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A Medical Student's Guide to Improving Reproductive Health Curricula

I. Conduct Your Own Research: Determine Needs

Goal: Conduct a preliminary review of your school’s strengths and weaknesses in reproductive health education.

Actions:

  • Contact MSFC to see if your school’s reproductive health curriculum is part of the Curriculum Map database. If it is, MSFC will provide you with the data from your school as well as the data for your region so you can assess how your school compares with other schools in your region.
  • If your school is not in the Curriculum Map database, you can assess your school’s current coverage of reproductive health topics by reviewing course offerings (See Appendix 8). You also can review other schools’ course offerings to find topics that may be missing from your school’s curriculum. Knowing how other schools cover reproductive health topics can be a powerful tool when you talk to your school’s administrators.

Goal: Collect evaluation data on your school’s coverage of reproductive health topics.

Actions:

  • Evaluate the curriculum to assess what is being taught in the area of reproductive health. Use Appendices 6, 7, and 8 for sample surveys, or develop your own with other students and/or faculty. MSFC welcomes your participation in their Curriculum Mapping project and will provide surveys and implementation instructions if you choose to participate.

Survey Tips

Ideally, the group you survey should be representative of the student body, including first-, second-, third-, and fourth-year students. Despite low levels of communication between students in their clinical and pre-clinical years, it is important to obtain feedback from all classes (see IV. Identify Potential Obstacles and Solutions). Even if you cannot obtain a representative sample, it may still be worthwhile to collect the data.

Evaluate what students are taught each year and whether the curriculum met students’ expectations. For example, what do second-year students expect to learn? Did they learn what they expected to learn? What do they wish they had learned? One way to use the information collected from the surveys is to make the case to the administration that students expect to receive the full range of medical training, such as abortion training, but may not have received it. (See Appendices 6, 7, and 8 for more information on surveys.)

It is also important to survey administrators and faculty to assess their willingness to be part of your curriculum reform efforts.

To improve your response rate, circulate surveys via e-mail, conduct an electronic survey using a Web-based tool (e.g., surveymonkey.com), or distribute surveys before or after class or at meetings and other events where members of your target audience are.

For more information on formulating survey questions, see Appendix 6.

  • Gauge student support for curriculum change.
    • Circulate a written survey or interview students, then compile and summarize results in an informal report.
    • Hold a meeting with students to conduct a group evaluation on the curriculum (see Appendices 4, 5, 9, and 10). Take notes and summarize in an informal report.
    • Check with the curriculum affairs office to see if your school keeps student evaluations of clinical rotations from previous years that you can review.
    • Join your school’s curriculum committee.
    • Use your school’s list of competencies and the Women’s Health Care Competencies for Medical Students developed by the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics (APGO) (see Appendix 20) to develop your survey and strengthen your case when you meet with school administrators.
  • Work with supportive faculty members to determine areas of the existing reproductive health curriculum that are adequate and areas that need improvement.
  • See II. Get Connected! for information about how to get assistance from other students and faculty members.

Goal: Investigate and determine how curriculum improvements have been made in the past and what obstacles to change exist.

Actions:

  • Talk with faculty and students, particularly those in their third and fourth years, who have worked on curriculum change. Ask the following questions:
    • How has the curriculum changed in the past?
    • How is the curriculum currently changing?
    • How have changes been implemented?
    • What obstacles arose to changing the curriculum?
    • How were these obstacles overcome?
    • What is the current policy or process for curriculum change? (e.g., If changes are approved by a committee, how often does this committee meet? Who are the members? When and where is the next meeting? How many students sit on the committee? Do committee members need or prefer advance notice of agenda items?)
    • How responsive is your school to student-led curriculum reform?
    • Have faculty and/or students previously submitted formal proposals for curriculum change? If so, ask if you can obtain a copy.
    • See II. Get Connected! for information about how to get assistance from other students and faculty member