Abstract
Introduction
Medical curricula should prepare doctors for roles that extend beyond that of a clinician. But the formal inclusion of both management and research training still appear to be neglected. It is important to understand what the profession would be willing to give up in terms of clinical training time for management and research content teaching prior to making any changes in a medical curriculum.
Methods and analysis
A discrete choice experiment (DCE) will elicit the preferences and trade-offs that medical doctors in Southern Africa are prepared to make about the management, research and clinical training. Attention will also be given to the teaching method and placement of the content. DCE data will be collected using an online survey with an estimated sample size of 368 medical doctors. Data regarding participants’ preference for a traditional or revised curriculum will be assessed using the Resistance to Change-Beliefs (RC-B) scale and demographic information will also be collected to assess preference heterogeneity. Analysis of the DCE data will be based on the Random Utility Maximisation framework using variants of the multinomial logit model. Data quality will be assessed. Value will be estimated in terms of clinical time i.e. how much clinical training time medical doctors are willing to give up to have research and management training within a curriculum that has a maximum of 40 hours per week. Observed preference heterogeneity will be assessed using the RC-B scale data and characteristics of respondents. Latent class models will be used to test for unobserved heterogeneity.
Ethics and dissemination
The research ethics and institutional committees of the sites have approved the study. The survey includes an informed consent section. Study findings will be reported to the medical schools and papers will be submitted to peer-reviewed, accredited journals and higher education and health economic conferences.
Medical curricula should prepare doctors for roles that extend beyond that of a clinician. But the formal inclusion of both management and research training still appear to be neglected. It is important to understand what the profession would be willing to give up in terms of clinical training time for management and research content teaching prior to making any changes in a medical curriculum.
Methods and analysis
A discrete choice experiment (DCE) will elicit the preferences and trade-offs that medical doctors in Southern Africa are prepared to make about the management, research and clinical training. Attention will also be given to the teaching method and placement of the content. DCE data will be collected using an online survey with an estimated sample size of 368 medical doctors. Data regarding participants’ preference for a traditional or revised curriculum will be assessed using the Resistance to Change-Beliefs (RC-B) scale and demographic information will also be collected to assess preference heterogeneity. Analysis of the DCE data will be based on the Random Utility Maximisation framework using variants of the multinomial logit model. Data quality will be assessed. Value will be estimated in terms of clinical time i.e. how much clinical training time medical doctors are willing to give up to have research and management training within a curriculum that has a maximum of 40 hours per week. Observed preference heterogeneity will be assessed using the RC-B scale data and characteristics of respondents. Latent class models will be used to test for unobserved heterogeneity.
Ethics and dissemination
The research ethics and institutional committees of the sites have approved the study. The survey includes an informed consent section. Study findings will be reported to the medical schools and papers will be submitted to peer-reviewed, accredited journals and higher education and health economic conferences.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e070836 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | BMJ Open |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 3 Aug 2023 |
Bibliographical note
FundingThis work was supported by the Department of Research and Innovation, University of Pretoria Research Development Programme and the University Capacity Development Programme for the University of Pretoria.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the participants in the previous phases that informed the development of the DCE.
Keywords
- Medical curriculum
- curriculum design
- discrete choice
- management
- research
- competencies
Access to Document
- Turner_etal_BMJO_Exploring_Doctors_Trade-Offs_VOR
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