Die Qualifikation zur Allgemeinen Ärztlichen Reife: Ein Vergleich zweier Studiengangsmodelle

Introduction: At the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, the integrated medical model curriculum (iMED, „integrierte Modellstudiengang Medizin Hamburg“) replaced the standard curriculum (RSG, „Regelstudiengang“) in 2012. Based on new regulations for medical cur-ricula, it is one of Germany’s firsts to focus on the most modern concepts for training medical students, with the aim of interlacing the theoretical basic subjects in medicine with clinical practice right from the start of university attendance. In particular, a focus was placed on the integrated teaching of communicative and practical skills in the new curriculum.
The study aimed to analyse the differences in the performance of students in a clinical-practical OSCE (= objective structured clinical examination), trying to establish the level of general medical maturity (“Allgemeine ärztliche Reife”) among the participants, and to further investigate whether potential differences in performance were caused by the type of medical curriculum completed or more so through individual (personality) differences.

Methods: Between the years 2016 to 2018, four cross-sectional test times were carried out. Each time, voluntary graduates from both curricula groups (RSG vs. iMED) were recruited for participation in a self-designed comparative OSCE that, unbeknownst to the participants, measured their general medical maturity. Additionally, they had to complete a psychometric and sociodemographic questionnaire containing the following aspects: personality profile (NEO-FFI 30), life satisfaction (Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS)), social support (F-SoZu K14), anxiety and depression values (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-D)), socio-demographics and aspired medical specialisation after completing their studies.

Result: On average, the participants (N = 100, 50% female) showed satisfactory perfor-mance in the test for general medical maturity, regardless of their completed curriculum. The overall sample achieved extraordinarily positive psychometric values and surprisingly showed a "personality norm profile" with similar characteristics that applied to all participants.

Discussion: The change in the Hamburg medical curriculum did not lead to a significant dif-ference in the performance in terms of medical maturity of the examined graduates of both curricula. An in-depth investigation is recommended, especially concerning the particular per-sonality patterns and outstanding psychometric results found among the participants.