Using Educational Handoffs to Improve Curricular Integration and Overcome Faculty Disconnectedness

Abstract

In recent years, virtually every specialty under the medical education umbrella (e.g., medicine, pharmacy, veterinary, etc.) has placed a premium on designing integrated curricula. Although institutions have attempted a wide variety of strategies, most experience their share of struggles. Some challenges are of a substantive nature. For example, how to integrate curricula within and across a program year(s), how to cut content without compromising quality, and so on. Much literature has been published on these issues and offer a variety of potentially effective strategies and solutions. Other challenges, however, are equally daunting and to date have received relatively little attention in the literature. For example, how to get faculty who represents diverse disciplinary backgrounds and specialties to work effectively together? Extant research has identified several factors associated with faculty teamwork that often thwart curricular integration attempts. These include 1) faculty unfamiliarity with the norms and values of other specialties; 2) disciplinary hegemony; and 3) selfish agendas and “turf wars” [1,2]. A commonality among each of these factors is lack of communication and teamwork. In this article, I propose a theoretical framework already well-understood by most medical educators and encourage the application of its principles to an educational setting. More specifically, I propose faculty view integrated curricular design much like the continuum of medical care in which handoffs are made, as handoffs emphasize communication and teamwork. I will introduce the concept of an “educational handoff” and argue how this strategy can mitigate many of the challenges faculty in medical and health programs face, while simultaneously improving the learning experience for students.