Planning and evaluating curricula for the humane practice of medicine (original) (raw)

Medical education and the healthcare system--why does the curriculum need to be reformed?

BMC medicine, 2014

Medical education has been the subject of ongoing debate since the early 1900s. The core of the discussion is about the importance of scientific knowledge on biological understanding at the expense of its social and humanistic characteristics. Unfortunately, reforms to the medical curriculum are still based on a biological vision of the health-illness process. In order to respond to the current needs of society, which is education's main objective, the learning processes of physicians and their instruction must change once again. The priority is the concept of the health-illness process that is primarily social and cultural, into which the biological and psychological aspects are inserted. A new curriculum has been developed that addresses a comprehensive instruction of the biological, psychological, social, and cultural (historical) aspects of medicine, with opportunities for students to acquire leadership, teamwork, and communication skills in order to introduce improvements i...

Toward a Holistic Approach in Medical Education

Medical Education for the 21st Century, 2021

In this chapter, we briefly present the case of medical practice and education as they evolved through history until modern times. The history of medical practice and education portrays a transformation from unstructured spiritual and apprenticeship practice of the older days transitioning toward the current biopsychosocial medical model that is based on scientific evidence-based methods and practice. Educational methods have also developed from didactic traditional pedagogies and passive learning to more interactive methods and technologies based on andragogy. A preview of theoretical frameworks sets the ground for a discussion about medical schools’ curricula, values, and mission statements. The purpose of the frameworks is to illustrate the basic concepts on which a curriculum is constructed, and thus employ this in assessing whether these frameworks would fulfill the core values of medical practice as a holistic, bio-psychosocial science and practice; conceptual values that coul...

Strategies for planning and designing medical curricula and clinical teaching

South-East Asian Journal of Medical Education

Student learning is an active and constructive process. The role of a teacher is to provide an environment in which students are able to actively engage with subject matter in order to learn it. This article examines the principal features of good curriculum, course and lesson design and discusses ways in which doctors, in their roles as teachers of medical students and medical trainees can ensure that their teaching prompts learners' engagement in the learning process.

2024 The curriculum: The heart and soul of a medical school. By R M Harden et al.

Medical Teacher, 1–5. 1 November 2024, 2024

The importance of the curriculum In medical education, the curriculum is the blueprint for developing competent, ethical and adaptable healthcare professionals who can meet the needs of patients and society. The curriculum defines the structure, content and approach to training and assessing future physicians and how students engage with their learning. The curriculum is important for a number of reasons: it communicates to stakeholders including students, teachers, patients and the public more generally what can be expected of the education programme; it provides a benchmark for programme evaluation and for accreditation. If you are a teacher you have a role in designing and implementing the curriculum [1]. Indeed it can legitimately be argued that this is the teacher’s most important and challenging role and responsibility.

[Design and implementation of a competency-based curriculum for medical education]

Revista Peruana De Medicina Experimental Y Salud Publica, 2014

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Competency-based medical education (CBME) has been incorporated into graduate medical education accreditation and is being introduced in undergraduate medical education. Family medicine (FM) faculty at one institution developed a CBME FM clerkship to intentionally maintain the integrity of FM specialty-specific teaching during their institutional CBME curricular revision. METHODS: From the five FM domains (Access to Care, Continuity of Care, Comprehensive Care, Coordination of Care, and Contextual Care), 10 competencies and 23 FM educational activities (EAs) were defined. The set of EAs encompasses the wide scope of care available to FM clerkship students. Students complete four required EAs (preventive care, care transitions, chronic disease management, and acute care) and select four additional EAs matching their interests. EA selection frequency and course evaluations were assessed for the first cohort of learners (N=156; February 2016-July 2017). RESULTS: The most frequently selected EAs were: information coordination, procedures, and care of the family. The least selected were: patient e-communication, end-of-life care, and shared medical decision making. Student perceptions of the experience were strong prior to and after implementation. CONCLUSIONS: Having both required and selective EAs ensures a robust FM experience tailored to students' interests. The FM CBME curriculum allowed comparable clinical experiences despite variations in clinical sites and preceptor scope. Because of its breadth, FM is uniquely suited to address multiple competencies; this demonstrates the educational value of required FM clerkships to institutional leaders interested in implementing CBME curriculum. The CBME framework can provide a structure for more intentional student-clinic assignments based on EAs available at specific sites.

Innovations in medical curricula: templates for change

Health Affairs, 1985

Prologue: Today's new physicians are faced with an awesome array of often conflicting challenges: assimilating the vast and everincreasing base of scientific knowledge, coping with societal concerns over the cost of medical care, dealing with ethical dilemmas surrounding life-sustaining technology, and recognizing the changing nature of the physician-patient relationship. To better equip physicians in training for the professional challenges that lie ahead, some medical schools have studied and experimented with innovations in curricula. In this article, the authors present a survey of the literature concerning medical school curricula innovations for the past ten years. The conclusion which emerges from this study is that "short-term programs not integrated into the medical school environment are not worth pursuing. A more radical restructuring of medical education is needed," said Albert L. Siu, internist and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In addition, Siu recommended that many of the innovations and experiments taking place in U.S. medical schools "need to be more agressively studied.