Name
The drive for integration based on outcomes- is Biomedical Science education being left behind?
Date & Time
Friday, February 28, 2020, 1:45 PM - 2:45 PM
Description

Purpose: Medical educators today are criticized for not producing graduates that are ‘ready for practice' despite the growing number of medical schools switching to integrated curricula designed to do just that - to achieve graduate readiness. Recently the UK General Medical Council has updated its regulatory requirements of UK medical schools and published ‘Outcome for Graduates 2018’ which details the knowledge, skills and behaviours all UK medical graduates must be able to show. Grouped into 3 main categories - 1; Professional values and behaviours 2; Professional Skills and 3; Professional Knowledge, biomedical science is in Outcome 3 under the heading of- ‘Applying Biomedical Scientific Principles’. This shift to ‘application’ of the principles of biomedical science will have an impact on delivery and current assessment approaches e.g MCQ’s, as schools will need to assess the ability of new doctors to demonstrate explicitly that they have achieved the knowledge of biomedical science principles AND that they can use them effectively. Methods: This presentation will explore the reasons and possible consequences on biomedical science teaching of medical schools focusing on increasingly integrated curricula and assessment. New approaches to embedding biomedical principles into these integrated models e.g. team-based learning and active-learning will be considered. Results: At the end of the presentation medical educators will have identified possible new approaches to delivering biomedical science knowledge and principles into fully integrated curricula and assessments based on the achievement of professional outcomes. Conclusion: Today’s medical schools are fundamentally developing their curricula in an increasingly integrated manner to produce doctors who are ‘ready for practice’. Challenges exist for biomedical science educators to enable a shift away from biomedical sciences being taught and assessed in the abstract to that of being fully integrated, otherwise biomedical scientist educators risk being left behind.

Session Type
Oral Presentation