Building a sense of ownership to facilitate change: the new curriculum

Abstract

Just as trends in medical education are changing continuously, so must curricula. To keep pace with such trends the School of Medicine Tec de Monterrey, Mexico, underwent a curriculum reform process with the goal of developing a new educational model and reducing resistance to change. The Curriculum Committee created seven subcommittees involving students, medical residents, teachers and directors in the entire process to build a sense of ownership and reduce resistance to change. Clinicians and basic scientists worked collaboratively during three phases: (1) in the process of curriculum revision; (2) in the preparation of an integrated timetable and the course syllabi; (3) in the definition of outcomes. Resistance to change was greatly decreased by involving all faculty members, students and directors throughout. The new curriculum is outcome based, integrated, student centred, community oriented and problem based, with early supervised clinical exposure, an emphasis on professionalism and a holistic, standardized assessment system. Building a sense of ownership by designing strategies and from the outset inviting those involved in the design and implementation of the new curriculum have immensely facilitated change.

Notes

1. The 10 curricular outcomes are: (1) application of clinical skills; (2) patient investigation; (3) patient management; (4) health promotion and disease prevention; (5) communication skills; (6) information handling; (7) application of knowledge as a scientific basis for the practice of medicine; (8) critical thinking and clinical reasoning; (9) performance of the doctor within the health system; (10) ethics and professionalism.