Educational programs in US medical schools

Abstract

One noteworthy finding for the 1990-1991 academic year is the increasing number of applicants to medical school, coupled with stabilization in the credentials of accepted applicants. This increase appears to be reversing the downward trend of the 1980s. The percentages of women and total minority students in the entering class increased from the previous year. The prevalence of instructional formats such as problem-based learning and computer-assisted instruction illustrates that medical schools are willing to experiment with educational innovation. A number of schools are in the process of curriculum review, which may lead to important changes. The financial support offered by private foundations interested in curriculum innovation, for some, will be an added stimulus for change. While the majority of medical schools continue to require that students take the examinations and the subject tests of the NBME, evaluation formats that test clinical skills are receiving increased attention. The number of schools using multiple station examinations (often with standardized patients) is rising. The impact of the new US Medical Licensing Examination on medical school curricula should be analyzed in the future. Although steady increases have been reported in the number of medical school faculty members, especially clinical faculty, there is little information about how these faculty members apportion their time between teaching, research, and patient care. The assumption is that the increases are primarily driven by medical schools' need to provide clinical services, which are a source of income. Another explanation for faculty increases could relate to the need for more faculty involvement in educational innovations such as problem-based learning and new methods of clinical skills evaluation, which are relatively more faculty-intensive. Continued monitoring of the growth in clinical faculty will be necessary, as will more careful analysis of how medical school faculty spend their time. Since medical school faculty who have heavy involvements in teaching frequently do not receive appropriate recognition or reward, it will also be interesting to examine the effectiveness of diverse incentives used by the schools to reward teaching faculty. An appropriate reward system for teaching is important if undergraduate medical education is to command a high priority in institutions awarding the doctor of medicine degree.