“Men’s health – a little in the shadow”: a formative evaluation of medical curriculum enhancement with men’s health teaching and learning

Abstract

BackgroundEnhancing a medical school curriculum with new men’s health teaching and learning requires an understanding of the local capacity and the facilitators and barriers to implementing new content, and an approach that accommodates the systemic and cultural differences between medical schools.MethodsA formative evaluation was undertaken to determine the perspectives of key informants (academics, curriculum developers) from four Australian medical schools about the strategies needed to enhance their curriculum with men’s health teaching and learning. Through semi-structured questioning with 17 key informants, interviewees also described the contextual barriers and facilitators to incorporating new topic areas into existing curriculum. Interviews were recorded with consent, transcribed verbatim, and analysed by two researchers to identify key themes.ResultsInterviewees were enthusiastic about incorporating men’s health content through a men’s health curriculum framework but highlighted the need for systems to assist in identifying gaps in their current curriculum where the men’s health topics could be integrated. The student experience was identified as a key driver for men’s health teaching and learning. Furthermore, core men’s health clinical outcomes needed to be defined and topic areas vertically integrated across the curricula. This would ensure that students were appropriately equipped with the skills and knowledge for subsequent clinical practice in a range of geographical settings. Interviewees consistently suggested that the best implementation strategy is to have someone ‘on the ground’ to work directly with medical school staff and champion the men’s health discipline. Providing mechanisms for sharing knowledge and resources across medical schools was highlighted to facilitate implementation, particularly for those medical schools with limited men’s health teaching resources.ConclusionsDespite the unanimous support for men’s health teaching and learning, the evaluation highlighted that the student experience must be recognised as paramount when integrating new topic areas into an already packed curriculum. A community of practice, where medical schools share relevant resources and knowledge, could help to ensure a commonality of student experience with respect to men’s health learning in medical schools across different geographical settings and with different levels of resourcing. Such an approach could also be adapted to other areas of curriculum enhancement.

You say it, we say it, but how do we use it? Communities of practice: A critical analysis

“…Transferring has to do with whether and how the CoP perspective can be used to relay to the reader how the findings of a study may carry over from one context to another, into practical work or research studies. We discerned an attempt to broaden the relevance of the findings or meta‐level results by making them more generalisable and/or transferable to other contexts, thus making it easier for other researchers to appraise their applicability: ‘CoPs can provide opportunities for educators with shared interests (“champions”) to navigate the internal structures and processes and share their experience to create new knowledge and change within the curriculum'; ‘Feedback can occur effectively within a network of relationships that recognize learners as important junior members of the community and support their growth within that community and, similarly, that recognize and support physicians’ growth within their community of practice. ' This was done, in part, by contextualising the findings of the study in question, offering some insights into how such findings might offer further insights into others, as well as what mechanisms might prove useful in the development and understanding of CoPs, as illustrated here: ‘As a first step towards building a CoP in surgical oncology, it would seem that understanding these situations in situ and the concomitant situated learning processes and practices of surgeons … And then built into the operationalization of the CoP itself.…”

Atividade física nos programas de promoção à saúde do homem

“…A study conducted with medical students and curriculum developers from Australian medical schools pointed out that respondents advocated the inclusion of this content and emphasized the need for implementation of the curriculum, noting that there is pressure for schools to incorporate new materials for a comprehensive curriculum covering men's health. 19 It is believed that updating the curriculum would allow students to gain skills and knowledge in clinical practice, requiring a professional prepared to work directly with the medical school team and defend the course of men's health.…”

“…17 It is important to create mechanisms aimed at greater care of men's health. Thus, physical activity, also associated with healthy eating and habits, 19 plays an important role as a preventive and protective factor of physical, psychological and sexual aspects. 10,16,22,25 The advancement of technology has contributed to the creation of applications aimed at the health and well-being of people.…”

“…The estimated probability of fulfilling the physical activity guidelines was 51.0% in the health promotion intervention and 44.7% in the attenuated control, adjusting to the baseline prevalence and grouping of 44 neighborhoods. Holden, Collins, Anderson, Pomeroy, Turner, Canny, et al 2015 19 7…”

“…1,6,11, Specific interventionsCountries: USA 12 , Canada 15 , Australia16 , South Africa 6 , Spain8 Specific contextsSociodemographic profile (6),1,4,6,9,11,17, Included studiesClinical trial (1) 6 , qualitative study (8) 4,7-10,16,18 , crosssectional study (4)1,11,17,19 , systematic review (1)14 , intervention (1) 13 Intervention time ≤ 3 months (8)5,9,10,16, ; ≤12 months to ≥ 3 years…”