The Evolution of Core Curriculum in Medical Schools

Author(s):  
Aaron L. Burshtein ◽  
Joshua G. Burshtein ◽  
Peter A. Gold ◽  
Luke Garbarino ◽  
David E. Elkowitz

Medical education has undergone an evolution from passive, lecture-based learning environments to curricula that accentuate an active and dynamic system. Stemming from technological innovation, a greater amount of responsibility has been placed on students during clerkships and residency. In addition, a shift in USMLE assessment focuses on interpretation and application as compared to the former memorization-heavy approach. Therefore, learning has been modified to prepare students for the future medical landscape. Through the use of Team-Based, Problem-Based, and/or Case-Based Learning, medical students are taught to understand content rather than memorize it. The authors elucidate the rationale behind active learning and present a guide for medical educators to adopt this style of learning in every part of the undergraduate medical school training process.

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-23
Author(s):  
Dinesh Kumar ◽  
Ramakrishnan Rajprasath ◽  
Magi Murugan

Background: Conventional pedagogies for case-based learning are designed with the intention of helping the student appreciate the relevance of content they learn and kindle their curiosity. However, these pedagogies embody certain shortcomings which inhibit them from reaching the intended objectives. The main aim of our initiative is to improve traditional case-based learning using the principles of clinical reasoning. Methods: A priori, two sessions were conducted in which two vignettes were administered to first-year medical students. We obtained the perceived acceptance which was equivalent to Kirkpatrick level 1 learning outcomes. Results: Overall outcomes were highly positive in terms of acceptability, fostering curiosity, increasing the relevance of learned content, and helping students learn to think in a logical way. Conclusion: With the increasing need for incorporating clinical reasoning skills in medical education, it is imperative that these skills are taught beginning with the preclinical years of medical education.


Author(s):  
William G. Rothstein

Undergraduate medical education has changed markedly in the decades after mid-century. The basic medical sciences have been de-emphasized; clinical training in the specialties has replaced that in general medicine; and both types of training have been compressed to permit much of the fourth year to be used for electives. The patients used for teaching in the major teaching hospitals have become less typical of those found in community practice. Innovations in medical education have been successful only when they have been compatible with other interests of the faculty. As medicine and medical schools have changed, major differences of opinion have developed over the goals of undergraduate medical education. Practicing physicians have continued to believe that the fundamentals of clinical medicine should be emphasized. A survey in the 1970s of 903 physicians found that over 97 percent of them believed that each of the following was “a proper goal of medical school training:” “knowing enough medical facts;” “being skillful in medical diagnosis;” “making good treatment plans;” “understanding the doctor-patient relationship;” “understanding the extent to which emotional factors can affect physical illness;” “being able to keep up with new developments in medicine;” and being able to use and evaluate sources of medical information. Only 52 percent felt that “being able to carry out research” was a proper goal of medical school training. Medical students have also believed that undergraduate medical education should emphasize clinical training. Bloom asked students at one medical school in the early 1960s whether they would prefer to “work at some interesting research problem that does not involve any contact with patients,” or to “work directly with patients, even though tasks are relatively routine.” About 25 percent of the students in all four classes chose research, while 58 percent of the freshmen and 70 percent of the juniors and seniors chose patient care. The same study also asked students their criteria for ranking classmates “as medical students.” Clinical skills were the predominant criteria used by students, with “ability to carry out research” ranking far down on the list. Faculty members, on the other hand, have emphasized the basic and preliminary nature of undergraduate medical education.


Author(s):  
Vandana Daulatabad ◽  
Prafull K. ◽  
Dr. Surekha S. Kadadi-Patil ◽  
Ramesh S. Patil

Introduction: Medical Education is witnessing a significant transition and global shift towards competency based medical education (CBME) which includes early clinical exposure (ECE) program to help students apply and correlate principles of preclinical subjects with clinical scenarios, in various forms and in a variety of settings. One of the easy and feasible methods of ECE being Case Based Learning (CBL), our study aimed to design a case scenario and to evaluate impact of case base learning as a part of ECE module in first year undergraduate medical teaching program in nerve muscle physiology. Methods: The present study was conducted in 96 students at Ashwini Rural Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Solapur after obtaining institutional ethics committee approval. 3 hrs session of CBL was conducted for a case scenario on myasthenia gravis in the nerve muscle physiology module. The students’ responses on pre-test, post-test and their insights regarding the CBL were taken through a pre validated questionnaire using 5-point Likert scale. Results: High impact of CBL was seen as significant improvement in student’s performance. Maximum students felt CBL to be easy method of learning and was highly appreciated through their feedback. Conclusion: CBL was found to have positive impact on understanding and perception of topic. CBL helped students to understand, evaluate, analyze, diagnose and interpret the case, paving them towards newer approach of self-directed and vertical integrated learning. CBL is easier, feasible an effective method among other early clinical exposure methods as it involves students in deeper and self-directed active learning, encouraging and promoting them to reach higher levels of cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy. This method will be very useful in its practical implementation during online classes for ECE module in the threat of COVID 19 situation as well.


Author(s):  
Jeff Schwartz

Although problem-based learning (PBL) is widely used in medical education for its many virtues, a number of deficiencies exist. As means of enhancing the experience of PBL for students, two relatively simple adjuncts to PBL are presented. What Ifs are short hypothetical scenarios, appended to the end of a PBL case, that require students to revisit elements of the PBL case just completed and apply their newly acquired knowledge to clinical reasoning in an altered scenario or to explore anew another dimension of the PBL case. Multi-directional symptoms PBL cases are cases where a common presenting symptom, rather than a specific pathology, is the focus of the PBL case and, following a core narrative of the initial patient presentation, a series of independent continuation narratives with appropriate histories, examination findings and investigation results, lead students to divergent diagnoses and management issues. In addition to keeping the PBL process fresh by rotating new materials regularly, these adjuncts extend the PBL process in the direction of case-based learning.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-74
Author(s):  
Carmina Shrestha ◽  
Sajan Acharya ◽  
Jasmin Joshi ◽  
Nahakul Shahi ◽  
Raksha Sharma ◽  
...  

Dilemmas regarding whether medical students’ participation ‘as doctor’ in disaster response is ethical remains unanswered. Although they prove to be an important addition to the workforce during such settings, their limited competency and likeliness to harm themselves and the patients in the process raises questions. Here we present our views on medical students’ involvement in disaster response based on our experiences at Patan Hospital, Patan Academy of Health Sciences (PAHS) during the Nepal earthquake 2015. Medical students play a crucial role in disaster management; however, they are not proficient in care for mass disasters. Nonetheless, being involved offered students first-hand experience on disaster response and also helped the disaster response by providing extra manpower. With more training, medical students can serve as a skillful workforce during disaster. The impact of regular drills strategically placed during medical school training in the curricula can be of immense help to build capacity for medical disaster response.  


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bela Turk ◽  
Sebastian Ertl ◽  
Guoruey Wong ◽  
Patricia P. Wadowski ◽  
Henriette Löffler-Stastka

Abstract Background Case-Based Learning (CBL) has seen widespread implementation in undergraduate education since the early 1920s. Ample data has shown CBL to be an enjoyable and motivational didactic tool, and effective in assisting the expansion of declarative and procedural knowledge in academia. Although a plethora of studies apply multiple choice questions (MCQs) in their investigation, few studies measure CBL or case-based blended learning (CBBL)-mediated changes in students’ procedural knowledge in practice or employ comparison or control groups in isolating causal relationships. Methods Utilizing the flexibilities of an e-learning platform, a CBBL framework consisting of a) anonymized patient cases, b) case-related textbook material and online e-CBL modules, and c) simulated patient (SP) contact seminars, was developed and implemented in multiple medical fields for undergraduate medical education. Additionally, other fields saw a solo implementation of e-CBL in the same format. E- cases were constructed according to the criteria of Bloom’s taxonomy. In this study, Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) results from 1886 medical students were analyzed in total, stratified into the following groups: medical students in 2013 (n = 619) before CBBL implementation, and after CBBL implementation in 2015 (n = 624) and 2016 (n = 643). Results A significant improvement (adjusted p = .002) of the mean OSCE score by 1.02 points was seen between 2013 and 2015 (min = 0, max = 25). Conclusion E-Case-Based Learning is an effective tool in improving performance outcomes and may provide a sustainable learning platform for many fields of medicine in future.


1968 ◽  
Vol 114 (516) ◽  
pp. 1417-1423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Walton

Educational objectives in medical school training used to be stated in global terms, seldom possible to implement and still more difficult to test (Objectives of Medical Education, 1953). The student's training hopefully was required to help him “to respect the rights and dignities of patients”, or towards “expecting to be a student all his life”. How to evaluate the presence or absence of these qualities after training was not conveyed either by the form or by the sometimes frankly inspirational language in which the objectives were stated.


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