Preparing medical students for obstetrics and gynecology milestone level one: a description of a pilot curriculum

Abstract

Background

The implementation of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Milestones in the field of obstetrics and gynecology has arrived with Milestones Level One defined as the level expected of an incoming first-year resident.

Purpose

We designed, implemented, and evaluated a 4-week elective for fourth-year medical school students, which utilized a multimodal approach to teaching and assessing the Milestones Level One competencies.

Methods

The 78-hour curriculum utilized traditional didactic lectures, flipped classroom active learning sessions, a simulated paging curriculum, simulation training, embalmed cadaver anatomical dissections, and fresh-frozen cadaver operative procedures. We performed an assessment of student knowledge and surgical skills before and after completion of the course. Students also received feedback on their assessment and management of eight simulated paging scenarios. Students completed course content satisfaction surveys at the completion of each of the 4 weeks.

Results

Students demonstrated improvement in knowledge and surgical skills at the completion of the course. Paging confidence trended toward improvement at the completion of the course. Student satisfaction was high for all of the course content, and the active learning components of the curriculum (flipped classroom, simulation, and anatomy sessions) had higher scores than the traditional didactics in all six categories of our student satisfaction survey.

Conclusions

This pilot study demonstrates a practical approach for preparing fourth-year medical students for the expectations of Milestones Level One in obstetrics and gynecology. This curriculum can serve as a framework as medical schools and specific specialties work to meet the first steps of the ACGME's Next Accreditation System.

• ACGME Milestones
• flipped classroom
• active learning

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Rebecca Hovatter for her coordination of the curriculum.

Ethical approval

IRB exemption was obtained by the University of Michigan Medical School Institutional Review Board.

Previous presentation: poster presentation

CREOG and APGO Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, February 2014.

Disclosures

All authors have contributed to this manuscript and approved the final version to be published. None of the authors have a conflict of interest. The study was reviewed and approved as exempt by the IRB at the University of Michigan.

Conflict of interest and funding

This material is based upon work supported by the University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching's Investigating Student Learning Grant, 2012–13, $8,000.