Challenges in the implementation of competencies in the preclinical years of Medicine: Academic factors.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe and analyze the challenges presented in the attempt to change from a traditional teaching of medicine to one that introduced the competencies in basic sciences. Methods: For this purpose our interdisciplinary group of teachers designed some strategies and materials that were utilized by professors of five basic disciplines and were evaluated by a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis methodology. And were presented here as challenges, solutions and what we learned. Results: Among the challenges identified we found the predominance of traditional teaching; complexity and duration of the strategies employed; students’ opposition to participate in extra-curricular activities, and the need to design appropriate instruments to assess competencies in large groups of students. Conclusions: To answer to this situation we proposed workshops for teachers in competencies, supervised by experts to achieve a new model of teaching based on competencies.