Culture Matters in Successful Curriculum Change: An International Study of the Influence of National and Organizational Culture Tested With Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling.

Purpose: National culture has been shown to play a role in curriculum change in medical schools, and business literature has described a similar influence of organizational culture on change processes in organizations. This study investigated the impact of both national and organizational culture on successful curriculum change in medical schools internationally.

Method: The authors tested a literature-based conceptual model using multilevel structural equation modeling.

A medical school's organizational readiness for curriculum change (MORC): development and validation of a questionnaire.

Purpose: Because successful change implementation depends on organizational readiness for change, the authors developed and assessed the validity of a questionnaire, based on a theoretical model of organizational readiness for change, designed to measure, specifically, a medical school's organizational readiness for curriculum change (MORC).

Method: In 2012, a panel of medical education experts judged and adapted a preliminary MORC questionnaire through a modified Delphi procedure. The authors administered the resulting questionnaire to medical school faculty involved in curriculum change and tested the psychometric properties using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and generalizability analysis.

Impact of national context and culture on curriculum change: a case study.

Background: Earlier studies suggested national culture to be a potential barrier to curriculum reform in medical schools. In particular, Hofstede's cultural dimension 'uncertainty avoidance' had a significant negative relationship with the implementation rate of integrated curricula.

Aims: However, some schools succeeded to adopt curriculum changes despite their country's strong uncertainty avoidance.

Comparison of three clinical environments for pre-clinical clinical skills training.

Objectives: Primary health care (PHC), secondary health care (SHC), and tertiary health care (THC) were compared in search of the most suitable setting for clinical skills training of pre-clinical students.

Methods: The Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure questionnaire was presented to 300 clerkship students of the Faculty of Medicine at Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia who were attached to PHC, SHC, and THC settings. Students were asked to assess their current attachment for suitability for training of pre-clinical students.

Influence of national culture on the adoption of integrated medical curricula.

Integrated curricula have been implemented in medical schools all over the world. However, among countries different relative numbers of schools with integrated curricula are found. This study aims to explore the possible correlation between the percentage of medical schools with integrated curricula in a country and that country's cultural characteristics.

Influence of national culture on the adoption of integrated and problem-based curricula in Europe.

Context: There is an evident misbalance in the frequency of medical schools with problem-based learning (PBL) curricula in northern versus southern Europe. This study explores the hypothesis that national culture influences the flexibility of (medical) schools in terms of their propensity to adopt integrated and PBL curricula.

Methods: National culture was defined by a country's scores on indexes for 4 dimensions of culture as described by Hofstede, defined as: power distance; individualism/collectivism; masculinity/femininity, and uncertainty avoidance.

Comparison of outcomes of a community-based education programme executed with and without active community involvement.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the applicability of a previously designed set of generic objectives for community-based education (CBE) emphasising community involvement.

Methods: The study was designed as a non-blinded, randomised trial. Experimental and conventional groups of students following CBE programmes either closely or weakly matching the set of generic objectives were compared.

An explorative study into learning on international traineeships: experiential learning processes dominate.

Objective: To explore the learning processes of undergraduate medical students undertaking international traineeships.

Methods: Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 24 undergraduate medical students from Maastricht University Medical School, the Netherlands. The 24 subjects were selected by purposeful sampling.

'I found myself to be a down to earth Dutch girl': a qualitative study into learning outcomes from international traineeships.

Objective: To explore learning outcomes from international traineeships for undergraduate medical students.

Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 24 undergraduate medical students at Maastricht University Medical School, The Netherlands. The 24 subjects were selected by purposeful sampling.