Mission

The mission of the department of Medical Education of KMC is to provide leadership and expertise in the following:
1) Curriculum development, implementation and evaluation
2) Development and implementation of a curriculum for communication skills teaching, Professionalism, Ethics, professional identity formation, and social accountability
3) Clinical and educational research
4) Assessment techniques
5) Capacity building in mentorship and collaboration

Vision

The vision of Medical Education department is to become a model in education, research, patient care and community service through excellence and innovation.

Goals

1) Preparation and implementation of a modular system of undergraduate medical education according to PMDC and WFME standards.
2) Evaluation of curriculum.
3) Faculty training regarding teaching, assessment and research.
4) Development of a culture of research in the institute.
5) Development of a culture of respect and professionalism.

Objectives

1) To develop and implement a curriculum of undergraduate medical education for the college at par with international and PMDC standards.
2) The train the faculty in teaching and assessment strategies
3) To implement a special curriculum of professionalism, communication skills, research, ethics, professional identity formation and social accountability.
4) To help the students and faculty in designing, conducting and publishing high quality research.
5) To improve and train the faculty in conducting quality assessment of students.
6) To design and implement mentoring programs in the college.
7) To help the college to collaborate with local, regional and international educational institutions regarding education and research.

Targets

1) Implementation of Modular Curriculum in letter and spirit.
2) Modyfing assessment system of the college.
3) Development of an institution Research and Ethics board (IREB) in 3 months.
4) Development a state of the art Skill laboratory in 1-2 years.
5) Enhancement of skills of both Undergraduate and Postgraduate faculty regarding new teaching techniques, assessment and clinical and educational research on regular bases.
6) Implementation of mentorship programs.
7) Development of study guides and other resources for students.

Introduction

Khyber Medical College is one of the pioneer institute of the province, which came into being in 1954, and has produced more than 10000 doctors who are serving the masses inside and outside the country. The institute put high value in community health, postgraduate training and education and research. In response to changes in global medical education, introduction of WFME standards (world federation of medical education) and reforms at the level of PM&DC, the KMC has not lagged behind. We have introduced some reforms which are presented in the following sections;

Curriculum

The KMC has converted to modular system from session 2017-18. For that purpose, the following reforms have been done;

1)    The curriculum of 1^st and 2^nd year has been converted into 10 modules (foundation, Musculoskeletal, Blood, CVS, Respiratory, Neuroscineces-1 and 2, Endocrinology and metabolism, GIT and genitourinary modules). KMC is the first public sector institute in the country to have converted its curriculum of year 1 and 2 to level-7 from level-1 (Harden integration ladder).

2)    The teaching and learning strategies in previous years were limited to old style of didactic lectures. In new modular system, we have introduced formal Small group discussions (SGDs), Directed self-learning sessions, and self-directed learning along with other tutorials. All the faculty members have been trained and are certified regarding SGD conduction.

3)    Teaching venues for 1^st and 2^nd year have been extended from 6 to 34.

4)    A longitudinal module of PRIME (Professionalism and Patient safety, Research, Identity formation, Management and leadership and Ethics) has been introduced which will run throughout 5 years of training. This was the main deficiency of our old curriculum as most of the focus in previous course was on knowledge and technical skills with almost no formal training of ethics, professionalism and communication skills.

5)    Research component has been introduced right from first module and the student will get basic understandings of research concepts in the first 2 years. In year 3, they will be able to develop a research proposal and will conduct the research thesis in year 4. the students will be having ample opportunity to understand and conduct the research at undergraduate level.

6)    The timetables, study guide and learning objectives of 1^st and 2^nd year modules have been uploaded on college website.

7)    For the first time in the history of KMC, a formal mentorship and carrier counselling program has been started this year from year-1. About 21 faculty members from basic sciences departments have been deputed for this purpose who will conduct group mentoring sessions on monthly basis with the students.

8)    Students assessment has been converted from old didactic style to the contemporary style. Each module is followed by student`s assessment in the form of written and practical assessment. The questions presented in the assessment are mostly scenario based. From this year, we are introducing the cluster MCQs, EMQs and Key feature format questions in formative assessment of students.

9)    A system of psychometric testing of formative assessment items is being introduced in the examination department under the guidance of department of medical education

10) The department of medical education has conducted more than 15 workshops in the last one year for faculty training regarding research, assessment techniques, teaching and learning strategies and effective lecturing.

11) From 3^rd year onwards, a formal logbook for each year has been introduced which is intended for student’s event recording, which also has a component of writing reflections by the students. This logbook will be converted into a portfolio document in near future after the students and teachers are sensitized in a year or two.

12) A standard history notebook has been introduced for students on clinical rotations where they will write 2 histories and other relevant record of patients in the hospital along their reflection.

13) A clinical clerkship program for final year has been started this year, where students are required to perform clinical clerkship in each unit for a period of 10-15 days where he / she is supposed to write patient histories, daily progress reports, present the cases to the senior consultants, collect specimens from patients for testing, and write referrals and discharge summaries. The students stay from 8 am to 1 pm and undergo 3 types of activities; ward round (from 8-10 am), short case type activities (10-11 am) and a case based discussion (from 11-1pm). This is intended to increase the exposure of students to the clinical training.

14) Final year course has also been converted into modules and work is underway to make it more concise. The learning objectives of all subjects have been identified and are been integrated with basic sciences.

15) Patient safety initiatives have been started, where there are explicit rules and protocols for students. These have been documented in student’s logbooks.

16) Another patient safety initiative is the introduction of formal skills and simulation laboratory which is about to be completed in next 2 months. This laboratory includes clinical, cardiology, pediatric, Gynaecology and surgical simulators that will be used by students from 3^rd year onwards.

17) Proper vision and mission statements have been updated on college website as part of the requirements of PM&DC.

18) Regular faculty and college evaluation has been started from last year regarding faculty preparedness, curriculum, learning environment, assessment, teaching and learning, and many others. Till now, we have used surveys (student evaluation of teacher’s surveys (SETs), DREEM questionnaire and focus group interviews of students for evaluation of teachers, environment and assessment strategies.

19) Until last year, there was no institutional research and ethics board (IREB) in the college and hospital. The new IREB was established in November 2017 which conducts regular meetings on monthly basis regarding proposals evaluation and research paper evaluation. Till now, the IREB has approved more than 100 proposals and research papers.

20) Other committees that have been established in the college are, College curriculum committee, college curriculum evaluation committee, and a committee for research misconduct. The roles of these committees have been defined.

Future ambitions

The following is a list of programs which will be started in a year or two in the college;

1)    Converting 3rs year to final year course into modules as part of spiral 2 and 3.

2)    Continuation of PRIME module in year 3 onwards

3)    Faculty training regarding PRIME module and others

4)    Introducing new assessment methods in clinical training

Presentation on Medical Ethics By Dr. Farooq Ahmed                                   Download