Purpose: To evaluate medical student perceptions on whether
curriculum innovations through the integration of clinical medicine with basic
science improves learning in the pre-clinical curriculum.
Background: Medical schools are transitioning to competency-based
curricula that emphasize an early introduction to clinical training. Students
who learn basic science explanations for clinical correlates have improved
retention. By integrating clinical sciences into the pre-clinical curriculum,
learning is optimized for students.
Methods: At the end of the Reproduction pre-clinical sequence
at the University of Michigan, students were asked to evaluate the overall
quality of the course, whether objectives were met, and whether the course was
well-organized, with a one-to-five level scale. These parameters were compared
for the sequence between 2018 and 2019, after curricula changes were
introduced.
Results: For the Reproduction sequence in 2019, course
assessment parameters were improved in comparison to 2018 values. Overall,
students rated the quality of the course as “very good/excellent” (4.21 ±
0.91), compared to “fair/good” (2.88 ± 1.01). Students “strongly agreed/agreed”
that objectives for the course were met (4.44 ± 0.82) versus “agreed” (3.74 ±
0.88), and “agreed” that the course was well-organized (4.21 ± 1.07) compared
to “disagreed” (2.66 ± 1.19).
Discussions: The restructuring of the Reproduction sequence allowed
for purposeful integration of clinical medicine into the basic science
pre-clinical curriculum, resulting in improved quality of learning for
students. Recruiting clinical faculty for lectures, and implementing case-based
instruction with the APGO videos for supplementation, provided an effective and
efficient method of integrating clinical medicine content within the sequence.
Topics: CREOG & APGO Annual Meeting, 2020, Clerkship Director, Medical Knowledge, Practice-Based Learning & Improvement, UME, Lecture, Problem-Based Learning,
Angela Liang,
MD; Michigan Medicine; Maya Hammoud,
MD, MBA; David Marzano, MD