Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Feb;21(1):e75-88.
doi: 10.3747/co.21.1667.

Oncology education in Canadian undergraduate and postgraduate medical programs: a survey of educators and learners

V C Tam  1 , S Berry  2 , T Hsu  3 , S North  4 , A Neville  5 , K Chan  6 , S Verma  2
Affiliations

Oncology education in Canadian undergraduate and postgraduate medical programs: a survey of educators and learners

V C Tam et al. Curr Oncol. 2014 Feb.

Abstract

Background: The oncology education framework currently in use in Canadian medical training programs is unknown, and the needs of learners have not been fully assessed to determine whether they are adequately prepared to manage patients with cancer.

Methods: To assess the oncology education framework currently in use at Canadian medical schools and residency training programs for family (fm) and internal medicine (im), and to evaluate opinions about the content and utility of standard oncology education objectives, a Web survey was designed and sent to educators and learners. The survey recipients included undergraduate medical education curriculum committee members (umeccms), directors of fm and im programs, oncologists, medical students, and fm and im residents.

Results: Survey responses were received from 677 educators and learners. Oncology education was felt to be inadequate in their respective programs by 58% of umeccms, 57% of fm program directors, and 50% of im program directors. For learners, oncology education was thought to be inadequate by 67% of medical students, 86% of fm residents, and 63% of im residents. When comparing teaching of medical subspecialty-related diseases, all groups agreed that their trainees were least prepared to manage patients with cancer. A standard set of oncology objectives was thought to be possibly or definitely useful for undergraduate learners by 59% of respondents overall and by 61% of postgraduate learners.

Conclusions: Oncology education in Canadian undergraduate and postgraduate fm and im training programs are currently thought to be inadequate by a majority of educators and learners. Developing a standard set of oncology objectives might address the needs of learners.

Keywords: Canada; Oncology education; postgraduate medical programs; undergraduate medical programs.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Survey responses by region and group surveyed. umeccm= undergraduate medical education curriculum committee members; fm= family medicine; im= internal medicine.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Canadian Cancer Society’s Steering Committee on Cancer Statistics . Canadian Cancer Statistics 2012. Toronto, ON: Canadian Cancer Society; 2012.
    1. Del Giudice ME, Grunfeld E, Harvey BJ, Piliotis E, Verma S. Primary care physicians’ views of routine follow-up care of cancer survivors. J Clin Oncol. 2009;27:3338–45. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2008.20.4883. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cheung WY, Fishman PN, Verma S. Oncology education in Canadian undergraduate and postgraduate training programs. J Cancer Educ. 2009;24:284–90. doi: 10.1080/08858190902973143. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Geller AC, Prout MN, Miller DR, et al. Evaluation of a cancer prevention and detection curriculum for medical students. Prev Med. 2002;35:78–86. doi: 10.1006/pmed.2002.1044. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Medical Council of Canada (mcc) Objectives for the Qualifying Examination [Web resource] Ottawa, ON: MCC; 2012. [Most recent version available at: http://apps.mcc.ca/Objectives_Online/objectives.pl?lang=english&loc=home; cited July 1, 2012]

LinkOut - more resources