Addressing Musculoskeletal Curricular Inadequacies within Undergraduate Medical Education

Abstract

Background: Musculoskeletal (MSK) injuries and diseases place a significant burden on the health care system. Despite this, research indicates that physician training in the area of MSK medicine has historically been inadequate, with a majority of medical students feeling that their training in MSK medicine is lacking. The goal of this investigation was to evaluate the efficacy of a new preclinical MSK curriculum that was implemented within a nationally accredited allopathic medical program. Methods: Retrospective analysis was completed on five consecutive years of preclinical MSK curricular data, including mid and end-of-course examinations and end-of-course student satisfaction surveys. Both parametric and non-parametric methods of analysis were used to examine for within and between class differences (P < 0.05). Results: The MSK curriculum covered 15 of 16 “core or must know” topics in MSK medicine, and academic performance was consistently high over the 5-year period (final course marks ranged from 76.6 ±7.1 to 81.4 ±8.1; failures/year: range from 0 to 4), being equal or above levels of student performance observed for other courses delivered during preclinical studies. Likert data from end-of-course surveys demonstrated that feedback was overwhelmingly positive (overall course satisfaction ranged from a low of 3.07/4.00 to a high of 3.56/4.00) and indicated that students felt that the new preclinical MSK curriculum did effectively support medical student learning and knowledge retention. Conclusion:Results are expected to help advance the current body of knowledge that is dedicated to improving physician learning and knowledge retention in the area of MSK medicine and provide a curricular model that could be used by other nationally accredited medical programs to help enhance MSK learning and knowledge retention at the preclinical levels of physician training.