Teaching faculty experiences on CBME curriculum in pharmacology – A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study

Background: Many studies were conducted in India among the teaching faculties to understand the challenges before the implementation of new competency-based medical education (CBME) curriculum. Studies assessing the experiences and the challenges faced after its implementation are limited. Aim and Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the experiences and the challenges faced by the teaching faculties in different medical colleges across India while implementing the new CBME curriculum in pharmacology for the MBBS batch 2019–20 students. Materials and Methods: A 19 item pre-validated questionnaire was shared to faculties through Google Forms with most of the questions having three options for answers, namely, “Agree,” “Disagree,” and “Not sure.” The time-period provided for answering the questions was 2 weeks. The data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel sheet using descriptive statistics. Results: Majority of the faculties 56 (61.5%) do not agree with national medical commission in terms of number of teaching faculty and infrastructure to implement the CBME curriculum in pharmacology. About 56 (61.5%) of the faculties felt that the number of teaching hours recommended in the CBME curriculum for pharmacology are inadequate to cover all the competencies. Seventy-eight (85.7%) felt that the implementation of CBME curriculum for the 2019–20 batch MBBS students was impacted by COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: Although faculty development programs played a crucial role in sensitizing faculties to implement CBME curriculum, subject specific problems do persist and the faculties need to motivate themselves to suggest ways to resolve them.