Abstract
Purpose
Medical students must be provided the basic science knowledge appropriate and applicable for preparing them for best-practice medicine. To date, there have been no documented studies in the USA that have directly surveyed practicing physicians on their perspectives of their basic science/preclinical medical school education and how it could be modified to help them deliver best patient care. This study was the first to examine this information.
Method
A survey was administered to the alumni of Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, Harlem, NY (2011–2018), with questions on examining perspectives on basic science disciplines, the need for a basic science refresher course, and other educational topics. In addition, questions relating to demographics and type of medical practice were also asked. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS.
Results
(1) Gender (N = 122): 55% male and 44% female; (2) medical specialty (N = 107): 51.40% Primary Care physicians (Family medicine, Internal medicine, Pediatrics), 48.60% Other Specialties; (3) top Disciplines that “should have more”: Physiology (41.1%), Pharmacology (39.3%), and Preventative Medicine/Public Health (39.3%); Top disciplines that “should have less”: Histology Laboratory (38.32%), Embryology (35.51%), Histology (didactic) (28.30%) (N = 107); (4) top topics “most important” to be included in curriculum: Analysis of Journal Articles (70.10%), Clinical Cases (70.1%), and Early Patient Exposure (64.5%) (N = 107); (5) presentation of a clinically relevant Basic Science refresher course had a positive response (84.4%) (N = 107).
Conclusions
Pharmacology, Physiology, Clinical Cases, Journal Article Analysis, and Early Patient exposure were among topics requiring “more” in preclinical education. A clinically relevant basic science course was deemed useful. The perspectives of practicing physicians should be included when designing future medical school curriculums.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Thomas PA, Kern DE. Internet resources for curriculum development in medical education: an annotated bibliography. J Gen Intern Med. 2004;19(5 Pt 2):599–605.
Rooholamini A, Amini M, Bazrafkan L, Dehghani MR, Esmaeilzadeh Z, Nabeiei P, et al. Program evaluation of an integrated basic science medical curriculum in Shiraz Medical School, using CIPP evaluation model. J Adv Med Educ Prof. 2017;5(3):148–54.
Bland CJ, Starnaman S, Wersal L, Moorehead-Rosenberg L, Zonia S, Henry R. Curricular change in medical schools: how to succeed. Acad Med. 2000;75(6):575–94.
Chen DR, Priest KC, Batten JN, Fragoso LE, Reinfeld BI, Laitman BM. Student perspectives on the “step 1 climate” in preclinical medical education. Acad Med. 2019;94(3):302–4.
Burk-Rafel J, Jones RL, Farlow JL. Engaging learners to advance medical education. Acad Med. 2017;92(4):437–40.
Goldfarb S, Morrison G. Continuous curricular feedback: a formative evaluation approach to curricular improvement. Acad Med. 2014;89(2):264–9.
Fetterman DM, Deitz J, Gesundheit N. Empowerment evaluation: a collaborative approach to evaluating and transforming a medical school curriculum. Acad Med. 2010;85(5):813–20.
O'Keeffe GW, Davy S, Barry DS. Radiologist’s views on anatomical knowledge amongst junior doctors and the teaching of anatomy in medical curricula. Ann Anat. 2019;223:70–6.
Hamano J, Hanari K, Tamiya N. Attitudes and other factors influencing end-of-life discussion by physicians, nurses, and care staff: a nationwide survey in Japan. Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2019:1049909119876568.
Wheat J, Brandon J, Cox M, et al. Teaching medical students in the rural setting long term: physicians’ attitudes and perceptions. South Med J. 2019;112(10):526–30.
Danek RL, Berlin KL, Waite GN, Geib RW. Perceptions of nutrition education in the current medical school curriculum. Fam Med. 2017;49(10):803–6.
Survey: Physicians Assessment of Medical Curriculum. https://tourocollege.az1.qualtrics.com/WRQualtricsControlPanel_rel/File.php?F=F_bOSHtCIg56dpTed
Association of American Family Practitioners. https://www.aafp.org/about/policies/all/primary-care.html. Accessed 6 Nov 6 2019
Osteopathic Medical Profession report 2018. https://osteopathic.org/wp-content/uploads/2018-OMP-Report.pdf. Accessed 6 Nov 2019
Fineberg H. Public health and medicine. Am J Prev Med. 2011;41(4):S149–51.
Ormond BA, Sillman BC, Waidmann TA, et al. Potential national and state medical care savings from disease prevention. Am J Public Health. 2011;101(1):157–64.
Bowe CM, Voss J, Thomas AH. Case method teaching: an effective approach to integrate the basic and clinical sciences in the preclinical medical curriculum. Med Teach. 2009;31(9):834–41.
Miles S, Kellett J, Leinster SJ. Medical graduates’ preparedness to practice: a comparison of undergraduate medical school training. BMC Med Educ. 2017;17(1):33.
Lucia VC, Swanberg SM. Utilizing journal club to facilitate critical thinking in pre-clinical medical students. Int J Med Educ. 2018;9:7–8.
Wenrich MD, Jackson MB, Wolfhagen I, et al. What are the benefits of early patient contact?--a comparison of three preclinical patient contact settings. BMC Med Educ. 2013;13:80.
Ganguly P, Yaqinuddin A, Al-Kattan W, et al. Medical education dilemma: how can we best accommodate basic sciences in a curriculum for 21st century medical students? Can J Physiol Pharmacol. 2019;97(4):293–6.
Schmidt HG, Machiels-Bongaerts M, Hermans H, ten Cate T, Venekamp R, Boshuizen HP. The development of diagnostic competence: comparison of a problem-based, an integrated, and a conventional medical curriculum. Acad Med. 1996;71(6):658–64.
Demyan L, Harview C, Miller E, Wilkerson L, Salusky IB. Development of a translational research pathway at the David Geffen School of Medicine University of California, Los Angeles. Int J Med Educ. 2017;8:334–5.
Gillman J, Pillinger M, Plottel CS, Galeano C, Maddalo S, Hochman JS, et al. Teaching translational research to medical students: the New York University School of Medicine’s Master’s of Science in Clinical Investigation dual-degree program. Clin Transl Sci. 2015;8(6):734–9.
Willey JM, Lim YS, Kwiatkowski T. Modeling integration: co-teaching basic and clinical sciences medicine in the classroom. Adv Med Educ Pract. 2018;9:739–51.
Kulasegaram KM, Chaudhary Z, Woods N, Dore K, Neville A, Norman G. Contexts, concepts and cognition: principles for the transfer of basic science knowledge. Med Educ. 2017;51(2):184–95.
Woods NN, Brooks LR, Norman GR, et al. It all makes sense: biomedical knowledge, causal connections and memory in the novice diagnostician. Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract. 2007;12(4):405.
Van der Veken J, Valcke M, De Maeseneer J, et al. Impact on knowledge acquisition of the transition from a conventional to an integrated contextual medical curriculum. Med Educ. 2009;43(7):704–13.
Varjavand N, Pereira N, Delvadia D. Returning inactive obstetrics and gynecology physicians to clinical practice: the Drexel experience. J Contin Educ Heal Prof. 2015;35(1):65–70.
Varjavand N, Greco M, Novack DH, Schindler BA. Assessment of an innovative instructional program to return non-practicing physicians to the workforce. Med Teach. 2012;34(4):285–91.
Wiernik PH. Public Policy Committee of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology. A dangerous lack of pharmacology education in medical and nursing schools: a policy statement from the American College of Clinical Pharmacology. J Clin Pharmacol. 2015;55(9):953–4.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
An Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was obtained prior to survey distribution, highlighting our objectives and the questions that would be asked to these graduates.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Binstock, J.M., Pino, M.A. & Primavera, L.H. What Physicians Wished They Would Have Learned in Medical School: a Survey. Med.Sci.Educ. 30, 299–306 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-019-00903-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-019-00903-1