The Importance of Curricular Evaluation

In this installment of the clinician educator series Drs. Sanchez-Reilly and Ross provide a comprehensive review of curricular evaluation. Whereas many teachers focus almost exclusively on curricular development, thoughtful educators know that only through critical evaluation can we learn about the effectiveness of our curricula and the impact we have on our learners.

As palliative medicine has become more integrated into medical schools, residencies, and fellowships, many educators have the opportunity to engage learners in more than just one lecture or small group session. Additionally, many learners have had exposure to palliative medicine and our objectives for their learning can be more sophisticated as a result. In situations in which we have the luxury of presenting more in-depth curricula, we should strive for deeper learning that will require a more sophisticated mechanism for evaluation.

Drs. Sanchez-Reilly and Ross review the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)'s and Kirkpatrick's levels of curricular evaluation. Early in the development of our field, it was acceptable to have curricular objectives and evaluation that focused on Kirkpatrick's lower-level learning such as learner satisfaction with the curriculum and knowledge acquisition. Now, we can aspire to deeper learning that is sustained over time and measured by techniques such as direct observation. The family meeting example used by the authors is a perfect example of how we can hold ourselves and our learners to a higher standard in teaching even the fundamentals of our field.