January 17, 2019
Hello,
One of the most important responsibilities of any medical school is to educate the next generation of physicians — MDs ready to provide the highest quality care for patients and families and to make an impact on the communities they serve. Ensuring that our graduates have a strong foundation and are prepared for the ever-changing landscape of medicine and healthcare is a difficult challenge for our educational program.
Three years ago, McGovern Medical School launched an extensively revised medical education curriculum — one that weaves the basic sciences with the human biological systems and integrates science and medicine from the early days of medical school.
I asked Dr. Patricia Butler, vice dean for educational programs, and Dr. Allison Ownby, assistant dean for faculty and educational development, to provide a primer on some of the innovative methods used to prepare our medical students.
Interprofessional Education Program
We know that we must prepare our students to excel in a collaborative, team environment. As part of the most comprehensive academic health center in The University of Texas System and the Gulf Coast region, UTHealth is leading these efforts by bringing students from several schools and disciplines together to learn to work together as a true healthcare team.
The Center for Interprofessional Collaboration is led by Drs. Jennifer Swails and Lee Revere. The Interprofessional Standardized Patient Simulation program, which was formally initiated in 2017, has several components. It is integrated into our ambulatory clerkship — teaching team and patient-centered care by helping underserved patients find resources; is part of our critical care clerkship—helping students to learn to communicate bad news and manage conflict; and is part of the transition to clerkships— with a mass casualty simulation, where students must stabilize, triage, and discharge mass casualty victims from the field and emergency room.
Simulation
Clinical skills training has come a long way since I was a medical student and we learned clinical skills by watching others and doing procedures on real patients or on each other. Simulation allows our students to observe and practice clinical tasks in our state-of-the-art surgical and clinical skills center before they interact with patients. High-tech mannequins are introduced in the first year of medical school during the cardiovascular block. Mannequins also are utilized in the third year in the neurology clerkship — depicting stroke and seizure patients — and in the internal medicine clerkship — replicating bacterial meningitis and sickle cell crisis, the latter focusing on opioid administration and overdose. Our fourth-year students learn skills using a pediatric mannequin, with exercises that treat a variety of common pediatric conditions including asthma, anaphylaxis, and diabetic ketoacidosis/altered mental status.
Innovative Pedagogy
UTHealth faculty who teach in the pre-clerkship curriculum are introducing different forms of pedagogy. Dr. Phillip Carpenter is flipping his classroom and creating active learning sessions — students watch a pre-session video on a biochemistry-themed topic and then come to class and answer several “poll everywhere” questions.
Students first answer questions individually and then discuss answers with their peers (think-pair-share). Student performance improved substantially after discussion with their peers. Of note, students like this new format, with about 90 percent participation in the sessions — in an era when students are much less likely to come to class. An after-class survey demonstrated that most students prefer active learning over traditional lectures.
Career Focus Tracks
To better prepare our students for residency, current third-year students will move into one of four Career Focus Tracks starting in May 2019. These tracks will provide structure to the students’ rotation choices, helping them prepare for the next step in their medical career. Active mentoring is a key aspect of the tracks — engaging our medical school faculty to help students navigate the residency application and interview process. Each track will have its own specialty-specific workshops and sessions. Underpinning all four tracks will be a longitudinal curriculum focused on patient safety and quality improvement.
The four tracks are:
-Primary Care (for students interested in pediatrics, internal medicine, family medicine, psychiatry, neurology, and primary care OB/GYN)
– Acute Care (for students interested in emergency medicine, anesthesia, and critical care)
– Applied Anatomy (for students interested in surgery, the surgical subspecialties, radiology, pathology, and OB/GYN)
– Academic Career (for students who have ongoing research, allowing them to complete their research projects before graduation)
Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship
In the 2019-2020 academic year, 10 third-year students will have the opportunity to participate in a new clerkship model. The longitudinal integrated clerkship is a 24-week experience primarily at LBJ outpatient clinics that will integrate internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics.
Faculty Development
To ensure our faculty remain current on the latest learning techniques, the Office of Educational Programs offers a variety of educator development activities, including a monthly series of educational development sessions, online faculty development modules, and the Health Educators Fellowship Program. Workshops can be requested to meet the needs of a particular group of faculty seeking to enhance their teaching and evaluation skills.
The new curriculum is in its third year. Our students appear to be thriving in this new curriculum, as evidenced by the initial results on their national exams. Please join me in thanking the faculty and staff who play a role in educating our students, especially the Office of Educational Programs, the Curriculum Committee, and the Office of Admissions and Student Affairs.
Warm regards,
Barbara
P.S. January is National Blood Donor Month — a reminder to all of us of the importance of a steady blood supply.
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