How does student input help the learning environment?
In the LES, students provided many pages of feedback detailing the great teaching that you have experienced at McGovern. That feedback is shared with all the clerkship faculty and residents along with Departmental Leadership. Student comments are most encouraging to the faculty and residents, reminding them of their importance to student learning. (Remembering our great learning experiences stimulates great learning environments.)
What are the basic findings from student LES Comments?
Great learning environments occur when students have autonomy coupled with supervision with their assigned teams. When the faculty and/or residents are overworked or if there are frequent changes to the team, the student’s ability to engage effectively and effortlessly with the team can be hindered. (Note: Some past students requested more frequent team changes to widen their exposure and have a better faculty: student ratio.).
How do we process your LES concerns?
In order to quickly respond to LES mistreatment reports or other concerns, all responses are first reviewed and investigated by the Health Science Center Vice President of University Relations and Equal Opportunity and the mistreatment triage team, which also monitors the mistreatment portal. Other concerns are then carefully parsed into reports for each clerkship director and their chair by us, the Directors of the Learning Environment. The reports we send them include all your responses, our suggestions for improvement, and an expectation to respond to us with their action plan before the January meeting of the Clinical Education Subcommittee.
What do the Clerkship Directors and other clinical leaders do based on your input?
First, all individuals who are named by students for lapses in professionalism or for creating a poor learning environment are coached. Second, each clinical department reviews your responses in their faculty and resident meetings. Third, the clerkship directors and their chairs develop plans to preserve and promote the great teaching that students describe and to mitigate poor learning environments.
How do students find out about the improvements they have inspired in the LES?
The clerkship directors and their chairs report their improvement steps back to the Directors of the Learning Environment, the Clinical Learning Environment Review Committee (student representatives), and the Curriculum Committee, usually within 8-10 weeks of the survey completion.