Curriculum assessment for prevention topics and the population perspective.
BACKGROUND
According to the Association of American Medical College's (AAMC) Senior Questionnaire, medical students spend an inadequate amount of time learning about health promotion, disease prevention, and the population health perspective.


OBJECTIVE
Determine the health promotion/disease prevention (HPDP) content of the medical school curriculum at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, using an inventory of knowledge and skills in HPDP and using physician education objectives from Healthy People 2000.


METHODS
A 121-item survey to evaluate curriculum content was developed. All course directors evaluated their course by using this instrument. An average of three medical students used this instrument to assess each curriculum lecture and every clinical clerkship day in the required medical school curriculum. A teaching session was defined as spending a minimum of 3-5 minutes teaching an HPDP topic.


RESULTS
Of 21 required courses in the medical school curriculum, 11 accounted for the 393 teaching sessions in HPDP. Seventy-five percent (293 sessions) of these dealt with clinical prevention. Quantitative methods received 40 sessions, whereas the health services organization and delivery and the community dimensions of medical practice received 37 and 23 sessions, respectively. Course directors and students disagreed significantly in which HPDP topics were taught in the curriculum.


CONCLUSIONS
Clinical prevention was fairly well covered in the medical school curriculum. Quantitative methods, health services organization and delivery, and community dimensions of medical practice were poorly covered. This assessment was used to substantially improve the curriculum. To track and improve curriculum content in all courses, course directors need to know more precise details about the content of their courses, so this detail can be used to better evaluate the overall curriculum.
Dismuke
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SE
Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Kansas School of Medicine, Wichita, Kansas 67214, USA. Edismuke@kumc.edu
Burns
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BW
Moranetz
C A
CA
Ellerbeck
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E
D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D011315:Preventive Medicine / Q000193:education* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data