Medical students' knowledge about curriculum development and implementation in public and private medical institutes

To assess the knowledge of undergraduate medical students about curriculum development and implementation.

A quantitative descriptive study was conducted at a public sector institute and a private sector institute from September, 2022 to December, 2022. Simple random sampling was used and all the undergraduate MBBS students were included in study. Sample size was calculated using open epi and keeping confidence interval at 95% as 316 for FMU students and 218 for AFMDC students. Ethical approval was taken from FMU and permission to collect data was obtained from AFMDC. A Questionnaire was made and distributed among the students and data obtained was analyzed using SPSS 25.0.

Two hundred and forty-seven (49.4%) participants responded that the students don't have any say in their curriculum, 400 (80%) were of the view that the students must have their opinion in the curriculum and 397 (79.4%) said that students must be involved in the process of planning and implementation of curriculum. When asked about the areas of deficiencies in the current curriculum, 101 (20.2%) pointed new skill, 84 (16.8%) indicated New information, new skills, teaching Methodology and effective teachers, 68 (13.6%) said teaching methodology while 51 (10.2%) indicated new skills and teaching methodology both. Five main themes were identified from the comments of students regarding curriculum, its development and implementation including; 1. Content revision, 2. Teaching methodologies, 3. Assessment, 4. Guidance and orientation and 5. Teacher student relationship.

The undergraduate medical students are aware of the terms related to curriculum, its development and implementation but they are not being involved in any of this process. Content revision, clinical integration from initial years, quality assessment and faculty development are few areas that need improvement from students' perspectives.