Educational Program Objectives: A Framework for What Should Be Taught

By: Dr. Lecretia Buckley

Guided by its commitment to train skilled, compassionate, considerate, and competent physicians who provide the highest quality health care to all residents of the state of Mississippi, the School of Medicine (SOM) prepares learners to provide excellent care through programs of innovative education, state-of-the-art research and comprehensive clinical practice. This commitment undergirds the medical education curriculum, practices, and policies. The SOM curriculum supports our mission and distills to the program’s six educational program objectives (EPOs). EPOs are broad statements, in measurable terms, of the knowledge, skills, behaviors, and attitudes (typically linked to a statement of expected competencies) that a medical student is expected to exhibit as evidence of achievement of all programmatic requirements by the time of medical education program completion These objectives “reflect the essential requirements for physicians to act in an ethical and altruistic fashion while providing competent medical care and fulfilling their obligations to their patients.” The EPOs, found in the UMMC Catalog, were reviewed, and updates were approved in May 2022 by the SOM Curriculum Committee.

The SOM Curriculum Committee, empowered by the dean, oversees the design, management, and evaluation of the educational program of the SOM. Eight subcommittees engage in the work of the SOM Curriculum Committee. They include: (1) Clinical Sciences (2) Curriculum Development and Innovation, (3) Evaluation and Assessment (4) Foundational Sciences, (5) Program Evaluation, (6) Professional Identity Formation (7) Society and Medicine, and (8) Systems-Based Practice.

The six EPOs address multiple areas in which medical students are trained. They address (a) medical knowledge, (b) patient care, (c) systems-based practice, (d) practice-based learning and improvement, (e) interpersonal communication skills, and (f) professionalism.

Together, the SOM EPOs provide a framework for what should be taught in the medical education program. Course objectives are derived from the program objectives, and session objectives are derived from the session objectives. This top-down design is examined annually through a mapping process in which course objectives are mapped onto at least one of the six EPOs in the OME’s curriculum mapping process and session objectives ae mapped onto at least one course objective. The resulting curriculum database is made available for course and clerkship directors as they develop courses that align with the school’s EPOs and daily sessions that ensure vertical and horizontal alignment of content as well as to identify gaps and unwanted redundancies in topic areas.

Medical knowledge is developing at a rapid pace and selecting what to teach ultimately lies with the SOM Curriculum Committee and the content’s connection with the school’s EPOs. While the SOM cannot teach its students everything, the SOM Curriculum Committee offers faculty, an avenue to examine content and its appropriateness and to obtain approval for inclusion in the curriculum.