Revising Medical Curriculum for Preparing Competent Medical Graduates

INTRODUCTION The medical curriculum plays a defining role in making a competent medical graduate by ensuring that they acquire the desired medical knowledge, clinical skills, and professional values.[1] In fact, the structured and phase-wise exposure of medical students to essential medical information becomes crucial in their empowerment with regard to the diagnosis and treatment of different diseases and health-related conditions.[2] Moreover, owing to the clinical training and hands-on experiences, students also acquire critical thinking, clinical reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, all of which are vital for the delivery of effective and quality-assured healthcare services to patients and the general population.[3] Finally, the medical curriculum also aids in the training of students in the domain of ethics, professionalism, communication, empathy, teamwork, leadership skills, etc., which are crucial to prepare students to efficiently deal with complex health scenarios.[4,5] The purpose of the article is to justify the necessity to update the medical curriculum and enumerate attributes to be considered while updating the curriculum. NECESSITY TO UPDATE MEDICAL CURRICULUM The process of updating the existing medical curriculum has gained immense attention, as it is our duty to prepare a cohort of future medical practitioners who possess the required knowledge, skills, and attitudes for delivering patient-centered care.[1,2] The revisions in the curriculum are required to incorporate the continuous progress made in the field of research and healthcare to help students stay abreast with recent developments.[6] In the process, students become aware of emerging and remerging diseases, technological advancements and integration in the health sector, evolving ethical and legal dilemmas, healthcare delivery models, etc.[6,7] At the same time, students also become aware of the changing demographics of the patients, research-related skills, and issues of global health importance.[8] In other words, once medical students become aware of all these developments, they know which areas they need to strengthen and remain well-equipped to deliver effective care in dynamic healthcare settings.[3,4] UPDATING MEDICAL CURRICULUM: ESSENTIAL CONSIDERATIONS Curriculum revision is a complex and time-consuming task, and considering the major implications of the same in the teaching–learning and assessment process, it becomes a must to adopt a team approach.[9] In other words, the involvement and engagement of different stakeholders (namely, faculty, students, subject experts, external members, healthcare professionals, and general population) is most important as it will aid in gaining a wide range of perspectives.[9,10] The curriculum committee of the institution must be given the overall responsibility to oversee the process of curriculum development, implementation, and continuous improvement.[2,5] In continuation, collaboration between different departments should also be encouraged to create a comprehensive and integrated curriculum.[11] Further, a channel should be created to communicate with all the involved stakeholders about the changes made in the curriculum. It is quite essential that clear objectives are defined, in terms of why the curriculum needs to be revised, as this will bring about focus and clarity in the entire process.[6] Upon the introduction of newer components in the medical curriculum, it is always recommended to perform a pilot run of the same with the intention to obtain feedback from the students and faculty members and accordingly make necessary modifications before full implementation.[12] At the same time, the medical education unit of the institution must organize a series of workshops or training programs to help them teach or assess students effectively. From the administration’s perspective, the necessary resources and logistics support should be made available to enable the smooth implementation of the revised curriculum. Furthermore, it is crucial that we ensure that these revised changes in the curriculum are in alignment with both the accreditation standards and the regulatory norms to maintain the credibility of the program as well as the accreditation status of the institution.[13] It is always encouraged to periodically obtain feedback from students regarding the changes made in the curriculum to ensure that these recent modifications meet the expectations and learning needs of the students.[12] Finally, an evaluation plan must be framed and the recent inclusions must be evaluated to ascertain changes made in the curriculum.[14] CONCLUSION The need of the hour is to ensure the delivery of a curriculum that is contextual, need-driven, and has been updated keeping the recent developments in mind. This updated curriculum plays a pivotal role in improving the competence of medical students and their empowerment to deliver effective healthcare services to the general population. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.