Development of a core curriculum in professional growth: Practice management military model

Abstract

Military medicine has faced some big challenges in recent years. Military treatment facilities have not been exempt from these alterations, as the American public has sought to reinvent government practices with regard to medicine. Until recently, professional education consisted almost entirely of emphasis in the particular content of the chosen field. Obstetrics and gynecology was one of the first medical specialties to recognize the importance of practice management, professional growth and development, and to require exposure to it as part of the residency process. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology's instructional objectives dealing with professional growth and development originated as part of the military-unique curriculum for physicians implemented at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii. Later, these objectives were used at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. Recent changes in the health care environment, coupled with an increasing awareness of professional liability and the newer specter of managed care, force physicians to learn the cost of each health encounter and to be more familiar with the business aspects of health care. As medicine in general is changing, the curricula have been revised and tailored to the needs of our physicians with the addition of ethics, managed care, utilization, and practice management.