Defining the value of medical education
Demonstrating the value of medical education
Defining the value of medical education
The first step toward defining the value of medical education is to work backward by identifying stakeholder needs . The latter can be categorized into those needs that impact society ( i . e ., societal needs ), those that impact the educational institution ( i . e ., institutional needs ), those that impact the work or job environment ( i . e ., performance needs ), and those that impact learners ( i . e ., learning needs ) and the learning environment ( i . e ., preference needs ).
Societal needs are elements that are essential for human survival and include food and water , energy , health , education , transportation , employment , safety , and security ( Kaufman & Keller , 1994 ). The impact of COVID-19 on societal needs ( particularly health and safety ) is often the major focus of the lay media .
Institutional needs are specific important measures that medical education institutions are tracking ( Phillips and Phillips 2015 ). At the undergraduate medical education level , these may include metrics such as student output , quality of education , time , productivity ( e . g ., number of publications ), and the educational climate .
Performance needs are the behaviors , actions or processes that need to change in the work , job , or educational environment to address the institutional needs ( Phillips & Phillips , 2016 ). The overarching question in education is what needs to change in the educational environment to improve the institutional metrics .
Learning needs include the knowledge , skills , and / or attitudes that different stakeholders , including students , faculty , institutions , and other relevant parties , need to acquire to address the performance needs ( Phillips and Phillips 2015 ). Uncovering learning needs leads to the identification of preference needs , which describe the preferred approach to delivering content to the learner ( Phillips and Phillips 2015 ).
Demonstrating the value of medical education
Based on stakeholder needs , the value of medical education , including the COVID-19 imposed virtual education , can be defined in terms of perceptions , knowledge and capability , actions / processes / implementation , and impact ( tangible and intangibles ) on the educational institution and society as a whole . Since value resonates differently with different stakeholders , any approach used to measure the value of medical education must be representative of different perspectives and should produce a balanced set of data consisting of both qualitative and quantitative measures ( Phillips & Phillips , 2016 ).
While there are numerous evaluation frameworks within the program evaluation literature , Kirkpatrick ’ s four-level outcome-focused framework is widely used to evaluate medical education programs . The framework was introduced by Donald Kirkpatrick in 1959 , categorizing evaluation into four levels of outcomes ( Kirkpatrick , 1998 ). Table 1 summarizes the levels of evaluation and their measurement focus .
Table 1 : Kirkpatrick ' s Four Levels of Evaluation ( Kirkpatrick , 1994 ) Level Category Measurement Focus
Level 1 Reaction
Level 2 Learning
Measures participants ’ reaction to the learning program
Measures changes in participants ’ knowledge , skills , and / or attitudes as a result of participating in the learning program
Level 3 |
Behavior |
Measures the extent to which the newly acquired information influence the behavior |
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of participants or extent to which participants are applying this information on the |
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job |
Level 4 |
Results |
Measures changes in business or organizational outcomes as a result of the |
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application of learning in the work environment |