Impact of New Competency-Based Medical Curriculum on the Educational Environment of Medical Students in a Medical College in Central Kerala

Abstract

Background: Competency-based medical education (CBME) for graduate medical students was introduced by National Medical Commission from the 2019 batch. This paper seeks to estimate the impact of CBME on the educational environment of medical students and to compare the university examination outcomes after the introduction of CBME with the antecedent non-CBME batch. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among all the students (197) of the CBME and preceding non-CBME batch of a medical college in central Kerala. The educational environment was collected in the online platform with a standard questionnaire, Dundee Ready Education Environmental Measure (DREEM questionnaire) in 5 domains: perception of learning, perception of teachers, student’s academic self-perception (ASP), perceptions of atmosphere, and social self-perception (SSP). Results: The overall DREEM score was found to be significantly higher at 122.7 in the CBME batch compared to 112.8 in the non-CBME batch (P < .002). The individual mean domain scores of “perceptions of learning” was the highest at 30.39 ± 5.17 followed by “student’s perception of atmosphere” with a mean score of 29.53. Perception of learning, ASP, perception of atmosphere, and SSP were statistically significantly higher in CBME (2019) batch. The proportion of failures was significantly higher in the non-CBME batch, and among those with distinction, 3 out of 4 students were from CBME batch. The DREEM score was also significantly correlated with the university marks score. Conclusion: It appears that the CBME batch is performing better than the previous non-CBME batch and also has a better educational environment, though larger studies are necessary to further examine this phenomenon.