Learning objectives for medical student education - Guidelines for medicalschools: Report I of the Medical School Objectives Project

Many observers of medicine have expressed concerns that new doctors are not as well prepared as they should be to meet society's expectations of them. To assist medical schools in their efforts to respond to these concerns, i n January 1996 the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) establis hed the Medical School Objectives Project (MSOP). The goal for the first ph ase of the project-which has been completed and is reported in this article -was to develop a consensus within the medical education community on the a ttributes that medical students should possess at the time of graduation, a nd to set forth learning objectives that can guide each medical school as i t establishes objectives for its own program. Later reports will focus on t he implementation phase of the MSOP. In this report, each of the four attributes agreed upon by a wide Spectrum of medical educators is stated and explained, and then the learning objecti ves associated with the school's instilling of that attribute are stated. T he first of the four attributes is that physicians must be altruistic. Ther e are seven learning objectives, including the objective that before gradua tion, the student can demonstrate compassionate treatment of patients and r espect for their privacy and dignity. The second attribute is that physicia ns must be knowledgeable; one of the six learning objectives is that die st udent can demonstrate knowledge of the normal structure and function of the body and of each of its major organ systems. The third attribute is that p hysicians must be skillful; one of the eleven learning objectives is that t he student have knowledge about relieving pain and ameliorating the sufi;ri ng of patients. The last attribute is that physicians must be dutiful; one of the six learning objectives is that the student have knowledge of the ep idemiology of common maladies within a defined population, and the systemat ic approaches useful in reducing the incidence and prevalence of those mala dies. The report ends by stating that (1) if a school's curriculum is shaped by t he set of learning objectives presented in the report, the graduates will b e well prepared to assume the limited patient care responsibilities expecte d of new residents and also will have begun to achieve the attributes neede d to practice contemporary medicine; (2) schools should feel a sense of urg ency in responding to the intent of the report; and (3) it is important to measure the outcomes of learning objectives, and better assessment methods should be developed, particularly ones to assess outcomes related to attitu des and values.