<p>A novel approach to teaching dermatology and plastic surgery in a combined module for undergraduate medical students</p>

Abstract

Introduction: Medical students need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to serve their communities properly. Interdisciplinary integration by merging similar disciplines together at the level of planning and implementation is a novel idea. Objectives: The aim is to describe the methods and steps that were followed to plan and implement a module in dermatology and plastic surgery for the fifth year medical students of Albaha University Faculty of Medicine, to explain how two similar courses can be designed and merged into one module. Methods: We followed the Kern’s six steps for curriculum development in order to plan and implement the dermatology and plastic surgery module. Questionnaires were applied to measure the degree of both students and staff satisfactions about all Kern’ steps of the dermatology-plastic surgery interdisciplinary course. Non-parametric t -test was used in the statistical results of Likert scale. Results and discussion: According to these steps, the module committee identifies the problem and assesses the needs of the targeted learners. Then, goals and objectives of the module and educational strategies were determined. Finally, the evaluation and feedback were obtained from both faculty and students. Using a Likert scale to measure the degree of the satisfactions among students and staff for Kern’steps, no significant P -value was obtained for course evaluation steps, in contrast to the goals/objectives, educational strategies and implementation steps in which significant P -values were obtained. Conclusion : Implementing Kern’s methodology for curriculum development resulted in the integrated module of dermatology and plastic surgery with no major problems at all levels. Keywords: dermatology, interdisciplinary integration, plastic surgery, skin diseases, student-centered