| BACKGROUND: The Clinical Education Track (CET) is a curricular track within the main chiropractic educational curriculum that was designed in response to current and past programmatic assessments. These assessments revealed issues related to integration of clinical training from the classroom to the clinic. Teaching chiropractic students the clinical reasoning, physical examination and case management skills necessary to effectively function as primary healthcare clinicians is the primary goal of this integrated curriculum. The CET instructional methodology is based on developing independent learners and thinkers utilizing a facilitative instructional method integrating evidence based practices. METHODS: A faculty Task Force was established to review current curriculum structure and instructional strategies. A literature review, focus group discussions with faculty and collaboration with an educational consultant were completed. Based on this process a structure and instructional strategies were developed for the CET. Instructional methods were pilot tested in several courses in the already existing clinical rounds program. The input of faculty and students involved in piloted methods provided invaluable feedback in our efforts to develop the overall structure of the CET curriculum. RESULTS: The basic framework of the CET has been designed to include courses from the sixth through thirteenth quarters with each course building and expanding upon one another. The instructional strategies include case-based learning, team-based learning and small group skills labs in order to encourage active learning, critical thinking and a collaborative approach to learning. The courses that make up the CET have been designed to incorporate instructional methods that are complimentary to their learning goals and objectives. Team-based learning (TBL) is the primary model incorporated, whereas small group labs are utilized to hone clinical skills and the traditional instructor-led lecture is used to introduce key concepts. DISCUSSION: The structure of the clinical education track is designed to incorporate an active learning approach and to integrate student development of communication skills, physical exam skills and clinical decision-making skills. Frequent evaluation of the learning strategies and affect on the learners and instructors will guide possible revisions and improvements. Evaluation strategies include the collection of data from those affected by and those participating in the curriculum. Learner evaluations are used as a measure of achievement of course objectives and are a part of the curriculum evaluation. Student and faculty surveys are administered toward the end of each quarter in order to measure the participants’ perceptions. Personnel from the Office of Institutional Research conducted focus group discussions with the participants in the initial course implementation and these continue each quarter until their completion of the program. Outcome data from the 8th and 11th quarter objective structured clinical examinations, 13th quarter cognitive assessment class, National Board of Chiropractic Examiners Part II, III, and IV will provide feedback to the curriculum design, as will surveys of the clinic faculty regarding perceptions of intern’s preparedness for the clinic experience. The Clinical Education Track at LUCC is driven by a vision of educational and clinical excellence. The goal of the program is the integration of didactic learning and the clinical experience. Faculty instructors facilitate learning through interactive and innovative instructional strategies designed to enhance the student’s diagnostic, analytical and case management skills. This abstract is reproduced with the permission of the publisher. |
