Education update by Dr Chris Stephens
Last October, a panel of internal and external members met to review proposed new curricula for the BM4, BM5 and BM6 programmes and the new European BM programme, the BM(EU).
After a long day, the teams working on the four programmes - including three representatives from Kassel in Germany - were delighted to learn that the new curricula for the existing programmes had been revalidated and the new BM(EU) programme approved.
The newly validated curricula are now the responsibility of the Faculty's Taught Programmes Management Committee (TPMC) and Taught Programmes Assessment Committee which will develop and monitor their implementation and quality.
The panel was chaired by Dr Chris Stephens, Associate Dean (Education & Student Experience), and included Professor Val Wass, Head of Keele Medical School, Dr Simon Plint, NHS Postgraduate Dean Wessex, and Dr Kate Duffield, an SpR in Anaesthetics and GMC QA visitor. The University was represented by Dr Karen Piggot, Quality, Standards and Accreditation Advisor, Kathy Owens, Head of Professional Practice in Health Sciences, and Sarah Marshall, former Medical Student President.
Since October steady progress has been made towards implementing the new curriculum and the timetabling of the new modules for BM5 Year 1 is now almost complete. To mark the move from development to implementation, the membership and terms of reference of the Revalidation Working Group have now been amended, and the name changed to the Curriculum Implementation Support Group (CISG).
During discussions with TPMC, proposals were outlined for a revised governance structure to quality assure the new curriculum. A consultation event was held in December at which module coordinators were able to discuss strengths and weaknesses of the proposals. Following these extensive discussions it has been decided that the existing governance structure has much to commend it and that therefore current committee arrangements will not change, although their membership will be revised as modules move from year to year.
Three key suggestions from the event were endorsed by CISG and have since been taken to TPMC for consideration:
1. Ensure clinical and non-clinical representation in all areas/modules of the curriculum where possible (i.e. in addition to the main lead there is an additional person who acts as a liaison);
2. Develop a new working group to bring together the leads from all of the vertical threads (subjects/themes/clinical areas, etc.);
3. Hold an annual Faculty Development Day, perhaps organised by the new working group, to which all leads and teachers are invited to give staff an opportunity to meet and learn about other parts of the course.
The revalidation panel approved the existing curricular themes of Communication, Diversity, and Teamworking, Leadership and Patient Safety, although one of their recommendations was that Diversity is made more visible in the programme documentation. A further recommendation was that the assessment of professionalism should be given equal value to other assessments and the Faculty's Professionalism Advisory Group is starting to look at how this can be achieved.
There is clearly a great deal more work to be done as the new curricula are gradually introduced over the next few years. To assist with this the Curriculum Implementation Support Group has drawn up a Transition Planning document which has been considered by TPMC and is now being widely circulated for further consultation and input from teachers.