The impact of the curricular reform on the teaching of Pediatrics at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto

Abstract

Objectives: Revising a medical curriculum is a complex, challenging, process, that can have a lasting impact on the quality of future generations of physicians. The Faculty of Medicine of The University of Porto (FMUP)'s 5th-year Pediatrics course has recently been updated from block-based rotations to an integrated clerkship. This study aimed primarily to assess the impact of curriculum changes in the course of Pediatrics on the academic performance of medical students at the FMUP. Methods: We compared student's Pediatrics' academic performance over four consecutive school years. Two years of block rotations (2015/16 and 2016/17, n=528) and two years of integrated clerkship (2017/18 and 2018/19, n=485) were analyzed regarding the 5th year (short-term), as well as three years (2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19) relating to the 6th year (long-term). Results: The 5th years' mean score (SD) was 15.24 (1.38), 16.59 (1.66), 15.38 (1.89) and 15.13 (2.00) for years 2015/16 through to 2018/19 (p<0.001), respectively. Considering only the first assessment, regardless of season, 2017/18 showed a statistically significant increase of 0.42 (95%CI: (-0.2;0.5)) (p=0.004), when compared to 2015/16. Regarding the 6th year, the mean score (SD) was 16.97 (0.92), 17.17 (0.96) and 17.36 (0.90) for years 2016/17 through to 2018/19 (p<0.001), respectively. Pearson's correlation between 5th and 6th-years' scores was 0.28 (95%CI:0.20-0.35). There was no interaction observed between academic year and the association between 5th and 6th-year grades. Conclusions: The impact of the curriculum reform on student performance appears to have been small, in both the short and long term. Keywords: medical, education; curricular, reform; clerkships; block; integrated.