Publication:

Knowledge and practice of medical faculties regarding alignment and integration in medical education: a cross-sectional study

Background The term integration has gained importance in medical education over the last two decades. Integration is one of the major changes incorporated in the new competency-based curriculum for the undergraduate medical program. However, the concept of integration/integrated curriculum lacks significant clarity as, how to implement it in medical institutions. Many medical faculties are not clear about the concept. Therefore, the present study was planned to assess the knowledge and practice of medical faculties regarding various methods of Integration.

Methods This was a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study conducted at a tertiary care teaching hospital after approval from the institutional ethics committee. Respondents were around 100 medical faculties specialties who have consented to participate in the study. The study instrument was a self-developed, pre-validated semi-structured questionnaire consisting of both open and closed items. Two focus group discussions were conducted with faculties and medical students.

Results Data was expressed as percentages. The majority of the faculties were aware of the term integration; however, they had poor knowledge regarding the types of integration and the difference between alignment and integration. Practice regarding integration was poor.

Conclusions Knowledge and practice among medical faculties regarding alignment and integration were poor. There is a need to have training of medical faculties for better implementation of this concept in the CBME curriculum.