Knowledge, skills and attitudes: Medical schools’ coverage of an ideal curriculum on intellectual disability

Abstract

There has been a call to increase the quantity and quality of medical education in the area of intellectual disability in order to improve practitioners' provision of care and address the many poorly managed health issues in this population. The first part of this study involved determining the ideal knowledge, skills and attitudes that medical students should have at the end of their undergraduate training. Questionnaires were sent to experts to elucidate their opinions. Common themes were extracted and an ideal curriculum created. The second part of this study involved telephone interviewing of relevant staff at the ten medical schools in Australia to determine whether their teaching covered the knowledge, skills and attitudes outlined by the experts. Although some of the medical schools comprehensively covered all areas of teaching, half the medical schools displayed significant gaps in their teaching, when compared to the ideal curriculum. These findings provide important information and feedback to medical schools, which may enable them to modify and maximise the quality of teaching provided.