Cross-referencing the Scottish Doctor and Tomorrow's Doctors learning outcome frameworks

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Curriculum Development
• Education Informatics

Background:

• Learning outcome frameworks are increasingly prevalent in healthcare education.
• Medical schools may need to align with multiple outcome frameworks, such as those from the UK General Medical Council (GMC) and the Scottish Deans' Medical Curriculum Group (SDMCG).
• Existing frameworks, like GMC's Tomorrow's Doctors and SDMCG's Scottish Doctor, differ in aims and structure.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the development and implementation of a cross-referencing system for healthcare education learning outcome frameworks.
• To facilitate the use, evaluation, and validation of different outcome frameworks by relating their statements and terms.
• To provide insights into the process, findings, and lessons learned from this cross-referencing exercise.

Main Methods:

• A systematic cross-referencing exercise was undertaken by the Scottish Deans' Medical Curriculum Group (SDMCG).
• The methodology involved relating individual learning outcome statements, terms, and groups of terms between different frameworks.
• The paper outlines the philosophy, practical steps, and findings of this cross-referencing initiative.

Main Results:

• A cross-referencing system was successfully developed and applied to compare the GMC and SDMCG outcome frameworks.
• The exercise identified differences and relationships between the learning outcome statements of the two frameworks.
• The findings provide a basis for better understanding and utilizing these frameworks in medical education.

Conclusions:

• Cross-referencing learning outcome frameworks is essential for their effective use, evaluation, and validation in healthcare education.
• The developed system offers a practical approach for educators and curriculum developers working with outcome-based education.
• This work has implications for education informatics and the harmonization of medical curricula.