title: The impact of curricular changes on the geriatrics knowledge, attitudes and skills of medical students.
abstract: We redesigned our medical school's Problem-Based Learning (PBL) curriculum to include a substantial increase in required geriatrics content. Innovations included new PBL health care problems and standardized patients (SPs) throughout the first three years and a new required four-week, fourth-year rotation. We used data from the AAMC Medical School Graduation Questionnaire, the UCLA Geriatrics Knowledge Test and Attitudes Survey and a Geriatrics SP Examination to measure self-efficacy, geriatrics specific knowledge, attitudes and clinical skills before and after these curricular changes. Positive effects on students' self-efficacy, knowledge and skills were demonstrated. Scores on the attitude scale were high before and after implementation. The demonstration of improved educational outcomes will help to validate our curricular changes and guide their future development.
authors.affiliation: University of Hawaai, John A. Burns School of Medicine, 651 Ilalo St, MEB, 2nd Floor, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA. mnagoshi@msn.com
authors.forename: Michael H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Nagoshi
authors.forename: Marianne K G
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Tanabe
authors.forename: Damon H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.forename: Kamal H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Masaki
authors.forename: Richard T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Kasuya
authors.forename: Patricia L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Blanchette
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005853:Geriatrics / Q000193:education*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D020377:Self Efficacy