Petter Gjersvik

11.06.2020: The final medical studies exam is intended to test knowledge and skills that the students will need as doctors – not the students' ability to pass an exam. What is the optimal exam type? And what does an exam really test? Assessment of the students' knowledge and skills constitutes a separate...

20.04.2020: Doctors often need to make decisions in situations of uncertainty. This is not the same as guessing. The TV programme Hva feiler det deg? [What's wrong with you?] on NRK1 is a medical quiz show where competitors try to arrive at a diagnosis for a patient on the basis of limited information and...

17.02.2020: New and effective drugs to treat psoriasis have changed the preconditions for sending patients to undergo climate therapy on Gran Canaria. Psoriasis is a chronic, fluctuating skin disease characterised by red, thickened and scaly patches on various parts of the body. Many patients with psoriasis...

08.04.2019: This journal gladly publishes articles written by students. The students' supervisors must ensure that the manuscript has the quality required for submission. As a young assistant registrar with academic ambitions I had written my first manuscript intended for publication in an academic journal. The...

12.06.2018: Doctors are not supposed to guess. Written exams and other systems for the assessment of medical students should reflect the way doctors work. May and June means exam time, and that also applies to medical students. Exams are meant to ensure that the students have the requisite knowledge and skills...

21.08.2017: Doctors record, discuss and conclude in writing. Therefore, medical students need to practise their writing skills and be tested on their ability to write professionally. All doctors write. Few write academic articles, but nearly all write patient records, referrals, test requisitions, case...

23.08.2016: The willingness to face criticism is crucial for learning and for becoming an even better doctor. Mistakes must be cultivated, but in the correct way. Nobody passes through life without making mistakes, and doctors least of all. Eliminating all mistakes and adverse events from the health services is...

11.08.2015: A diagnostic process is based on the same principles irrespective of specialty: listening to the patient, examining the patient systematically and pursuing a line of reasoning As a clinical teacher of medicine, I often start a new semester by asking the students: What should a general practitioner...