Curriculum Committee Minutes - April 26, 2005
Present: Caro, Davidson, Subbiah, Romrell, Arnold, Normann, Vidaurreta, Paulson, Meuleman, Watson, karle, Burchfield, Harrell, Chen, Butson, Kaunitz, Rarey, Hatch, Sumners, Bottom, Gold, Wallace, Rathe, Gulig, Allen, Romrell
Guest: Bob Bhavin, student, Maryam Rahman, MS4
Student members all indicated that the classes were doing well and were counting down the weeks left in their courses.
Dr. Kaunitz updated the members that in Jacksonville the proton bean facility is taking shape. Additionally there are several active searches for chairs, including Internal Medicine. Dr. Watson remarked that planning for the 50th anniversary celebration was in full swing and that elections of junior honors were finalized. Dr. Rarey announced that Medical Education Week begins the following Monday with seminars and noon and invited all members to attend.
The IFH program was site visited by representatives of the AAMC, AACP and AACN for two days. The IFH program represents one of only four successful interprofessional education efforts in the US based on input received by the site visitors.
Maryam Rahman, MS4
Cultural competency Presentation - Click for slide show.
Faculty comments: Many of our students come from relatively sheltered backgrounds. There is a great risk in oversimplifying the issue, at least part of which may be due to lack of education on the part of patients. We should put forth efforts to make sure that students understand the level of comprehension of their patients, and not make assumptions about what they understand. Training students to be proactive in this regard would be worthwhile. Maryam added that the group discussions focus on privilege: who is and who isn't, and this may be more appropriate for a title as opposed to racism. Faculty applauded the group for acknowledging racial issues. Dr. Vidaurreta asked why it should be the student's responsibility to air this issue, indicating that we, as a college, should be doing this. Dr. Meuleman indicated that this could be enhanced in EPC 3 and 4. It was also added that we teach the students to reach out to the elderly, and ethnic groups, etc. Dr. Hatch stated that he received several compliments on students who did these racism workshops.
by Lynn J. Romrell, Ph.D.
Update (click to see charts)
Our students continue to perform at a very high level on these external measures. Recent changes in the recruitment process has resulted in classes with higher entering MCAT scores, and this is felt to be a major reason for the higher performance. There are some concerns about the more average performance on Step 2 and clinical subject exam scores, relative to Step 1 scores. Part of this may relate to the lack of a passing grade on Step 2 being a a requirement for graduation. Students need to be reminded that Step 2 is important and that it is important to leave time to study for it.
A discussion about the relative merits of setting higher academic standards and whether this might exclude some excellent and less traditional students took place. It was pointed out that performance on external measures is only one important outcome of the educational process. Others include the surveys which are sent to program directors of our students after graduation.
Meeting adjourned at 9:05 a.m.