Determining geriatric content in a medical school curriculum

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Geriatrics
• Curriculum Development

Background:

• Geriatric medicine is a critical, growing field.
• Assessing the integration of geriatric content into medical education is essential for training future physicians.
• Existing methods for evaluating curriculum content may have limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the extent of geriatric content within a medical school curriculum.
• To compare the validity of different methods for assessing geriatric content coverage.
• To identify specific courses with high or low geriatric content emphasis.

Main Methods:

• Surveyed faculty course directors and students regarding geriatric content.
• Conducted an independent review of course syllabi and materials.
• Analyzed the content of course examinations for geriatric-specific items.
• Correlated examination content with National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) exam performance.

Main Results:

• Student assessments of geriatric content were found to be invalid.
• Significant variability existed in geriatric content coverage across courses.
• Pharmacology and second-year psychiatry courses demonstrated the highest geriatric content.
• Microbiology, biochemistry, and neuroanatomy courses showed the least geriatric content coverage.
• Geriatric items on course examinations strongly correlated with NBME Part I and Part II examinations (r = .71).

Conclusions:

• Reviewing course examinations is the most valid and expeditious method for assessing geriatric content emphasis.
• Geriatric content in the medical school curriculum is generally low, though disagreement exists on the extent of deficiency.
• Findings suggest potential generalizability to other medical schools due to correlation with NBME exams.