Lessons learned from a student-driven initiative to design and implement an Organ and Tissue Donation course across Canadian medical schools

Abstract

The competencies required of the well-trained physician are constantly evolving, and medical education must adapt accordingly. In response, a growing number of influential medical education licensing and accreditation bodies have proposed frameworks that outline society’s expectations of physician competencies. In Canada, undergraduate and graduate curricula have undergone major changes to meet the specifications of the CanMEDS framework, and similar efforts are underway internationally. Nonetheless, ensuring the values enshrined within such frameworks become integral to a physician’s identity remains challenging. We believe that student-led curricular initiatives represent a novel way of approaching this shifting medical education landscape.In this article, we reflect on lessons we learned as medical students spearheading an initiative to change how organ and tissue donation is taught in Canadian medical schools. Citing relevant medical education literature where applicable, we include a detailed description of our approach as a roadmap for students contemplating their own curricular innovations. By outlining the factors influencing this project’s implementation, as well as the benefits and limitations of student participation in curriculum reform, we offer educators a fresh perspective on optimizing the student role in this important process. Ultimately, the authors argue that not only can student participation render curricular content more accessible to learners, but that the responsibilities students take on in this role naturally lead to the development of CanMEDs-based competencies such as advocacy, scholarship, and inter-professionalism.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s40037-018-0454-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Participation in an Advanced Anatomy Capstone Project Facilitates Student Involvement in the Development of an Instructional Tool for Novel Dissection

“…Student-driven development of instructional tools in medical and allied health education has been increasingly recognized as a valuable way to both engage students in their learning and incorporate end-user perspectives into course design [1,2]. One way to involve students in this process is through the creation of original instructional materials within the framework of advanced, elective, foundational sciences coursework [3].…”

Passion projects and disorienting dilemmas

“…In this issue of Perspectives on Medical Education , Fletcher et al. [ 1 ] share their experiences developing a curriculum on organ and tissue donation in Canadian medical schools. The co-first authors are medical students who led the creation, development and dissemination of the curriculum.…”

“…To their credit, this curriculum has been adopted at several medical schools across Canada. In the second part of their article, the students-as-educators reflect on how, in their experience, ‘active involvement in curricular design is a powerful way of integrating [CanMEDS] competencies’ [ 1 ].…”

“…Yet, how best to integrate them into medical education remains unclear, and little is known about how to effectively teach and assess learning in this area [ 7 ].’ As there continues to be significant interest in the teaching and learning of content relevant to developing certain non-medical expert CanMEDS competencies (in Canada and everywhere else CanMEDS and similar frameworks are being implemented), we would like to emphasize the potential contained in the experiences of Fletcher et al. [ 1 ]. In their paper, the authors candidly reflect on an evidently meaningful educational experience, cataloguing the development—to varying degrees—of the Advocate, Scholar, Collaborator, Professional, and Leader Roles.…”

“…The teacher’s role in facilitating transformative learning is to ‘help learners become aware and critical of their own and others’ assumptions [ 10 ].’ Prompted by the dilemmas involved in developing, maintaining, and disseminating a new curriculum, the reflections of Fletcher et al. [ 1 ] represent enormous promise. The student-authors’ reflections are raw—they were not guided through a systemic critical reflective process ( cf.…”