Meeting the needs of future physicians: a core curriculum initiative for postgraduate medical education at a Canadian university

Introduction In addition to possessing medical expertise, contemporary phys icians are expected to be skilled communicators, critical consumers and use rs of medical research, teachers, collaborators, health care advocates, and managers. A core curriculum is a common set of learning experiences design ed to help prepare physicians for these complex roles. Purpose This article describes the design and implementation of one core cu rriculum, summarizes the feedback received from residents, and shares some of the lessons we are learning as we use feedback to develop our programme. Method The core curriculum described was implemented at a Canadian universi ty which offers 56 residency programmes with a total enrolment of approxima tely 360 students. The curriculum consisted of 30 sessions organized around four themes: biostatistics and epidemiology; communications and teaching s kills; healthcare management, and ethical, medicolegal and lifestyle issues . Each session in the Core Curriculum was evaluated by residents with respe ct to the timing, quality, and value of the learning experience. In additio n, residents participated in focus group discussions of their Core Curricul um experiences. Results Key findings related to the characteristics of effective core curri culum learning experiences and to the barriers to implementing a core curri culum across programmes. Of particular salience were findings related to ex plicit issues of attendance and the diverse needs of learners and programme s, and to more implicit issues of communication and managing change. The sp ecific content and format of the Core Curriculum and the results of the eva luation process will be of interest to others considering a core curriculum for postgraduate medical programmes.