Abstract

Farzana Rizwan*, Roland Gamini Sirisinghe and Ashfaq Akram

ABSTRACT

An undergraduate medical curriculum needs careful planning and development. The learning outcomes must satisfy the different domains of competencies and capabilities. Thus a medical undergraduate curriculum has to incorporate not only knowledge and skills specific to the field of medicine but also more general competencies defined in the guidelines of medical regulating authorities and the higher learning institute itself. It is not possible to address these competencies to the same extent in all components at every stage of the curriculum. We describe the experiences during the planning of the Haematology and Immunology block which was implemented in the first year of a 5-year integrated undergraduate medical curriculum. Considerations in the planning of the block in this particular instance included the different role it needed to play in the overall curriculum due to moving of the Block from Year 2 to Year 1. An increase in the number of students compared to the previous occasion when the block was run required changes in time tabling. There was feedback from students and resource persons. New facilities such as improved e-learning facilities were also taken into account. Communications through meetings and electronic media were undertaken in a timely manner. Advice and approval from the authorities in the academic administration were sought and obtained. We gained much experience in this process of rescrutinising and remodeling a teaching block within the medical curriculum and herein we share them with our colleagues in the area of undergraduate medical education.