Objective and Structured Clinical Examination (ECOE)

By: Neylin Calderón

The University of the Autonomous Regions of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast (URACCAN), in coordination with the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN-León), conduct, for the first time, the "Objective and Structured Clinical Examination" (ECOE) to students of the sixth year of the Intercultural Medicine career of the Bilwi campus.

According to Dr. Jorge Alemán, dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of UNAN-León, a group of teachers from this university and URACCAN have worked for several months to perform "An evaluation through an examination... basically to be able to evaluate, to be able to measure competencies that have medical students who are already ready to finish their academic pensum and who go to the internship program," he argued.

The dean also emphasized that the main purpose is to be able to objectively evaluate the educational model that is being implemented in classrooms in universities, "This helps to be able to adjust some important aspects of the pensum, of the development of the curriculum so that students are getting better every day," the German doctor emphasized.

Creating professionals committed to the vindication of the culture of peoples

It should be noted that, since the organization process, simulated patients have been established, where the 19 students to be evaluated will detect the pathologies that are supposed to present at the time of the consultation, "Where we evaluate not only the knowledge of future doctors, but also the procedures that must be performed to make diagnoses, behavior and attitude, those values that must be implemented when caring for a patient" , said Dr. Marilú Rodríguez, a URACCAN teacher.

In this sense, URACCAN for 10 years created the Bachelor's Degree in Intercultural Medicine in the Bilwi campus, creating professionals committed to the claim of the culture of indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and mestizos of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, that is why Dr. Rodríguez stated that this evaluation is not a work to fulfill this activity " "It's a 6-year job, since they started the race and we're pretty sure it's going to be a success," he said.

Institutional articulation to strengthen Higher Education

Finally, Dr. Jorge Alemán, stressed that the articulation of work between URACCAN and UNAN-León, has been excellent, "For many years we looked at the need for this region to establish a university, also began to caress the idea of also establishing a medical school and that was the mission that the Unan-León had with its authorities to be able to come , to be able to support, to be able to create the pensum and gradually strengthen the support we had with teachers and materials, so that medical school is getting better every day," he concluded.