/Wiley publishers

This book was part of a wider project to encourage students to recognise the amazing number and diversity of learning opportunities in the clinical learning environment. To date 1,585 copies have been sold, reaching 32 different countries from Australia to Norway.

Peer reviewed journal papers

Note: I obsessively follow the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations on authorship, all publications listed fulfil all four of the ICMJE’s criteria, except one paper: Jayasinghe (2015) which was a reworking of a manuscript that we had previously submitted together when the lead author was a student. I did not actually approve the final version that was published.

Where I have had input that does not reach the ICMJEs criteria, I decline authorship and ask for an acknowledgement.

Blythe, J., Patel, N. S. A., Spiring, W., Easton, G., Evans, D., Meskevicius-Sadler, E., Noshib, H., & Gordon, H. (2021). Undertaking a high stakes virtual OSCE ("VOSCE") during Covid-19. BMC Med Educ, 21(1), 221

Bintley, H., Easton, G., George, R., Raval, D., Wells, H., Ehamparanathan, N., Le Voir, H., Wright, S. E., Evans, D., Rowlands, A., & Shafi, A. (2021). Twelve Tips for teaching clinical and communication skills online. MedEdPublish, 10(1).

Joekes, K., Brown, J., Boardman, K., Tincknell, L., Evans, D. E. & Spatz, A. 2016. Hybrid simulation for integrated skills teaching. International Journal of Clinical Skills, 10, 5.

Jayasinghe, G., Jayasinghe, R., & Evans, D. E. (2015). Ongoing faculty development for peer tutors: A widely neglected need. Educ Health (Abingdon), 28(2), 145-147.

Michels, M. E., Evans, D. E. & Blok, G. A. 2012. What is a clinical skill? Searching for order in chaos through a modified Delphi process. Med Teach, 34, e573-81.

Hutchinson, J., Evans, D., Sutcliffe, L. J., Macqueen, R. A., Davies, J. & Estcourt, C. S. 2012. STIFCompetency: development and evaluation of a new clinical training and assessment programme in sexual health for primary care health professionals. Int J STD AIDS, 23, 589-92.

Evans, D. E., Alstead, E. M. & Brown, J. 2010. Applying your clinical skills to students and trainees in academic difficulty. Clin Teach, 7, 230-5.

Cook, V., Fuller, J. & Evans, DE. 2010. Helping Students Become the Medical Teachers of the Future – The Doctors as Teachers and Educators (DATE) Programme of Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London. Education for Health, 23.

Estcourt C, Theobald N, Evans D, Lomax N, Copas A, David L, et al. How do UK medical graduates rate their knowledge and skills in sexual health and HIV medicine? A national survey. Int J STD AIDS. 2009 May;20(5):324-9.

Evans DE, Estcourt CS. A practical guide to building a national curriculum. Br J Hosp Med (Lond) 2007;68(11):612-5.

Evans DE. Shibboleths of incompetence. International Journal of Clinical Skills 2007;1(1)

Cushing, A., Brown, J., & Evans, D. (2007). Rapid Response: Communication Skills can be learned BMJ.

Evans, D. E., & Roberts, C. M. (2006). Preparation for practice: how can medical schools better prepare PRHOs? Med Teach, 28(6), 549-552.

Evans, D. E., & Zelin, J. (2006). Herpes = condoms for life? (e-letter). STI, http://sti.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/82/1/69 (accessed 10.6.06).

Estcourt, C., & Evans, D. E. (2005). Core learning outcomes in sexual and reproductive health and HIV for medical undergraduates: improving skills of future providers. Sex Transm Infect, 81(5), 440.

Chan, S. Y., & Evans, D. (2005). Red urine in a returning traveller. Int J STD AIDS, 16(11), 770

Cushing, A., Evans, D., & Hall, A. (2005). Medical students' attitudes and behaviour towards sexual health interviewing: short- and long-term evaluation of designated workshops. Med Teach, 27(5), 422-428.

Brown, J., & Evans, D. E. (2005). Workshop report: Supporting students who struggle. LTSN-01 newsletter, 01-8.

Evans, D. E., Wood, D. F., & Roberts, C. M. (2004). The effect of an extended hospital induction on perceived confidence and assessed clinical skills of newly qualified pre-registration house officers. Med Educ, 38(9), 998-1001.

Sayer, M., Chaput De Saintonge, M., Evans, D., & Wood, D. (2002). Support for students with academic difficulties. Med Educ, 36(7), 643-650.

Sayer, M., Bowman, D., Evans, D., Wessier, A., & Wood, D. (2002). Use of patients in professional medical examinations: current UK practice and the ethico-legal implications for medical education. BMJ, 324(7334), 404-407.