Integrative medical education: educational strategies and preliminary evaluation of the Integrated Curriculum for Anthroposophic Medicine (ICURAM).
OBJECTIVE
the development and preliminary evaluation of a new medical program aimed at educating students in patient-centered integrative care and developing appropriate educational strategies.


METHODS
The Integrated Curriculum for Anthroposophic Medicine (ICURAM) was developed with modules on anthroposophic medicine integrated into the full 6 years of the regular medical curriculum. The educational strategy is the ESPRI(2)T approach, combining Exploratory learning, Supported participation, Patient-based learning, Reflective practice, Integrated learning, an Integrative approach and Team-based learning. The student participation, assessed based on the number of credit points earned per year (ctp/year) through the ICURAM (1 ctp=30 h workload), served as a preliminary indicator of student interest.


RESULTS
Of the 412 55%medical students participated in the program: 16% full participation (≥ 4 ctp/year), 18% partial participation (1-3.99 ctp/year) and 22% occasional participation (0.25-0.99 ctp/year). The amount of additional workload taken on by students was between 7.8h/year for occasional participants, 33 h/year for partial participants and 84 h/year for full participants.


CONCLUSIONS
More than half of medical students were willing to invest a significant amount of additional time in the optional program.


CONCLUSIONS
An integrative medical curriculum with a student-centered educational strategy seems to be of interest to most medical students.
Integrated Curriculum for Anthroposophic Medicine, Theory of Medicine, Integrative and Anthroposophic Medicine, Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, Germany. christian.scheffer@uni-wh.de
Christian
C
Scheffer
Diethard
D
Tauschel
Melanie
M
Neumann
Gabriele
G
Lutz
Dirk
D
Cysarz
Peter
P
Heusser
Friedrich
F
Edelhäuser
D000328:Adult; D000887:Anthroposophy; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D055048:Integrative Medicine / Q000193:education*; D007858:Learning; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000379:methods*; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology