Curriculum assessment for prevention topics and the population perspective

Background: According to the Association of American Medical College's (AAM C) Senior Questionnaire, medical students spend an inadequate amount of tim e learning about health promotion, disease prevention, and the population h ealth perspective. Objective: Determine the health promotion/disease prevention (HPDP) content of the medical school curriculum at the University of Kansas School of Med icine, using an inventory of knowledge and skills in HPDP and using physici an education objectives from Healthy People 2000. Methods: A 121-item survey to evaluate curriculum content was developed. Al l course directors evaluated their course by using this instrument. An aver age of three medical students used this instrument to assess each curriculu m lecture and every clinical clerkship day in the required medical school c urriculum. A teaching session was defined as spending a minimum of 3-5 minu tes teaching an HPDP topic. Results: Of 21 required courses in the medical school curriculum, 11 accoun ted for the 393 teaching sessions in HPDP. Seventy-five percent (293 sessio ns) of these dealt with clinical prevention. Quantitative methods received 40 sessions, whereas the health services organization and delivery and the community dimensions of medical practice received 37 and 23 sessions, respe ctively. Course directors and students disagreed significantly in which HPD P topics were taught in the curriculum. Conclusions: Clinical prevention was fairly well covered in the medical sch ool curriculum. Quantitative methods, health services organization and deli very, and community dimensions of medical practice were poorly covered. Thi s assessment was used to substantially improve the curriculum. To track and improve curriculum content in all courses, course directors need to know m ore precise details about the content of their courses, so this detail can be used to better evaluate the overall curriculum.