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Introducing the Competency‐Based Medical Curriculum to Pre‐Medical Students
Author(s) -
Able David
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.lb11
Subject(s) - curriculum , medical education , health care , psychology , medical ethics , medical school , medicine , pedagogy , psychiatry , economics , economic growth
Competency‐Based Medical Curricula are intended to produce altruistic, humane, and knowledgeable healthcare providers who know their strengths and limitations. CBMC are being adopted by an increasing number of medical schools, but even advanced pre‐medical students are frequently unaware that this sort of curriculum exists. I introduced a modified version of the competency‐based curriculum used at the Indiana University Medical School, Bloomington IN, to my undergraduate Gross Anatomy students in the form of four writing exercises in which students explore and develop their ideas about studying and practicing medicine. One exercise has as its focus a simple sleep latency test, through which students can learn about their level of sleep deprivation and its consequences (The “Self‐Care and Personal Growth Competency”). Another encourages them to explore their ideas about how medical care should be paid for (“The Social and Community Contexts of Medicine Competency”). Another allows them to explore their understanding of topics in medical ethics (“The Moral Reasoning and Ethical Judgment Competency”). By lecture‐based introductions to the topics, and by working through these issues, students are not only made aware of the Competency Based‐Medical Curriculum, but actually experience it. The survey instruments I used and the students' responses are available for inspection.