Orla O'Donoghue, NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine
Arsenia Asuncion, NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine
Nobuyuki Miyawaki, NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine
Steven Carsons, NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine
Gladys Ayala, NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine
PURPOSE
To assess the effectiveness of a longitudinal PBL program in a 3-year
medical school for skill and knowledge acquisition in UME. Few Medical
schools have PBL programs that span UME. It’s value in clerkship is also
debated. Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) are discrete observable
assessable tasks that help define competency for residency. At our
institution, we implemented PBL in pre-clerkship and all required clerkships,
as an opportunity to continue basic science integration from year one, and to
strengthen and monitor student PBL skills/EPAs.
METHODS
53 cases in pre-clerkship and 11 in clerkship were designed and
implemented. Student questionnaires from three classes (2022-2024) evaluating
the impact of PBL/EPA skills on their pre-clerkship and clerkship were
assessed. In addition, student performance on PBL-tagged questions was
compared to non-PBL questions for each of their bi-weekly pre-clerkship exams
as analyzed by t-test. Facilitator assessment of student performance using an
EPA to PBL skill mapped rubric was analyzed.
RESULTS
Among respondents, 85% of pre-clerkship (n=72) and 86% of clerkship (n=71)
students rated EPA/PBL skill acquisition as good/excellent. Pre-clerkship
students identified interprofessional collaboration (EPA 9; 87%), basic
science integration (EPA 7; 85%), and oral presentation (EPA 6; 85%) as most
improved. Clerkship students highlighted evidence-based medicine (EPA 7;
91%), basic science integration (87%), and oral presentation (86%).
Qualitative data echoed these themes.
Performance on pre-clerkship PBL-tagged questions (88%) was slightly higher
than non-PBL questions (87%), though not statistically significant (p >
0.05). Facilitators consistently rated student EPA performance highly and
provided detailed feedback.
CONCLUSION
Both Students and Facilitators agreed on the successful acquisition of
PBL/EPA skills across UME. Students performed just as well on basic science
knowledge acquisition via PBL. Limitations of our study include occurrence at
a single institution with small class size."