Transition from Undergraduate to Postgraduate Medical Education: A Scoping Review

The purpose of this scoping review was to explore the published literature and identify potential future educational research questions and activities regarding senior year curriculum in United States (U.S.) medical schools. In particular, we focus on the transition between final year of medical school and residency, identifying trends in competency-based practices. A structured, five-step approach was used to conduct this scoping review. Electronic searches of PubMed, ERIC, Scopus, MedEdPortal and eight medical education journals were conducted to identify relevant articles published in 2006-2017. Among 6,485 articles retrieved, 817 articles were included in the study. From 2007-2011 to 2012-2016, articles addressing the final year of medical school increased 93%, whereas articles describing internship preparatory courses increased 218%. While the majority of articles did not use a competency-based medical education (CBME) framework (572/817, 70%), the frequency of its description increased 268% from 2007-2011 to 2012-2016. Nearly three- quarters of preparatory course-related papers included use of or direct reference to a CBME framework (37/50, 74%). Most of articles did not associate with a single discipline (481/817; 59%). This scoping review identified substantial increase in recent publications on the final year and transition between medical school and residency. These results reflect a recent curricular paradigm shift in medical education from a traditional to competency-based education model.