Exploring the learners' perspectives on competency-based medical education

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Curriculum Development

Background:

• The Medical Council of India introduced Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) after 21 years, an outcome-based strategy integrating knowledge, attitude, skills, values, and responsiveness.
• CBME aims to enhance medical education by focusing on measurable competencies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess medical students' perspectives on the newly implemented Competency-Based Medical Education curriculum.
• To identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement in the CBME framework from the student viewpoint.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among first-year MBBS students (2019-2020 batch) across India.
• A validated questionnaire was administered online to 987 students from 74 medical colleges using multistage sampling.

Main Results:

• Approximately 75% of students found the foundation course, attitude ethics communication module, and early clinical exposure to be essential components.
• Students favored horizontal integration of subjects over vertical integration.
• Maintaining logbooks was perceived as a time-consuming and burdensome task by a significant number of respondents.

Conclusions:

• Meticulous adoption of CBME can foster student enthusiasm for learning.
• Recommended reforms include shortening the foundation course, incorporating stress and time management sessions, improving vertical integration synchronization, and enhancing the implementation of adult learning principles.