ARE THE BASIC SCIENCES A CRUCIAL PART OF THE UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM?

** Poster Award Nominee

Hettie Till¹ and Douglas Lawson², ¹Undergraduate Education, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC), Toronto, Ontario M2H 3J1 Canada,

²4832 26 Ave NE, Calgary, Alberta, T1Y 1C9, CANADA

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Basic Science results obtained by students at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) predict success on the Canadian Chiropractic Examining Board (CCEB) examinations.

Methods

An independent researcher combined CMCC and CCEB data by student name and then anonymized the data and destroyed the linking information.  Backward stepwise multiple linear regressions were applied to external dependent variables from the CCEB and internal independent variables from the CMCC.  Courses selected to be included in the regression analyses were Years I and II Anatomy, Body Mechanics, Biochemistry, Histology, Immunology, Microbiology, Neuroanatomy, Neuroscience, and Physiology.

Results

Forty-one percent of the variance in the CCEB Basic Science examination (R² = .405), forty-five percent of the variance in the CCEB Applied Science examination (R² = .350), thirty percent of the variance in the CCEB Clinical Decision Making examination (R² = .241), forty-five percent of the variance in the CCEB Diagnostic Imaging examination (R² = .394), and sixteen percent of the CCEB Clinical Skills OSCE (R² = .117) was explained by the independent variables of CMCC Years I and II Basic Science results.

Conclusion

The fact that Basic Science knowledge explained a fair portion of the variance in the CCEB Basic Science examination was perhaps not surprising.  However, the reasonable R² results obtained in the other four regressions appear to indicate that the Basic Science knowledge obtained in the first two years of the four-year program is crucial for solving clinical problems.