Integrated Curriculum in Critical Care Clerkship for Medical Students: Impact on Professional Growth

Background: Traditional curricula for medical education provide a horizontal, chronological delivery of basic sciences followed by clinical exposure. This approach compromises cohesive organizational thinking on disease management due to a fragmentation in learning. Vertically integrated curricula present basic sciences embedded in a clinical context and reinforce basic science concepts during clinical rotation, thus providing contextualized learning and enhancing motivation for mastery. This approach promotes knowledge retention and acquisition of skills through the repetitive and progressive development of concepts. Purpose: An integrated critical care curriculum provides a strong foundation in the patient care areas of eliciting history, physical examination, clinical reasoning, and patient management. It also fosters practice-based learning (PBL). This educational model integrates evidence-based care with informed practice, commitment to reflective practice, and an emphasis on personal growth that establishes better learning and residency preparedness. Variances and effectiveness in curricular delivery can also impact students' career choices. This study hopes to understand students' perceptions of the integrated curricular approach, self-evaluation in patient care, medical knowledge, and PBL. Methods: This qualitative study used a phenomenological hermeneutic approach to explore student experiences in an integrated curricular training environment. Eight participants who have completed at least a one-week elective in critical care medicine were invited to participate. Field notes, interview transcripts, and artifacts such as student notes or concept maps were used. A structured data analysis using Moustakas' approach was performed by horizontalization and coding to identify common themes and patterns. Interpretations were derived from emerging themes and subthemes, understanding the interplay of the curricular strategy's structural description, the medical students' imaginative variation, and the researcher's observation lens. Results: Eight medical students in their fourth year of training who had completed at least 4 weeks of ICU clerkship were enrolled and interviewed. Based on their clinical experience, they were able to discuss their perceptions of integrated critical care training. The emerging themes of their perceived curricular delivery were categorized based on faculty engagement, student expectation, review of integrated knowledge, variability in curricular delivery and educational tools used, opportunities for transdisciplinary learning, and high-impact curricular components. The critical care curriculum achieved a significant level of trainee perception on integrated, transdisciplinary, and multi-system knowledge essential for complex patient management. Conclusion: The results provided an understanding of students' perceptions of an integrated curriculum and its effect on patient care, medical knowledge, and PBL.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Professional Leadership, Education

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Gotur, Deepa Bangalore 1976-

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Hausman, Robert C.
• McNeil, Sara

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Ford, Christine D.
• Lewis, Dorothy E.

• Educational leadership
• Education--Curricula

Language dc:language.iso

English

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10657/20680

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/20680