Comparability of Outcome Frameworks in Medical Education: Implications for framework development
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Description
Background: The demand for international harmonization in medical education increases with the growing mobility of students and health professionals.
Many medical societies and governmental offices have issued outcome frameworks (OF), which describe aims and contents of medical education based on competencies. These national standards affect the development of curricula as well as assessment and licensing procedures. Comparing OF and identifying factors that limit their comparability may thus foster international harmonization of medical education. Summary of Work: We conducted a systematic search for national OF in MedLine, EmBase and the internet.
We included all OF in German or English that resulted from a national consensus process and were published or endorsed by a national society or governmental body. We extracted information in five predetermined categories: history of origin, audience, formal structure, medical schooling system and key terms.
Summary of Results: Out of 1816 results, 13 OF were
included into further analyses. OF reference each
other, often without addressing existing differences
(e.g. in target audiences). The two most cited OF are
“CanMEDs” and “Scottish Doctor”. OF differ especially
in their level of detail as well as in the underlying
educational system.
Discussion and Conclusions: Based on our results we
propose a two-step blueprint for OF, that may help to
establish comparability for internationally aligned key
features – so-called “core competencies” – while at
the same time allowing for necessary regional
adaptations in terms of “secondary competencies”.
Take-home messages: Considerable differences in at
least five categories of OF currently hinder the
comparability of outcome frameworks.
Many medical societies and governmental offices have issued outcome frameworks (OF), which describe aims and contents of medical education based on competencies. These national standards affect the development of curricula as well as assessment and licensing procedures. Comparing OF and identifying factors that limit their comparability may thus foster international harmonization of medical education. Summary of Work: We conducted a systematic search for national OF in MedLine, EmBase and the internet.
We included all OF in German or English that resulted from a national consensus process and were published or endorsed by a national society or governmental body. We extracted information in five predetermined categories: history of origin, audience, formal structure, medical schooling system and key terms.
Summary of Results: Out of 1816 results, 13 OF were
included into further analyses. OF reference each
other, often without addressing existing differences
(e.g. in target audiences). The two most cited OF are
“CanMEDs” and “Scottish Doctor”. OF differ especially
in their level of detail as well as in the underlying
educational system.
Discussion and Conclusions: Based on our results we
propose a two-step blueprint for OF, that may help to
establish comparability for internationally aligned key
features – so-called “core competencies” – while at
the same time allowing for necessary regional
adaptations in terms of “secondary competencies”.
Take-home messages: Considerable differences in at
least five categories of OF currently hinder the
comparability of outcome frameworks.
Date of Publication
2015-09-06
Publication Type
Conference Item
Subject(s)
Language(s)
en
Contributor(s)
Feufel, Markus A | |
Spiel, Claudia D |
Title of Event
Access(Rights)
metadata.only