ARTICLE # 3 | 41
ARTICLE | # 3
Title Re-designing of a Problem Based Learning module to reflect a distinctive curriculum
Author( s)
Nazim Ali
Contact n. ali1 @ keele. ac. uk
School
School of Medicine
Background to the design of Keele University’ s medical programme
The overarching aim of Keele’ s MBChB programme is to develop medical students into becoming excellent clinicians and to achieve the best standards specified by the medical professional body, the General Medical council( GMC). Based on GMC’ s guidelines I have taken a reflective approach and evaluated how the module is designed to equip students in fulfilling the three concurrent roles of a clinician, namely a scientist, a practitioner and a professional( GMC Tomorrow’ s Doctors 2009). Firstly, in my consideration the cancer module achieves this goal where it uses five distinct learning themes to enable students acquire knowledge, skills and develop professional attitudes in order to become GMC-standard doctors( Figure 1).
Faculty
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Abstract
Problem based learning( PBL) utilised in medical education aims to offer students a holistic approach in acquiring knowledge and skills in order to be more patient-focused doctors. Through real-life clinical cases different strands of the medical curriculum such as anatomy, biosciences, physiology are blended with psychology and sociology to make the learning integrative. This can allow students to be exposed to clinical settings and gain an understanding of the different dimensions underlying a patient’ s problem in order to tease out the best solutions On the other hand learning based on ad hoc clinical cases poses challenges to the design and delivery of a curriculum which not only needs to be multi-faceted but also to equip students towards global stewardship. Here I have evaluated a PBL orientated module titled‘ Cancer’ within Keele University’ s Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery( MBChB) Year 1 curriculum. Evaluation was done based on the principles of curriculum design such as constructive alignment. This revealed a lack of consistency in identification of core knowledge between individual PBL groups. I also identified that the delivery of scientific concepts in a format that mirrors the micro-to-macro level of organisation as seen in the biological systems is misaligned in the module. In line with the expected standards of the UK Professional Standards Framework( UKSPF) I have put forward ideas and remedial actions to strengthen these areas.
Figure 1: The cancer module incorporates five distinct learning themes in order to provide medical graduates with knowledge and skills to fulfil three core roles specified by the GMC. These roles see a doctor acting as a scientist and being up to date on current research-driven knowledge. A doctor must be a competent practitioner and have skills to diagnose and prescribe correctly as well as maintain professional values. Overall these roles are aligned with the learning strategies of the Keele Graduate Attributes( KGA).
Keele’ s MBChB programme blends elements of the university’ s strategic plan