The Evaluation of a Theme Program for Undergraduate Medical Students

Abstract

Problem: The evaluation of programs is mandatory in faculties of medicine. It enables them to be in adequacy with their mission objectives, and social responsibilities and to correct their potential lacune. Recommendations concerning external evaluation that could be supervised by different organizations have been reported in the literature as reports or articles. On the other hand, few publications described a process of an internal evaluation of a program, which could be performed by institutional members. Many authors reported pre and post-tests study or qualitative studies to assess medical programs. The authors aimed to perform the evaluation of a module program taught in the second year of medical education based on the evaluation of 4 axes: The pedagogical alignment, the teaching techniques and the assessment tests, the students’ views, and needs, and the teachers’ views and needs. Intervention: The authors performed an evaluation of a multidisciplinary theme taught during the second year of medical education. They performed a 4-axis-based evaluation assessing the pedagogical alignment, the teaching techniques and the evaluation methods, the teachers’ views and needs and the students’ opinions and views. Context: The study was performed during the period extending from January 2020 to January 2021. Impact: The 4-axis-based analysis revealed that the weaknesses of the educational process were mainly represented by the heterogeneity of the teaching methods and techniques reflecting the difficulties of the teachers to integrate clinical data into their teaching in order to allow the students to assimilate fundamental data. The opportunities were represented by the accreditation process by the International Conference of the Deans of Medical Faculties with French Expression undertaken by the deanship which can improve the quality of this theme. The threats were represented by the demotivation of the teachers and the lack of federation of the various specialties coordinators around the final product which is the student. Many actions were performed in order to reduce the weaknesses. Lessons learned: The authors’ approach was particular in the fact that it was centered on an objective evaluation of the teaching techniques and the evaluation tests on one hand and the students’ and teachers’ opinions and needs on the other hand. The major limit of this approach was the fact that it didn’t take into account the educational environment, which could influence the students’ performances. On the other hand, this approach put emphasis on the necessity of adopting the culture of continuous evaluation of programs and curriculum in order to sustain the social contract of the faculties of medicine.