Curriculum Committee Minutes – October 25, 2005
Present: Dr. David Caro, Dr. Mike Chen, Dr. Richard Davidson, Dr. John Meuleman, Dr. Sigurd Normann, Dr. Maureen Novak, Dr. Louis Ritz, Dr. Colin Sumners, Dr. Kyle Rarey, Dr. Lynn Romwell, Omarya Marrero, Dr. Robert Watson, Dr. Wayne Bottom, Cynthia Karle, Dr. Beverly Vidauretta, Dr. Heather Harrell, Dr. Andrew Kaunitz, Dr. Richard Rathe, Dr. Robert Averbuch
Announcements: First year student Omarya Marrero reported that the students were working well with Unit 2.
Dr. Watson stated that all plans are in place for the Carnegie Visit, November 15-16 at UF and November 17 in Jacksonville. He states that they are really trying to learn the best practices and stated that it will be interesting to see what comes out of it. He reports they have already been to Mayo and the University of Washington and notes they have a lot of interest in Business Based Budgeting.
Dr. Watson stated that the College of Medicine component of international health will be run out of Dr. Davidson’s office and Dr. Rob Lawrence will be the faculty contact for the students, working with them on all of the mission trips that they take, which will be important. Dr. Watson also states that we’ve developed our standards for ED2, the LCME tracking of medical student patient contact. He also noted that Dr. Harrell has agreed to develop plans for the fourth year curriculum. He stated the Harrell Center expansion is moving along briskly.
Dr. Watson states we are making a change in the PBE oversight, that is the oversight of the four performance-based evaluations that our students take, which should make the Harrell Center particularly functional with the addition of simulators. He announced that Dr. Juan Cendan will take over as chair of the PBE oversight committee and medical director of the Harrell Center. Dr. Watson is going over tomorrow to visit the Simulator center in Jacksonville, which will be approximately 12000 sq. ft in size. It will be multi-college, residency, students, faculty, and nursing. Dr. Caro reported that the Simulator Center in Jacksonville is being used now for residency training. Dr. Watson reported that money has been put in the budget for the University of Florida to buy an OB simulator and they are also going to buy a lumbar puncture simulator among others that can be used in the expanded Harrell Center. Dr. Watson stated that there are 32 computers that will be used for computerized testing at Jacksonville.
Dr. Davidson stated that at the beginning of the year he talked about the educational principles and stated that most members that have been here for a while know that our curriculum is guided by 12 educational principles that were passed by the Curriculum Committee some time ago (1997). Each principle includes goals and objectives. In looking over the goals and objectives, it was realized that they really have not been updated, whereas we feel the educational principles hold up very well today. Therefore, a number of members have been working on updating the goals and objectives for those principles. Copies of the educational principles plus the goals and objectives were passed around today and he’d like each member to give some input by e-mail to him or Dr. Watson if there are changes or suggestions. He pointed out that the 12 principles have already been approved by the Curriculum Committee. The updated goals and objectives will be discussed at the next Curriculum Committee meeting. He wanted to make sure the Curriculum Committee is aware of the principles and goals and objectives, and reports that it is very important for LCME purposes that each member be aware of what is being talked about when someone talks about the educational principles.
Dr. Davidson stated that at the final Curriculum Committee meeting last year, Drs. Ritz and Rarey presented a proposal based on the Harris Report and raised the issue of grade distribution and criteria for grading of students. The proposal outlines a suggested grade distribution for a typical class. He noted that the Harris Report took place before we had a competency-based curriculum and stated that we are trying to readdress these issues at this time. Based on the Evaluation Subcommittee proposal, we are going to decide whether we want to avoid the issue altogether and do away with the generalities of the Harris Report or update it so it’s more appropriate.
It was questioned how stringent to be regarding the new proposal and how it would be monitored. Everyone was in agreement that there would need to be consistency. It was determined in the Evaluation Criteria Subcommittee meeting that an item analysis of test questions should be included in the annual course reports submitted to the Evaluation Subcommittee.
It was stated that there is a need to discriminate in competency evaluation as well as grades. Dr. Kaunitz stated that he felt that the students who did not do as well should be notified as soon as possible because they are often shocked when they are told they’re not doing as well as they thought they were. It was brought up that the students were sometimes not contacted for up to 8 weeks due to having to wait for the final comments from the faculty. He says it is a disservice to students that are awarded a B when they deserved a C. Dr. Meuleman agreed and felt that mandating a small percentage of C’s was a feasible way to increase discrimination. Dr. Kaunitz stated that faculty will avoid giving C’s because it will mean more work for them, but Dr. Davidson pointed out that the course and clerkship directors assign grades, not the routine faculty, and if C’s were mandated, it would result in pressure on the clerkship or course director to select out a C performance when there was a chance that it hadn’t occurred. It was noted that direct pressure was put on the Clerkship and Course Directors if they assigned students a C, knowing the students would have to come before the Academic Status Committee. It was pointed out that there was a difference in students who rarely received C’s and those who consistently received C’s, which demonstrates the importance of our role in mandating that there is discrimination. Dr. Watson stated that as long as a grade is based on academic performance, mandating a certain percentage of C’s may not be right.
Dr. Rarey pointed out that this system allows for flexibility and can be evolved from here and moved forward. He states that from here we can begin to implement the proposal and work together as a team to make sure it works. Dr. Davidson stated that this discussion be will continued at the next meeting.
Meeting adjourned at 9:10am