Evaluating the effectiveness of curriculum change. Is there a difference between graduating student outcomes from two different curricula?

BACKGROUND: Changing a curriculum raises the question whether the results, new curriculum student outcomes, are different from old curriculum student outcomes. AIMS: To see whether different curricula produce different outcomes, we compared test and questionnaire results of two cohorts. We wanted to know if there is a difference on knowledge and skills test results, and on the number of times students practiced their skills during their final internships. METHOD: We used two validated test instruments: the Dutch Progress Test (PT) and the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). For reporting their skills practice, we asked students of both cohorts to fill out a basic skills questionnaire. RESULTS: We found no significant difference between both cohorts on the results of their knowledge test and their report on skills practice. On the OSCE, students from the new curriculum cohort scored significantly higher than old curriculum students. CONCLUSION: Curriculum change can lead to improvements in graduating students' outcome results.