Intrinsic CanMEDS Competencies Expected of Medical Students During Emergency Medicine Core Rotation: A Needs Assessment.

Tahsin Khan,Teresa M Chan

doi:10.7759/cureus.3316

Abstract

ObjectivesThere are few high-quality free open-access medical (FOAM) education resources to guide medical students in the development of key non-medical expert skills and competencies during their emergency medicine (EM) clerkship core rotation. In our endeavor to develop a novel online educational EM curriculum for medical students, a needs assessment is required to effectively address needs specifically focused on aptitudes that are deemed to be imperative by educators in the EM academia.MethodsAn online needs assessment survey was developed and shared with residents, staff, nurses, and program/clerkship directors of Canadian emergency medicine programs by email correspondence and embedding the form on CanadiEM.org. The survey consisted of twelve proposed topics for a potential EM curriculum, which were graded on a five-point Likert scale. Free-typed responses for additional topics were also solicited from participants.ResultsOver the course of four weeks, 84 participants responded to the survey. Participants outside of North American were excluded (n=10). Most participants were North American staff physicians (n=52), which included residency program directors (n=10) and clerkship directors (n=6), followed by residents (n=14), and nurses (n=8). All 12 topics proposed by the authors were considered important for inclusion in an EM curriculum. Nine additional topics were identified from typed free-text responses. Top ranking topics included: how to present a case to an EM staff or resident, how to chart patient encounters, and how to effectively communicate with nurses and other healthcare professionals.ConclusionsThis online needs assessment analysis revealed a total of 21 topics that were deemed to be relevant to the development of an online curriculum to foster the development of core competencies of medical students during their EM core rotation.

Highlights

Within emergency medicine (EM), there has been enormous growth in online educational resources (OERs), which includes free open-access medical education (FOAM) resources
The survey consisted of twelve proposed topics for a potential EM curriculum, which were graded on a five-point Likert scale
All 12 topics proposed by the authors were considered important for inclusion in an EM curriculum

Summary

Introduction

Within emergency medicine (EM), there has been enormous growth in online educational resources (OERs), which includes free open-access medical education (FOAM) resources. We have observed a lack of high-quality FOAM resources to guide medical students in the development of skills necessary for effective communication and documentation, which are components of the CanMEDS intrinsic role competencies in Canada [10]. These are often termed “soft skills” by students and. How to cite this article Khan T, Chan T M (September 17, 2018) Intrinsic CanMEDS Competencies Expected of Medical Students During Emergency Medicine Core Rotation: A Needs Assessment. Since the quality and consistency of teaching through experiential learning (i.e. bedside) can be highly variable depending on a student’s supervising physician, it is not feasible to expect them to teach these skills repeatedly with the same level of regularity as new groups of medical students rotate through the ED every four to eight weeks

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