Ghias Kulsoom, Khan Kausar Saeed, Ali Rukhsana, Azfar Shireen, Ahmed Rashida
Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Department of Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
J Pak Med Assoc. 2020 Sep;70(9):1516-1522. doi: 10.5455/JPMA.24043.
To evaluate the impact of humanities and social sciences curriculum in an undergraduate medical education programme.
The qualitative study was conducted from May 2016 to May 2017 at a private medical college in Karachi where humanities and social sciences subject is an art of the undergraduate curriculum as a 6-week module at the start of Year 1 of the five-year programme. Focus group discussions were held with students from all the five years as well as with faculty related to humanities and social sciences, basic sciences and their clinical counterparts. The views of alumni of the undergraduate programme who are now members of the faculty at the institution were also explored and semi-structured interviews were conducted with institutional academic leaders. MAXQDA software was used to identify the themes for analysis.
Of the 50 participants, 27(54%) were students, 21(42%) were faculty members and 2(4%) were academic leaders. From the 11 sub-themes, 5 themes were identified: Expectations, Strengths, Challenges, Way forward, and Institutional role and responsibility. Faculty members perceived humanities and social sciences as encouraging creative and critical thinking, boosting students' confidence and positively impacting their behaviour. Student perception seemed to change as they progressed through the years and they appreciated its impact at different stages.
The existing humanities and social sciences curriculum can be further strengthened by integrating contents throughout the five-year programme and continuing it as a longitudinal theme rather than limiting it to a one-time exposure at the start of the programme.
评估人文社会科学课程在本科医学教育项目中的影响。
2016年5月至2017年5月在卡拉奇的一所私立医学院开展了定性研究，在这所医学院，人文社会科学学科是本科课程的一部分，在五年制项目第一年开始时作为一个为期6周的模块。与五个年级的学生以及人文社会科学、基础科学及其临床相关学科的教师进行了焦点小组讨论。还探讨了本科项目校友（现为本校教师）的观点，并对学校学术领导进行了半结构化访谈。使用MAXQDA软件确定分析主题。
50名参与者中，27名（54%）是学生，21名（42%）是教师，2名（4%）是学术领导。从11个子主题中确定了5个主题：期望、优势、挑战、前进方向以及机构的作用和责任。教师认为人文社会科学能鼓励创造性和批判性思维，增强学生信心并对其行为产生积极影响。随着年级增长，学生的看法似乎有所变化，他们在不同阶段都体会到了其影响。
现有的人文社会科学课程可通过在五年制项目中整合内容并将其作为一个纵向主题持续开展，而非仅限于项目开始时的一次性接触，从而得到进一步加强。
