The importance of scientific competencies in German medical curricula - the student perspective

Abstract

BackgroundScientific competencies are of great importance for physicians; not only for conducting reliable research, but also for patient care. However, there is growing concern that a lack of scientific competencies among physicians may lead to a deterioration in the quality on biomedical research. This study aims at assessing medical students’ perspectives on the implementation of scientific competency training in German medical curricula.MethodsAn online survey was conducted in order to collect German medical students’ opinions on the importance of acquiring scientific competencies during their medical studies and to provide us with an assessment of their current levels of basic scientific competencies by having them conduct a self-evaluation. Moreover, we wanted to understand their perceptions of current curricular content and to receive suggestions for improving scientific competency training. Participants were reached via the mailing lists of the German Medical Students’ Association, as well as of local medical student committees, and the German Medical Students’ Associations social media channel on Facebook.ResultsIn total, 2380 medical students from across all 37 German medical faculties participated in the survey. The majority of students agreed that the ability to critically evaluate the relevant literature is an important competency for physicians, and that every student should conduct a research project during their medical studies. However, the students evaluated their scientific competencies as unsatisfactory, especially with regard to statistics and scientific writing. They were strongly in favor of receiving extended research training.ConclusionOur study provides insight into German medical students’ self-perception in relation to both patient care and biomedical research, and makes recommendations for potential improvements in scientific training. The study demonstrates that scientific competencies are of great importance to medical students in Germany. Students are not lacking motivation for scientific practice and have numerous ideas for enhancing scientific teaching opportunities. Scientific training should follow a holistic approach based on three pillars: (i) a scientific core curriculum, (ii) intracurricular research projects, and (iii) special research programs for students strongly interested in medical research.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-018-1257-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Research Training Program in a Turkish Medical School: Challenges, Barriers and Opportunities from the Perspectives of the Students and Faculty Members

“…Study results have indicated that medical students vary with respect to their interests in research and a considerable portion of the students prefer special programs for the ones who are strongly interested in research in addition to scienti c core curriculum. Thus, these results support the volunteerbased program approach [10,26]. Moreover, di culties related to mentoring and funding revealed by this study also re ects that only voluntary approaches are applicable for similar faculties.…”

“…Intense competition for training posts makes research experience an important commodity [8]. Furthermore, in some countries like Germany, it is mandatory for medical students to submit a thesis outlining the results of a research project in order to graduate with the title "Doctor" [26][27]. In countries such as Turkey, where scienti c competence does not provide a competitive advantage for residency, nor conducting a research project brings any title to medical undergraduates, motivating students to be involved in a research and integrating research training into medical education are very challenging tasks.…”

The scientific term paper at the Charité: a project report on concept, implementation, and students' evaluation and learning

“…Other studies show comparable results [35] and indicate that other didactic concepts similar to the Charité scientific term paper module in the MCM promote a positive attitude among students towards research generally and motivate them to conduct further scientific research [36][, [37]. This finding is consistent with observations from a national survey of medical students by Ratte et al, in which the majority of participants felt that scientific competencies were highly important for their subsequent medical activity and were in favour of the implementation of a project module or scientific term paper in medical education [38]. …”

Research Training Program in a Turkish Medical School: Challenges, Barriers and Opportunities from the Perspectives of the Students and Faculty Members

“…Study results have indicated that medical students vary with respect to their interests in research and a considerable portion of the students prefer special programs for the ones who are strongly interested in research in addition to scienti c core curriculum. Thus, these results support the volunteer-based program approach [10,26]. Moreover, di culties related to mentoring and funding revealed by this study also re ects that only voluntary approaches are applicable for similar faculties.…”

“…Intense competition for training posts makes research experience an important commodity [8]. Furthermore, in some countries like Germany, it is mandatory for medical students to submit a thesis outlining the results of a research project to graduate with the title "Doctor" [26][27]. In countries such as Turkey, where scienti c competence does not provide a competitive advantage for residency, nor conducting a research project brings any title to medical undergraduates, motivating students to be involved in a research and integrating research training into medical education are very challenging tasks.…”