Actionable companion · School leadership and instructional improvement

From leadership research to district action: Predictors of Perceived Educational Relevance: A Regression Analysis Based on Teaching CanMEDS Roles

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide. Proposed district actions are separate from the original authors’ findings and recommendations. Independent peer review of this guide is not asserted.

Evidence and transfer

Education-related source: verify which participants, institutions and outcomes were actually studied before district adoption. Source publication type: research-article. License and identity checks do not establish study quality or causality.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the source license:

Introduction The CanMEDS framework, originally developed for postgraduate training, has also been adopted in undergraduate medical education. Evaluating how well undergraduate training prepares graduates for clinical work is one way to assess its success. Materials and methods This study examined how Finnish doctors perceive the correspondence between their undergraduate education and their current work, and how the teaching of CanMEDS roles and other factors are associated with these evaluations. Data came from the Finnish nationwide Physician 2023 survey (response rate 49%). Of the 4882 respondents, 1240 had graduated between 2014 and 2023 and comprised the study group. Respondents assessed satisfaction with hospital and health centre training and with the teaching of the seven CanMEDS roles. Binary logistic regression was used to examine associations with perceived correspondence between undergraduate education and current work. Results About 45% of respondents reported that their education corresponded well to their work. Nearly 80% were satisfied with hospital training, while only slightly more than half were satisfied with health centre training. The regression model explained 30% (Nagelkerke R2) of the variance in perceived correspondence, with a correct classification rate of 71%. Teaching of Medical knowledge (OR = 3.70, 95% CI [2.35–5.84]) showed the strongest association. Communication skills, Health Advocacy, and Leadership and Management skills were not significantly associated with perceived preparedness. Conclusions Finnish doctors’ perceptions of undergraduate education aligning with work were strongly linked to the teaching of medical knowledge and lifelong learning. Hospital training contributed more to perceived preparedness than health centre training. Several CanMEDS roles showed limited association with preparedness.

A 90-day district inquiry

1. Days 1–15 · Appraise. Read the source methods, recruitment, comparator, outcomes and limitations. Record how the study setting differs from your district and which claim the design can support.
2. Days 16–30 · Design. Choose one school improvement question with teachers. Protect a short shared planning cycle, agree an instructional change and use a common rubric for examining student work. Agree participation, privacy protections, baseline and stopping rules before starting.
3. Days 31–60 · Observe. Collect the pre-agreed measures, keep a log of implementation changes and invite confidential voluntary feedback. Preserve existing support for staff and learners.
4. Days 61–90 · Decide. Review implementation fidelity, teacher time and independently scored student work against a recorded baseline. Examine access differences and competing explanations before attributing changes to leadership. Make a dated decision to stop, revise or extend the inquiry.

Board decision brief

Present the local problem, source setting, evidence limits, intervention, responsible owner, total cost, measured changes and uncertainty. Separate staff perceptions, implementation measures and student learning outcomes.

Attribution and reuse

Verneri Hannula; Lari Lehtovirta; Petri Kulmala; Markku Sumanen. Predictors of Perceived Educational Relevance: A Regression Analysis Based on Teaching CanMEDS Roles. Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development (2026-01-01). https://doi.org/10.1177/23821205251407752

Prepared 2026-11-07. Source authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract and source passages are attributed extracts; this editorial guide is offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license.