Curriculum Goals

LSUHSC-NO School of Medicine

Approved by the Curriculum Oversight Committee 9/17/08

Adopted by the Faculty of the School of Medicine 10/1/08

Preamble

Our curriculum is designed to train generalist physicians who are capable of success in any graduate medical education program.  Our graduates become critical thinkers who are committed to life-long learning.  Our curriculum instills the knowledge, skills, behaviors and professional attitudes commensurate with best medical practice.  Our curriculum objectives are outcomes based.  Evaluation accounts for performance at the level of individual students, courses, and our overall curriculum.

Goal 1

The 4-year curriculum is based on competencies in categories defined by the ACGME and specified in the National Alliance for Physician Competence document entitled Good Medical Practice-USA.

Goal 2

Basic and clinical sciences are integrated throughtout the 4 year curriculum.  This is done using a variety of modalities including case discussions, simulation training, didactic teaching and opportunities for early exposure to clinical medicine. 

Goal 3

New curriculum content is introduced incrementally.  When feasible, material will be taught and reinforced over several years by the creation of vertically integrated tracks within existing courses.

Goal 4

National expectations for items such as curriculum hours, exposure to ambulatory care, elective time, and duration and timing of clerkship experiences are used as guidelines in curriculum design.

Goal 5

We recognize that assessment drives behavior. A variety of student evaluation methods are used, and those best suited to the course and curriculum objectives are selected.  Students are given adequate formative feedback in addition to summative evaluations.

Goal 6

The medical school administration supports the principles and goals of the curriculum.  While curriculum is designed and managed by an interdisciplinary group of faculty and students, there is support and coordination from a central office of medical education. 

Goal 7

The medical school administration supports and promotes excellence in medical education through several mechanisms including:

              a. recognition that teaching is an essential responsibility of the faculty

              b. recognition and reward of excellence in teaching             

              c. advancement of promotion guidelines that reward teaching

              d. development of faculty teaching and assessment skills

              e. development of faculty skills in education research

Goal 8

There are multi-source, periodic, systematic reviews of the content and instruction in each course to ensure that learning objectives are appropriate and clearly stated, course content is relevant, and unnecessary redundancy is eliminated.  Reviews are conducted by faculty and students.