What guides student learning in the clinical years: A mixed methods study exploring study behaviours prior to the UK Medical Licensing Assessment (UKMLA).

PURPOSE: Student study behaviours that prioritise the UKMLA content map over the local curriculum are a significant risk for UK medical education. To mitigate this, we describe a student-centred faculty process to improve local curriculum guidance based on an evaluation of student study behaviours, concerns and needs. Responses informed the build of an online curriculum map. METHODS: A mixed methods approach was adopted, including an online anonymous survey exploring student study behaviours and preferences for curricular guidance. This was followed by student-led focus groups to explore emergent themes further. Qualitative data underwent reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: 121 students responded to the survey, of which 12 consented to participate in two student-led focus groups. Five key themes emerged, including motivation for learning, student use of the intended curriculum, student experience of the enacted curriculum, the hidden curriculum, and expectations of an online curriculum map. CONCLUSIONS: A participatory framework enabled shared aims and responsive outcomes for curricular development in the run up to the UKMLA. Student responses led to clarification of guidance, reorganisation of learning resources and optimal design of an online curriculum map which linked all content in a visible, UKMLA aligned framework, accessible to all students and teachers.

PharmaCORE: Optimizing medical pharmacology education with an innovative instructional dashboard.

WHAT WAS THE EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGE?: Diminishing emphasis on pharmacology education in medical schools has resulted in a concerning lack of prescribing knowledge among physician graduates. These concerns mirror our graduates' expressed dissatisfaction with the structure and quality of pharmacology educational experiences over the past 5 years. WHAT WAS THE SOLUTION?: PharmaCORE, a web-based instructional dashboard, was developed as an interactive faculty development tool to enhance integration and instruction of pharmacology content in pre-clinical curriculum at a US medical school. HOW WAS THE SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED?: PharmaCORE was introduced in Spring 2022 for instructors teaching pharmacology in the pre-clinical curriculum. Instructors used the dashboard to assess coverage of specific drug topics throughout the curriculum and to apply tailored, learner-centered teaching strategies to optimize learner engagement and comprehension. WHAT LESSONS WERE LEARNED THAT ARE RELEVANT TO A WIDER GLOBAL AUDIENCE?: The initial assessment indicated that the dashboard was user-friendly and positively influenced instructor awareness of pharmacology content and learner-centered teaching. This faculty development approach underscores the importance of skill-based mapping and maintaining learner-centered teaching standards to address other integrated subjects and broader curricular challenges. WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?: This study lays the foundation for the broader applicability of instructional dashboards in tracking and addressing curricular challenges across pharmacology and other science subjects. Future steps include more personalized feedback for instructors, creating a student-accessible version, and ongoing monitoring of maintenance measures like milestone exams.

Mapping an undergraduate medical education curriculum against national and international palliative care reference learning objectives.

BACKGROUND: The teaching of palliative care competencies is an essential component of undergraduate medical education. There is significant variance in the palliative care content delivered in undergraduate medical curricula, revealing the utility of reference standards to guide curricular development and assessment. To evaluate our university's undergraduate palliative care teaching, we undertook a curriculum mapping exercise, comparing official learning objectives to the national Educating Future Physicians in Palliative and End-of-Life Care (EFPPEC) and the international Palliative Education Assessment Tool (PEAT) reference objectives. METHODS: Multiple assessors independently compared our university's UGME learning objectives with EFPPEC and PEAT reference objectives to determine the degree-of-coverage. Visual curriculum maps were created to depict in which part of the curriculum each objective is delivered and by which medical specialty. RESULTS: Of 122 EFPPEC objectives, 55 (45.1%) were covered fully, 42 (34.4%) were covered partially, and 25 (20.5%) were not covered by university objectives. Of 89 PEAT objectives, 40 (44.9%) were covered fully, 35 (39.3%) were covered partially, and 14 (15.7%) were not covered by university objectives. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of EFPPEC and PEAT reference objectives are fully or partially covered in our university's undergraduate medical curriculum. Our approach could serve as a guide for others who endeavour to review their universities' specialty-specific medical education against reference objectives. Future curriculum development should target the elimination of identified gaps and evaluate the attainment of palliative care competencies by medical learners.

Promoting learning gains and practical ability of nursing students: the construction and empirical research of inquiry learning community / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Objective:To develop an inquiry learning community centered on learning experience in the course of Nursing Clinical Comprehensive Experiment to verify the influence of this teaching mode on the learning gains and practical ability of nursing students. Methods:A total of 132 undergraduate nursing students form grade 3 in Chongqing Medical University were enrolled. The participants were randomly assigned to a learning community group ( n = 69) and a control group ( n = 63) using Minitab 14.0 software. The students in the learning community group adopted the inquiry learning community mode in accordance with the curriculum map for online self-learning, group discussion and skills practice, while the control group received the teacher-led teaching mode for offline theory teaching, operation teaching and skills practice. After the teaching intervention, both groups of students received the assessment questionnaire of learning gains and the comprehensive experimental ability evaluation. Chi-square test or paired t-test was performed using SPSS 23.0. Results:Compared with the control group, students in the learning community group reported that their sense of learning gain was enhanced ( P<0.001, Cohen d=0.97); sub-items showed that the effect size for the understanding of learning content ( P<0.001, Cohen d=1.22), the overall course situation ( P<0.001, Cohen d=0.90), the course activities ( P=0.000, Cohen d=0.83), and the information obtained ( P<0.001, Cohen d=1.16) was significantly different. The total score of practical ability of comprehensive experiment was significantly improved ( P = 0.005, Cohen d=0.51), in which the experimental situation displays ( P=0.002, Cohen d=0.55) and experimental effect ( P=0.006, Cohen d=0.49) were better than the control group. There was no significant difference in the performance of experimental preparation and case analysis between the two groups. Conclusion:Developing an inquiry learning community in nursing clinical comprehensive experiment can effectively enhance student' sense of learning gains and promote the improvement of clinical practical ability.

Approaching an undergraduate medical curriculum map: challenges and expectations.

BACKGROUND: Feedback received from medical students at University College London Medical School (UCLMS) suggested a lack of clarity regarding the contents and subsequent assessment of the undergraduate curriculum. In order to address these issues, a specialist team was established with the aim of designing and implementing a Curriculum Map (CM), which have been recognised in their ability to provide a centralised, visual representation of the curriculum. While multiple perspectives from educators to stakeholders can be considered here, the need for the CM to remain student centred was identified as key at UCLMS. The aim of this study was therefore to understand the requirements of the CM prior to production from the perspective of the medical students. METHODS: A mixed-methods sequential study was conducted. The first stage involved gathering quantitative data using a primary online survey. This used 15 questions, rated by Likert scales and focussed around three domains: depiction of content, functionality and students' likely engagement with a CM. There was a free-text question for additional comments. The second stage consisted of multiple student focus groups representing different years of the programme, conducted by trained facilitators following a predetermined scheme. Reflective Thematic Analysis (RTA) was used to synthesise the qualitative data, which was read independently by two researchers. All students at UCLMS were invited to participate in the study. RESULTS: There were 409 survey responses. 92% of students said they were 'likely' or 'very likely' to use a CM, with their key intended use being to monitor their learning progress and ensure preparedness for assessments. Five key themes emerged from the focus groups, namely that students wanted a CM to be: comprehensive; simple and intuitive; able to link content throughout the course; aligned with assessment; and useful to monitor students' progress. CONCLUSIONS: Through this study, valuable insight was gained on students' ideal preferences for the CM. Understanding this was important in order to ensure that its co-design remained student-centred prior to its design and launch. This study also highlighted the need to set realistic expectations for students on the role of a CM in preparing them for assessments, and ultimately professional practice.

Building a database for curriculum mapping and analytics.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Curriculum mapping of an outcomes-based programme using a database was developed using a relational database structure, and it functions as a searchable database by the use of keywords. Factors such as the framework of the programme, the database entity relationship diagram (ERD), benchmarking, terminology and nomenclature, analytics and integration with the learning management system requires careful consideration before implementation. Built into the structure of the curriculum database are the analytics features which identifies the curricula data using defined keywords. This enables staff and students to search through any programme or subject of interest to track a subject or keyword to the point of delivery with the use of the analytics feature. This results in the curricula information being transparent for all stakeholders, ensuring curriculum mapping and blueprinting of assessments are readily available. This paper reports on the implementation of a university-wide curricula database which includes multiple undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including chronological versions of a programme at an institution with diverse health professions programmes, including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy. Additionally, this paper outlines the steps to design the curricula database, the development of the framework of the database and the analytics, the challenges in implementation, the results that can be obtained from such a database and the lessons learnt.

Curriculum Redesign in Veterinary Medicine: Part I.

Curricular review is considered a necessary component for growth and enhancement of academic programs and requires time, energy, creativity, and persistence from both faculty and administration. At Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (TAMU), the faculty and administration partnered with the university's Center for Teaching Excellence to create a faculty-driven, data-enhanced curricular redesign process. The 8-step process begins with the formation of a dedicated faculty curriculum design team to drive the redesign process and to support the college curriculum committee. The next steps include defining graduate outcomes and mapping the current curriculum to identify gaps and redundancies across the curriculum. Data are collected from internal and external stakeholders including veterinary students, faculty, alumni, and employers of graduates. Data collected through curriculum mapping and stakeholder engagement substantiate the curriculum redesign. The guidelines, supporting documents, and 8-step process developed at TAMU are provided to assist other veterinary schools in successful curricular redesign. This is the first of a two-part report that provides the background, context, and description of the process for charting the course for curricular change. The process involves defining expected learning outcomes for new graduates, conducting a curriculum mapping exercise, and collecting stakeholder data for curricular evaluation (steps 1-4). The second part of the report describes the development of rubrics that were applied to the graduate learning outcomes (steps 5-8) and engagement of faculty during the implementation phases of data-driven curriculum change.

Social pediatrics: weaving horizontal and vertical threads through pediatric residency.

BACKGROUND: Social pediatrics teaches pediatric residents how to understand disease within their patients' social, environmental and political contexts. It's an essential component of pediatric residency training; however there is very little literature that addresses how such a broad-ranging topic can be taught effectively. The aim of this study was to determine and characterize social pediatric education in our pediatric residency training in order to identify strengths and gaps. METHODS: A social pediatrics curriculum map was developed, attending to 3 different dimensions: (1) the intended curriculum as prescribed by the Objectives of Training for Pediatrics of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC), (2) the formal curriculum defined by rotation-specific learning objectives, and (3) the informal/hidden curriculum as reflected in resident and teacher experiences and perceptions. RESULTS: Forty-one social pediatric learning objectives were extracted from the RCPSC Objectives of Training for Pediatrics, most were listed in the Medical Expert (51%) and Health Advocate competencies (24%). Almost all RCPSC social pediatric learning objectives were identified in more than one rotation and/or seminar. Adolescent Medicine (29.2%), Pediatric Ambulatory Medicine (26.2%) and Developmental Pediatrics (25%) listed the highest proportion of social pediatric learning objectives. Four (10%) RCPSC social pediatric objectives were not explicitly named within learning objectives of the formal curriculum. The informal curriculum revealed that both teachers and residents viewed social pediatrics as integral to all clinical encounters. Perceived barriers to teaching and learning of social pediatrics included time constraints, particularly in a tertiary care environment, and the value of social pediatrics relative to medical expert knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the lack of an explicit thematic presentation of social pediatric learning objectives by the Royal College and residency training program, social pediatric topics are integrated, taught and learned throughout the entire curriculum. Special attention needs to be given to the hidden curriculum and system barriers that may impede social pediatric education.