Context and setting As part of a larger national initiative, 2 medical schools and 1 dental school in a large metropolitan area collaboratively developed a new Summer Medical/Dental Education Programme (SMDEP), a 6-week residential programme targeting disadvantaged community college students. Like traditional enrichment programmes, the SMDEP aims to create a pipeline of such students to medical and dental schools, encouraging practice in under-served areas. The local programme included coursework in conceptual sciences and in 'health disparities', and used both didactic and problem-based learning approaches. Additionally, the development of reading, learning and study skills was emphasised throughout the curriculum. The programme also included a vigorous self-study process involving faculty, staff and students. Why the idea was necessary A self-study process may encourage 'reflective practice' and allow for the identification and remediation of inconsistencies between faculty and student expectations of a programme. We carefully studied faculty perceptions of programme goals as well as student needs so that any mismatch would become apparent. Thus, the programme was able to evolve continuously and potentially become more educationally effective. What was done This study included 2 phases, employing qualitative and quantitative methods, respectively. In the first phase, programme goals and objectives were explored with a combination of interviews and focus groups with all faculty members (n = 12). Two independent raters identified a list of 7 objectives. In the second phase, students (n = 69 of 79) and faculty rank ordered these objectives using pairwise comparisons. We calculated the relative importance of the 7 items accorded by staff and students separately. This resulted in 2 rank-ordered lists of programme objectives with associated weights of importance expressed on the same scale (z-scores).
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