In previous installments, we have shared much about the Gateway curriculum including information about the organization of the curriculum, the coaching program, approach to student assessment and how students will learn clinical skills. Next we want to give you an overview about how we will address evaluation of our Gateway curriculum (program evaluation) and the processes we will use to ensure continuous quality improvement.
Program evaluation of the Gateway curriculum will include systematic collection of data about the activities, characteristics and outcomes to help us make decisions about any needed changes and to determine program efficacy over time. We have long evaluated our education programs and will continue to do so with targeted data collection through our surveys of students and by speaking directly with students, faculty and staff. We will focus on understanding whether we are meeting the goals that we set out for the curriculum. These goals include student achievement of our school-wide, competency-based program objectives and meeting accreditation standards set out by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). In addition, we will examine achievement of our guiding principles which include use of technology, active learning strategies, promotion of relationships and integration of the curriculum. In addition, we will monitor outcomes related to achieving our commitment to addressing racism in medical education.
Monitoring outcomes does not ensure change. That is where the continuous quality improvement process comes into play. Once we see how we are doing, we will present our findings to relevant groups making plans for change by asking the questions: who will do what by when? We will then monitor change over time to see that we meet these goals(1). Please refer to the Program Evaluation and Continuous Quality Improvement website for more information and to contact us.
- Smith SL, Colson ER, Starr SR, Rooholamini S, Hayward K. Using quality improvement concepts to improve educational curricula. In: Morgenstern B. Alliance for Clinical Education. Guidebook for Clerkship Directors. 5th ed. Gegenstatz Press. 2019.