Times of Medical Education Crisis Require New Evaluation Approaches: Proof of Concept of a System-Based Program Evaluation Model

Jorie Colbert-Getz; Candace Chow; Marlana Li; Tiffany Weber; Peter Hannon; Ibrahim Hammad; Brian Good; Rachel Bonnett; Mariah Sakaeda; Jacob Robson; Sara Lamb

doi:10.1007/s40670-021-01271-5

Times of Medical Education Crisis Require New Evaluation Approaches: Proof of Concept of a System-Based Program Evaluation Model

Med Sci Educ. 2021 Mar 17;31(3):1009-1014. doi: 10.1007/s40670-021-01271-5. eCollection 2021 Jun.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT USA.
² Department of Family and Preventative Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT USA.
³ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT USA.
⁴ Department of Neurology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT USA.
⁵ Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT USA.
⁶ Office of Education Quality Improvement, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT USA.

Abstract

There are no program evaluation approaches designed for a crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It is critical to evaluate the educational impact of COVID-19 to keep administrators informed and guide decision-making. The authors used systems thinking to design an evaluation model. The evaluation results suggest complex interactions between individuals and course level changes due to COVID-19. Specifically, year 1-2 students found more education metrics lacking relative to year 3-4 students, faculty, and course directors. There was no consensus for the value of similar instructional/assessment adaptations. The evaluation model can be adapted by other medical schools to fit systems-based needs.

Keywords: Crisis; Program evaluation; Systems thinking.