The Physician Experience Teaching an Integrated Curriculum to First-Year Medical Students

INTRODUCTION: The authors review a model of early medical student education that leverages the strengths of physician educators in curriculum development and small-group instruction in the first year of medical school. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to understand the experience of practicing physicians who helped to design, implement, and deliver the first-year curriculum at a new medical school. METHODS: Survey data were collected for all first-year physician instructors and first-year medical students at the new Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine during the inaugural 2020–2021 academic year. Physician involvement in curriculum design and implementation, time required for teaching preparation, ratings of collaboration with basic scientists, and confidence and satisfaction of the clinician educators with first-year medical student education, as well as student satisfaction with physician educators, were all explored. RESULTS: Despite extensive time commitment from the physician educators and some reported variability in confidence ratings for course content, physicians rated their experience teaching first-year medical students at the new medical school highly. They rated their collaboration with basic scientists highly as well. Medical students rated their physician educators highly across multiple assessment domains. CONCLUSION: The successful combination of basic scientists with physician educators in first-year medical education may provide a road map for other medical schools seeking to further integrate clinical sciences into basic science education.