A Triadic Approach to Medical Education: Holistic, Fully Integrated and Exclusive Undergraduate Curriculum

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel undergraduate medical curriculum that provides three independent programs of General Medicine, General Surgery, and Obstetrics & Gynecology respectively. As proposed, students would be admitted under one of the above three proposed streams and be awarded degrees of MD-General Medical Practice (MD-Med) or MD-General Surgical Practice (MD Surg) or MD-Obstetrics & Gynecological Practice (MD-Obs & G) upon graduation. This curricular model would ensure that students admitted into each specific program are exclusively trained in those respective areas for four years more practically and robustly to become more suitable for specialization in areas within those three streams with better competence upon graduation as compared to the current curricular models. This program would also ensure that existing disciplinary redundancies could be eliminated under the proposed three streams thereby providing a more fulfilling clinical training and experience. This paper offers a totally integrated program in each one of the proposed three specialties under the broad umbrella of Undergraduate Medical Sciences providing a hands-on holistic hospital-based training for each stream aimed at graduating ‘fit to practice’ community doctors endowed with knowledge, skills and attitudes to better serve the community in their respective fields upon graduation. Keywords: Innovative medical curriculum, Integrated medical curriculum, Hospital based medical curriculum, Innovation in Medical education. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-5-07 Publication date: February 28 th 2023