Start with the end in mind: using student career aspirations and employment data to inform curriculum design for physiology undergraduate degree programs

Physiology educators find community in the Physiology Majors Interest Group

“…Physiology educators who participate in P-MIG conferences are interested in networking with educators who share a passion for teaching. P-MIG conferences provide an opportunity to learn about programmatic resources, to compare notes about how to address the 21st century needs of physiology students (10,13), and to build a community of colleagues committed to undergraduate education (Table 3).…”

“…The results indicate that P-MIG conferences allow participants to interact with colleagues who teach in physiology and related degree programs to build a consensus on program-level guidelines and share best practices for teaching and curricular development. The ultimate goal of participants is to develop guidelines and practices to ensure the best education for all physiology undergraduate students at both a national and international level (9,13).…”

Where do we go from here: a forward-thinking vision for physiology undergraduate education

“…In addition, most students who take physiology courses intend to enter a healthcare profession (16). Many of those students aspire to become doctors, but the number of students applying to medical school far exceeds the number of available spots (19). Students may not be aware of the tremendous growth in other healthcare careers (e.g., physician's assistants, occupational therapists); thus they also require knowledgeable advisors and clear way to access help (19).…”

“…Many of those students aspire to become doctors, but the number of students applying to medical school far exceeds the number of available spots (19). Students may not be aware of the tremendous growth in other healthcare careers (e.g., physician's assistants, occupational therapists); thus they also require knowledgeable advisors and clear way to access help (19). To address this, P-MIG members conducted surveys and workshops to build a consensus list of professional skills that all physiology majors should have acquired on graduation (9), how different institutions approach student advising (5), and student perceptions of their education (16).…”

“…It is an independent consortium that welcomes anyone interested in physiology education at the level of the undergraduate degree in physiology and physiology-related fields. As demonstrated by this special collection of papers of Advances in Physiology Education, P-MIG has already made substantial progress in three areas: 1) developing curricular guidelines based on core concepts in physiology (8,10,13,17,18,21); 2) developing guidelines for professional skills for our students and surveying advising practices (7,9,19); and 3) using survey data to learn about physiology educators and physiology (3,16,22).…”