FACULTY PERCEPTIONS TO CURRICULAR INTEGRATIONS IN THE FIRST AND SECOND YEAR UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL CURRICULUM.

Rani Kanthan* & Marcel Deon. College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, S7N OW8, Saskatchewan, CANADA.

PURPOSE: The effects of curricular changes are often studied from the students’ perspective and little is known of the faculty’s perceptions to these implementations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of faculty towards the recently implemented horizontal and vertical curricular integration of pathology teachings in the first and second year of the undergraduate medical curriculum.

METHODS: Purposive sampling of four experienced medical faculty educators (2 males and 2 females) as voluntary participants for this study was undertaken. Data were collected from a one page semi-structured questionnaire and an in-depth focused one hour personal interview.

RESULTS: All faculty members agreed that this integrated curriculum promoted increased student engagement and student learning with better holistic understanding of the human body processes that was well suited to the students’ long term goals of becoming a physician. However, faculty also identified increased faculty interactions with increased workload as a downside to this process. Faculty also felt threatened by the ‘loss of discipline’ and ‘loss of power’ contributing to increased faculty stress. This was compounded with faculty disagreements on content management and time allocation. The notion of respect, team-build, power and competition within such integrative environments arose as interesting facets of the faculty discussions. Last but not the least, it was recognized that to prevent chaos and disintegration, all curricular integrative environments needed vigilant monitoring with accountability to maintain sustainability of the implemented changes.

CONCLUSIONS: Awareness of such faculty perceptions is important information for consideration in the implementation strategies designed for all future curricular innovations.