Oncology education in Canadian undergraduate and postgraduate medical programs: A survey of educators and learners.

Abstract

e16558 Background: Deficiencies in undergraduate (UG) oncology education have been documented and there is a lack of data on the quality and quantity of oncology education in postgraduate (PG) family medicine (FM) and internal medicine (IM) training programs. Methods: A self-administered web-survey was created to obtain information regarding the current oncology curriculum at medical schools and PG FM and IM training programs. Survey requests were sent to educators (undergraduate medical education curriculum committee members (UMECCM), family medicine (FMPD) and internal medicine program directors (IMPD), oncologists) and learners (final year medical students (MS), family medicine (FMR) and internal medicine residents (IMR)) at all 17 of Canada’s medical schools. Results: 159 of 961 educators (19 UMECCM, 7 FMPD, 10 IMPD, 54 medical oncologists, 67 radiation oncologists and 2 hematologic oncologists) and 518 of 1966 learners (342 MS, 95 FMR and 81 IMR) completed the survey. Overall response rate was 23% (educators 17%, learners 26%). Responses were received from at least one educator or learner from all 17 medical schools. The amount of oncology education was thought to be inadequate in their respective programs by 58% UMECCM, 57% FMPD and 50% IMPD. 82% of oncologists believed that oncology education was inadequate in their UG and PG FM and IM programs. For learners, oncology education was thought to be inadequate in their respective programs by 67% MS, 86% FMR and 63% IMR. Of 10 different categories of medical illness all groups agreed that their trainees were least adequately prepared to manage cancer. A standard set of oncology objectives was thought to be useful for UG learners by 59% of respondents and 61% for PG learners. The 3 topics considered most important as core competencies in oncology for both UG and PG learners are: cancer diagnosis, breaking bad news and cancer screening. Conclusions: Oncology education at the UG medical and PG FM and IM levels are currently thought to be inadequate by a majority of educators and learners. Developing a standard set of oncology objectives focusing on topics believed to be most important by educators may improve the quality of oncology education for learners.