Undergraduate Medical Curriculum: Relevance and Appropriateness to Community’s Health Needs

Narjis Rizvi¹, Anam Feroz*¹ and Sana Tanzil²

Received: May 28, 2018;   Published: June 14, 2018

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.05.001230

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Abstract

Despite doubling of the lifespan because of scientific medical education; inequities in healthcare provision exist.Inadequate priority to community’s health needs in undergraduate medical curricula could be one of the contributors. Aga Khan University, Pakistan pioneered community-based undergraduate curriculum for addressing community’s health needs. This paper assesses relevance and appropriateness of this undergraduate medical curriculum to community’s health needs.This study has used a framework, consisting of three major parameters including public health concepts, major public health problems and attributes, to assess the relevance and appropriateness of Aga Khan University’s undergraduate curriculum to community’s health needs.This assessment revealed that for relevance and appropriateness to community’s health needs, the curriculum hasto be community-based.The community-based experiential learning helps students to identify context-specific health needs and develop culture-sensitive practices. This approach is difficult to operationalize in developing countries where national health systems focus curative care at tertiary hospitals primarily and community-based primary healthcare facilities are mostly nonfunctioning. Another challenge is training and retention of community-based teaching faculty. We recommend community-based medical education so that; competencies are matched with population needs, primary care and community health are given priority and leadership and team work skills are imparted among health professionals.

Keywords: Spice; Prism; Core; Multilateral Donor Projects; Pedagogy; Empathetic; Population; Epidemiology; Biostatistics; Health Systems, Primary Health Care; Reproductive Health

Abbreviations: COCB: Community-Oriented and Community Based; AKUMC: Aga Khan University Medical College; CHS: Community Health Sciences; PMDC: Pakistan Medical and Dental College; HEC: Higher Education Commission; AKMCH: Aga Khan Medical College Hospital; CHWs: Community Health Workers; LHWs: Lady Health Workers; PLHF: Primary Level Healthcare Facilities; DHMIS: District Health Management Information System

Abstract| Introduction| Methods| Results| Pedagogy| Process-Success Stories, Challenges and Lessons Learnt| Challenges| Discussion and Conclusion| References|