Do we need a core-curriculum for medical students? A scoping review

Sharma, Maulina; Murphy, Ruth; Doody, Gillian A.

Abstract

Objective
The General Medical Council (GMC) recommends medical schools to develop and implement curricula enabling students to achieve the required learning outcomes. UK medical schools follow the GMC’s Outcomes for Graduates, which are generic. GMC plans to introduce a national Medical Licencing Assessment (MLA) for medical graduates wanting to practice medicine in the UK in 2022. With no standardised or unified undergraduate (UG) curriculum in UK, various specialities have expressed concerns about not being represented in medical schools and developed specialty-specific core-curricula.

The aim of this review was to identify learned bodies who have developed a core-curriculum for UK medical schools and highlight the drivers, gaps and future approaches to curricular development and implementation.

Methods
A literature search was conducted using online databases (EMBASE, MEDLINE, ERIC, HMIC, PubMed and CDSR), search engines, and related websites (Google & Google Scholar, Department of Health, GMC and BMA) for relevant articles from 1996 to 5th March 2019 (~20 years). A methodological framework to map the key concepts of undergraduate medical curriculum was followed. Any relevant body with a core-curriculum for UK medical undergraduates was included.

Results
A total of 1283 articles were analysed with 31 articles included in the qualitative synthesis, comprising of 26 specialties (clinical n=18, foundation subjects n=4, professionalism related n=4). WHO, European and national (e.g. Royal Colleges of UK) specialty bodies provided specific core learning outcomes for medical graduates. Patient safety, disease burden, needs of society and inadequate preparedness of medical graduates were drivers for development of these curricula.

Conclusions
This is the first comprehensive review of literature on undergraduate core-curricula recommending minimum standards on knowledge and skills, in alignment with GMC’s outcomes for graduates for all UK medical students. Adopting and assessing unified standards would help reduce variability across UK medical schools for both generic and specialty-specific competencies.

Citation

Sharma, M., Murphy, R., & Doody, G. A. (2019). Do we need a core-curriculum for medical students? A scoping review. BMJ Open, 9(8), Article e027369. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027369

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 10, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Aug 30, 2019
• Publication Date: 2019-07
• Deposit Date: Aug 5, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 2, 2019
• Journal: BMJ Open
• Electronic ISSN: 2044-6055
• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 8
• Article Number: e027369
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027369
• Keywords: core curriculum; medical undergraduates; UK
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2391521
• Publisher URL: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/8/e027369
• Contract Date: Sep 2, 2019