Talk Descripción
Institución: The University of Melbourne - Victoria, Australia
Purpose: The contemporary expectation of a surgical curriculum is a holistic document encompassing multiple elements of the training pathway. A curriculum document usually describes purpose, intended outcomes, content, methods, and assessment and evaluation processes. The document may also consider cultural, professional, political, and social contexts. Many surgical curricula focus on content rather than embracing the other elements of the training experience. Comparing the intended and actualised curriculum is crucial to support successful curriculum change. This study aims to examine current Australian surgical curriculum documents, to map their current scope and inform curriculum renewal.
Methodology: Curriculum mapping of Royal Australasian College of Surgeons surgical specialty curriculum documents was undertaken. An adaptation of the World Federation of Medical Education standards was used as a framework for content analysis. Deductive thematic mapping was performed on the data.
Results: Eight of the nine surgical curriculum documents were included. The majority of curricula addressed curriculum mission and content. Some curricula addressed assessment. No curricula addressed postgraduate doctors or teachers and clinical supervisor standards. Associated policy documents contained much of this information but were not formally integrated into curriculum documents.
Conclusion: The scope of Australian surgical curriculum documents remains predominantly limited to content, resembling syllabi. While information regarding all elements of the training journey exists, its fragmentation across documents may impede access. Expanding curriculum documents to include comprehensive information on assessment, supervision, and trainee support may improve guidance for all those accessing and implementing Australian surgical specialty curricula. Given the use of an international framework for analysis, these findings have broader applicability for surgical education globally.
Speakers
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Authors
Dr Marc Seifman - , Prof Robyn Woodward-Kron - , Prof Ian Incoll - , Prof Debra Nestel -
