Designing Health Professions Curricula for the Future

Signature Grand, Davie, Florida, USA

Purpose. This study investigated how health professions’ curriculum incorporates the five core competencies identified by the National Academies Institute of Medicine (IOM) in preparing students for integrated and innovative interdisciplinary clinical practice. These core competencies include patient-centered care, interdisciplinary teams, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and informatics. Methods. Data collection included a self-designed, cross-sectional, selfadministered questionnaire mailed to 500 U.S. programs in medicine, nursing, pharmacy and physical therapy combined with semi-structured follow-up phone interviews. Microsoft Excel and SPSS 14.0 were used to develop descriptive and inferential statistics with results reported using standard frequency analysis. Responses to open-ended questions were analyzed for common themes. Results. 100 programs responded via curriculum committee chairs and program chairs. Across disciplines, 80% of respondents recognized IOM competencies; physical therapy (PT) reporting the lowest awareness. The main barriers to implementing core competencies were adding more curriculum hours (64%) and administrative challenges (36%). Curricular integration is achieved primarily through joint experiential educational and clinical experiences and through student interaction with other healthcare profession practitioners. Conclusions. Awareness of IOM core competencies is lacking across disciplines. All programs should increase familiarity with the IOM core competencies as well as curricula application of these concepts to foster student development as members of integrated, multidisciplinary healthcare teams. Health professions programs should examine how they can better incorporate the IOM core competencies to promote efficient and collaborative delivery of quality care for the 21st century.