Development and evaluation of a pre-clerkship spiral curriculum: data from three medical school classes

Figures & data

Table 1. Spiral Curriculum and block schedule for class of 2022.

Spiral Curriculum Schedule
Dates	Block	Date	Session Number	Session Content
07/09/2018–07/20/2018	Bridge to Medical School (optional)	–	–	–
07/23/2018–07/27/21018	Orientation Week	–	–	–
07/30/2018–09/07/2018	Foundations	07/30/2018	1	Cell Biology
		08/06/2018	2	Biochemistry
		08/13/2018	3	Biostatistics
		08/20/2018	4	Histology
		08/27/2018	5	Pharmacology
09/10/2018–10/19/2018	Musculoskeletal	09/17/2018	6	Histology
		09/24/2018	7	Pathology
		10/08/2018	8	Immunology
		10/15/2018	9	Pharmacology
10/22/2018–12/21/2018	Nervous	10/22/2018	10	Biochemistry
		10/29/2018	11	Microbiology
		11/05/2018	12	Musculoskeletal
		11/26/2018	13	Musculoskeletal
		12/10/2018	14	Dermatology
12/24/2018–1/04/2019	Winter Recess	–	–	–
01/07/2019–03/22/2019	Cardiovascular, Pulmonary, Renal (C/P/R)	01/07/2019	15	Cell Biology
		01/14/2019	16	Neurology
		01/28/2019	17	Microbiology
		02/18/2019	18	Neurology
		03/04/2019	19	Musculoskeletal
		03/11/2019	20	Musculoskeletal
03/25/2019–03/29/2019	Spring Recess	–	–	–
04/01/2019–05/31/2019	Digestion, Metabolism, Hormones (D/M/H)	04/08/2019	21	Biostatistics
		04/15/2019	22	Psychiatry
		05/06/2019	23	Genetics
		05/13/2019	24	C/P/R
		05/20/2019	25	Immunology
06/03/2019–08/09/2019	Summer Recess	–	–	–
08/12/2019–09/27/2019	Life Cycle	08/12/2019	26	Psychiatry
		08/19/2019	27	Neurology
		08/26/2019	28	D/M/H
		09/16/2019	29	Neurology
09/30/2019–11/22/2019	Immunology & Infection	10/07/2019	30	C/P/R
		10/21/2019	31	D/M/H
		11/18/2019	32	Pharmacology
11/25/2019–12/20/2019	Advanced Topics	–	–	–
12/23/2019–01/03/2020	Winter Recess	–	–	–
01/06/2020–02/21/2020	Dedicated USMLE Step 1 Study	–	–	–

Table 2. Baseline characteristics of UACOM-T medical school classes (2A). Survey responses and USMLE Step 1 class averages from the classes of 2020, 2021, and 2022 (2B).

A. Baseline Characteristics of UACOM-T Medical School Classes
Characteristic	Class of 2020 n = 132	Class of 2021 n = 120	Class of 2022 n = 125
Age, average (min-max)	22 (20–39)	25 (21–48)	25 (21–35)
Males, n (%)	58 (44)	65 (54)	60 (48)
URM, n (%)	46 (35)	37 (31)	39 (31)
In-state, n (%)	88 (67)	80 (67)	93 (74)
GPA overall, average	3.58	3.65	3.76
GPA science, average	3.48	3.54	3.56
MCAT, average (percentile)	Old: 28.4 (70) New: 504.8 (70)	Old: 27.7 (64) New: 507 (79)	Old: N/A New: 507 (79)
Pre-clerkship curriculum length	24 months	18 months	18 months
B. Survey Responses & USMLE Step 1 Averages
Survey Prompt	Class of 2020 n = 46 (36%)	Class of 2021 n = 52 (45%)	Class of 2022 n = 40 (32%)	p-value
Confident curriculum prepared me for Step 1	5.2, SD 2.2	5.6, SD 2.0	5.6, SD 2.0	0.55
Curriculum decreased stress level regarding Step 1	4.2, SD 2.5	4.1, SD 2.0	4.4, SD 2.1	0.73
Feel I have retained majority of material from previous blocks	5.0, SD 2.4	4.6, SD 2.0	4.2, SD 1.9	0.15
Confident to obtain my goal score for Step 1	6.2, SD 2.2	6.1, SD 2.3	5.6, SD 2.0	0.33
Hours per week studying for Step 1 prior to dedicated study period	4–6, SD 1.6	4–6, SD 1.5	4–6, SD 1.5	0.83
I have had adequate time to tend to wellness	7.2, SD 2.4	5.3, SD 2.3	4.8, SD 2.5	<0.005
I believe a Spiral Curriculum would/did help me retain material as I progressed through blocks	8.2, SD 1.6	8.2, SD 2.2	5.0, SD 2.9	<0.000005
USMLE Step 1 Score, class average (SD)	224 (18)	229 (21)	227 (20)	0.21

Figure 1. Response distribution to prompt ‘I believe a Spiral Curriculum would/did help me retain material as I progressed through blocks’ with Classes of 2020 and 2021 rating hypothetically and Class of 2022 rating after receiving the Spiral Curriculum.