Strategic Plan for Education
Education – Goal 1
The medical school will prepare students to provide outstanding patient-centered care, while exhibiting the highest principles of professionalism and integrity in their responsibilities to patients and to the communities that they serve.
This goal will be achieved through objectives in the following four areas: content, pedagogy, assessment, and student development.
• Perform rigorous and routinely scheduled reviews of the three curriculum phases (pre-clerkship, clerkship, and career focus tracks), as well as the curriculum as a whole, identifying opportunities and enacting improvements to ensure optimal outcomes for our graduates. • By 2024, the three-year periodic review cycle of the curriculum will be established and fully implemented by the Curriculum Committee.
Objective 1 – Enhance the educational program through continuous quality improvement, curriculum integration, and expanded instruction in interprofessional education.
Strategies
• Enhance longitudinal themes and ensure integration of these themes throughout the curriculum.
• Expand opportunities for interprofessional educational (IPE) activities in the medical school curriculum.
• Complete the mapping of session-level objectives within the required curriculum.
• Integrate cross-cultural clinical skills into the curriculum.Outcomes
• By 2024, interprofessional community service-based learning will be incorporated into the curriculum.
• By 2025, students will be exposed to all longitudinal themes in each of the four years of the curriculum.
• By 2025, all IPE sessions will include students from at least three UTHealth Houston schools.
• By 2025, 100% of the objectives for individual sessions of the required curriculum will be mapped.
• Student performance on USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK will continue to be above average national levels.
• By 2027, demonstrate the effectiveness of the newly integrated social justice longitudinal curriculum through improved student perception that they are prepared to care for patients with different backgrounds.
• Diversify methods of pedagogy to encourage active and self-directed learning by students. • By 2024, 100% of pre-clerkship educational activities will be mapped to a pedagogical method.
Objective 2 – Incorporate interactive teaching strategies and emerging medical technologies throughout the curriculum.
Strategies
• Increase use of standardized patients and technology, including ultrasound and simulation exercises, for instruction and assessment.
• Expand the teaching of informatics and the electronic health record into the pre-clerkship curriculumOutcomes
• By 2025, 100% of required clinical clerkships will utilize simulation exercises.
• By 2026, 100% of pre-clerkship system modules will have integrated simulation sessions.
• By 2026, active learning sessions using the academic instance of the University’s Electronic Health Record will be implemented throughout the pre-clerkship curriculum.
• By 2027, specific instruction in decision support software will be included in the pre-clerkship curriculum.
• By 2027, 75% of pre-clerkship educational activities will utilize an active learning/self-directed learning format.
Objective 3 – Expand assessment techniques throughout the curriculum.
Strategies
Enhance student preparation for Step 2 CK additional self-assessment opportunities.
Review current formative and summative evaluation strategies to identify additional opportunities for narrative assessment.
Identify strategies to improve the quality and quantity of student feedback.
Outcomes
By 2024, the Comprehensive Clinical Science Self-Assessment will be implemented for all rising fourth year students.
By 2024, pre-clerkship assessment strategies, and identify additional opportunities for narrative assessment and formative feedback will be reviewed.
By 2026, the assessments strategies for the Clerkship and Career Focus Track rotations will be reviewed to ensure our students are receiving necessary and meaningful feedback on their performance.
Objective 4 – Increase opportunities for student academic and career enrichment
Strategies
• Encourage student participation in dual- degree programs (e.g. MD/PhD, MD/MPH, MD/MBA, MD/MS).
• Encourage student participation in scholarly activities (e.g. Summer Research Program, Scholarly Concentration Program, student fellowship programs).
• Streamline the process for students to engage in research and scholarship.
• Improve opportunities for student participation in quality improvement initiatives.
• Support student participation in community service and advocacy activities.
• Support initiatives that promote health equity.
• Increase the number of training grant applications and awards to support student research and related travel.
• Encourage mentorship for first generation/low income students.
• Create additional leadership opportunities for educational outreach and community service.
• Expand existing cross-cultural awareness fairs and activities.
Outcomes
• By 2025, 100% of students will participate in community service and advocacy activities by time of graduation.
• By 2026, 5% of students will graduate in one of the offered dual-degree programs.
• By 2026, more than 85% of students, based on the AAMC Graduation Questionnaire will participate in a research project with faculty during their time at McGovern.
• By 2027, expand participation in the UTHealthLeads MMS fellowship.
Education – Goal 2
The medical school will provide an environment in all settings that supports student learning, encourages collaboration, and promotes positive professional and educational relationships among students, residents and faculty.
Objective 1 – Enhance the development of faculty and residents as educators
Strategies
• Provide educational development activities to support faculty and residents in implementing novel teaching methods.
• Enhance documentation of educational efforts and expertise among faculty involved in medical education using an educator portfolio system.
• Increase utilization of peer coaching as a means to provide formative feedback to faculty on their educational skills.
• Align funding support for dedicated teaching time for faculty with significant roles in medical education.
• Expand the visibility, activities, and active faculty participants of the McGovern Medical School Academy of Master Educators.
• Promote educational scholarship through faculty educational opportunities, infrastructure, and financial resources.
• Develop a speaker series that addresses clinical skills, research, and health equity
• Identify funding to sponsor faculty attendance at national, regional, and local career development conferences and training.
• Develop conference to support learner transition into academic medicine.
Outcomes
• By 2024, the “Interprofessional Insights” Speaker Series (assessed by tracking attendance by faculty, staff, and student participants) will increase by 10%.
• By 2024, a school-wide award for faculty recognizing leadership, research, and service promoting equity and equal opportunity will be created.
• By 2027, sponsor at least 18 faculty to actively engage in professional development by attending national and institutional leadership and development workshops.
• By 2026, 90% of the PBL facilitators will participate in targeted educational development activities to enhance PBL facilitation.
• By 2026, 90% of faculty involved in teaching pre-clerkship modules will participate in targeted educational development activities to improve teaching effectiveness.
• By 2027, at least 100 faculty and residents will participate in educational development workshops related to effective teaching and feedback skills each year.
• By 2027, at least 60% of departments and divisions in MMS will participate in educational development activities to support their faculty and residents’ professional growth.
• By 2027, at least 5 medical students will complete the Medical Education Scholarly Concentration each year and 100% will have teaching opportunities by co-presenting an educational development workshop with an OEP faculty.
• By 2027, 20 faculty and residents will use the consultation services for peer coaching, educational research, and curriculum design each year.
• By 2027, 10 McGovern Medical School faculty will graduate from the Health Educators Fellowship Program (HEFP) in each cohort.
• By 2027, 40 residents will graduate from the Physician Educators Certificate Program (PECP) in each cohort.
• By 2027, 20 faculty will graduate from the Community of Medical Education Scholars (CoMES) in each cohort.
• By 2027, there will be 120 active members in the Academy of Master Educators.
Objective 2 – The medical school will foster a positive learning environment to support student learning and well-being.
Strategies
• Review, update and share faculty-student compact for appropriate student treatment in collaboration with students, Office of Admissions and Student Affairs (OASA) and the Office of Educational Programs (OEP).
• Increase interactive sessions offered through the Office of Professionalism and Office of Educational Programs for faculty and residents related to optimizing the learning environment and professionalism.
• Use multiple modalities to widely publicize to students of the multiple venues for students to anonymously report mistreatment.
• Increase sessions for students related to expectations for the clinical learning environment.
• Continually close the loop between administration and students related to mistreatment reports.
• Increase communication and collaboration with hospital partners to promote a shared responsibility for a positive learning environment.
• Conduct regularly scheduled Town Halls for student engagement.
• Publicly celebrate faculty and staff who work to provide positive learning environment experiences.
• Work with Academic Success Initiatives senior learning specialists to identify resources to promote student success.
• Highlight our commitment to social professionalism, excellence, and innovation via media outlets, print materials, and informational sessions during the recruitment and interview process.
Outcomes
• By 2025, there will be a 10% increase in the workshops and resources offered to faculty and residents centered around creating a positive learning environment.
• By 2027, there will be a 2% reduction in incidents of mistreatment as identified in the learning environment survey.
• By 2027, student reporting of mistreatment on AAMC Graduation Questionnaire for McGovern Medical School will be below the national average.
• By 2027, the AAMC Graduation Questionnaire will show increased student satisfaction with the learning environment.
• By 2027, regular monitoring of learning environment will occur bi-annually with hospital partners and Directors of the Learning Environment, with mistreatment being monitored jointly by the Office of Professionalism and the Office of Admissions and Student Affairs. Regular reports reviewed by clinical learning environment review committee (CLERC).
• By 2027, students from all four classes will participate in all quarterly Town Halls with medical school leadership.
• By 2027, regular recognition of faculty, staff, residents, and students who make positive contributions to the learning environment will occur on an annual basis.
Oversight
The Curriculum Committee has overall responsibility for monitoring the outcomes of the strategic plan for education. The plan will be reviewed by the Curriculum Committee biannually to determine goal achievement.
Working groups meeting semi-annually monitor progress in achieving outcomes related to the strategies, and identify aspects of the curriculum with opportunities for quality improvement.
Revisions to the plan will be made on a four-year cycle as necessary to meet the strategic plan’s goals and objectives. Curriculum Committee subcommittees are responsible for continuous evaluation of the curriculum and ongoing quality improvement activities.