History of Problem-Based Learning Tutorials at UNM SOM .Assessment Quality Support
 

The University of New Mexico School of Medicine
was instituted in 1964 with a grant from the
legislature for $25,000, graduating its first class
in 1968. The curriculum was originally modeled
after the Case Western Reserve organ system.

In the 1970s, a group of innovation-minded faculty embarked on a journey to create a problem-based learning curriculum at UNM SOM, modeled after McMasters in Canada, the first medical school in North America to use problem-based learning. From 1979-1993, the UNM SOM curriculum consisted of parallel tracks for years 1 and 2--one track for the Primary Care Curriculum (PCC) and and the other a traditional model of education. The PCC introduced student-centered, small-group, problem-based learning; early clinical skills; community-based learning; and self-directed learning.

In 1988, a major strategic planning effort was initiated in preparation for the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) accreditation visit. The effort reviewed the strengths and weaknesses of previous educational innovations and resulted in, among others, the recommendation to increase problem-based learning throughout the curriculum.

A grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided a stimulus and means to enable UNM SOM to put these recommendations into a workable plan. The Curriculum Committee held a series of seminars and workshops addressing external and internal forces for change in the medical environment. They summarized and distributed the outcomes of longitudinal research on the PCC and the conventional tracks in New Mexico and developed a document summarizing the rationale for curricular change. A school-wide review and planning effort led to consensus around the following principles for curriculum planning, which served as the guide for integrating the parallel tracks into one curriculum, drawing on the strengths of each. 

 
  • Single, Four-Year Curriculum
         Integrated
         Cumulative
  • Integration of Basic/Clinical Science
         Across All Four Years
  • Behavioral and Population Basis for Illness
         As Well as Biological Basis
  • Multidisciplinary
         Organ Systems
  • Continuity Clinical Experience
         Over Four Years
  • Variety of Settings for Clinical Education
         Hospital Inpatient
         Ambulatory Sites
         Community
  • Practical Immersion Experience
         Laboratory/Hospital/Community
  • Timely Clinical Clerkships
         Residency Planning

 
  • Mentoring/Vertical Learning Families
         Role Modeling
         Multi-Level Teaching
         Support
         Reinforcement of Cumulative Curriculum
Since 1994, the UNM SOM model of education has been a hybrid based on the above principles combining elements of both the PCC and traditional models of education. Students are typically in small-group tutorial sessions for three hours twice a week during Phase I of the curriculum. They also attend lectures and labs, in addition to other elements of the curriculum such as Clinical Skills, Perspectives in Medicine, etc.

In the 2001-2002 academic year, the "new" curriculum underwent a revision. The founding principles did not change; revision centered primarily around the order of the units and the principles and implementation of assessment. The curriculum continues to evolve.