Assessment of Rehabilitation Medicine Education in Thai Undergraduate Medicine Curricula and its Relevance to General Practice: A Cross-Sectional Study
Keywords:
rehabilitation medicine, undergraduate medical education, program evaluationAbstract
Objectives: To evaluate the content of rehabilitation medicine in undergraduate medicine curriculum and its relevance to general practice
Study design: Cross-sectional study
Setting: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
Subjects: Medical graduates from the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital who practiced as general practitioners and graduated between 2018 and 2020
Methods: A total of 842 medical graduates were surveyed using a structured questionnaire consisting of three sections: basic characteristics information, rehabilitation medicine content aligned with the Medical Competency Assessment Criteria for National License 2012, and recommendations for teaching and learning management. Participants rated the content using a four-point Likert scale based on frequency and criticality. Frequency was defined as the frequency with which each topic was applied in general practice, while criticality referred to the importance of each topic in its clinical practice. Data were analyzed using the Rasch rating scale model, a psychometric approach that applied the logistic regression technique to transform ordinal ratings into an interval scale. The level of the variable is on the logit scale, and the measurement unit is referred to as a logit.
Results: The response rate was 24.2%. According to the model, the frequency scores ranged from -3.31 to 3.05 logits, and the criticalities ranged from -2.12 to 2.44 logits. Integrating these two factors determined the “relevance,” representing the extent to which topics in the rehabilitation curriculum for medical graduates were relevant in their experience, with values ranging from -5.43 to 5.49 logits. The five most relevant topics covered were stroke (5.49 logits), pressure ulcers (4.68 logits), osteoarthritis (4.38 logits), diabetic foot ulcers (4.33 logits), and chronic obstructive sleep apnea (4.19 logits), respectively.
Conclusions: Stroke rehabilitation, pressure ulcers, and osteo-arthritis were identified as the most relevant topics in rehabilitation medicine for general practice. Therefore, teaching management should consider the appropriate teaching hours and assessments.
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