Review 2009

Medical education and the tyranny of competency

BM
Brooks, Michael A.
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
Journal · Vol. 52 · Issue 1 · pp. 90-102
Abstract

Those who educate medical students and physicians work in a world suffused with the concept of competency. This article examines the intellectual origins and hidden assumptions of this concept and argues that it is an inadequate, and even harmful, concept to use as a guiding motif for professional education. The competency model-which tends to be top-down and prescriptive-does not provide the framework for objective educational assessment that it claims to provide. The alternative apprenticeship model is more appropriate for professional education and is more consistent with what psychological research has shown about the acquisition of expertise. © 2009 by The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Keywords

Author Keywords

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Index Keywords

Teaching clinical competence human medical education psychology Humans Article Vocational education United States medical student review clinical practice professional competence scoring system educational model Models, Educational standard behavior Education, Medical, Undergraduate reimbursement Education, Medical, Graduate clinical assessment medical research priority journal diagnostic procedure medical decision making behaviorism Physician's Practice Patterns Kentucky
Author Affiliations
University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, United States
Funding & Acknowledgements
No funding information
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