Curriculum Committee Minutes – November 23, 2004

 

 

Present:  Harrell, Hatch, Sumners, Romrell, Watson, Kaunitz, Meuleman, Butson, Chen, Beth, Genuardi, Wallace, Burchfield, Vidauretta, Nicole, Rarey, (Margie McGarva recording)

 

Guests:  Dr. Stephen Nadeau, Neurology Clerkship Director, Gainesville and Juan Ochoa, Neurology Clerkship Director for Jacksonville

 

Announcements:

 

Dr. Genuardi:

Jacksonville residency program approved for next year

Dr.  Romrell:

December NBME scores from clinical skills exam announced in early December

Bigger class next year (135 first years)

Meeting with facilities planning to accommodate class size

                       

            Watson:

Final report on education policy went Board of Governors last Thursday

7 proposals sent to bog;

(1) Legislature should fund a database of physicians; where they are; specialties, scope of practice;

(2) use database for future physician work force;

(3) more residency positions need to be created in the state of Fl;

(4) state should fund those residency positions at no less than 1/2 the direct cost and targeted to the state’s critical needs;

(5) state should fund its loan forgiveness program for student debt and student service;

(6)   after residency programs are created and loan forgiveness provided, consider expanding med school capacity;

(7) should be in form of increased class size, creating regional campuses, bldg

new medical schools; prioritize cost effectiveness;

           

 

Comments on the AAMC Annual November Meeting

 

Several attendees discussed sessions they attended at the AAMC meeting in Boston, including presentations concerning academic health centers providing for their communities, and expansion of the fourth year with some "specializatio" tracks being implemented. .

 

Stephen Nadeau guest speaker on lengthening the Neurology Clerkship to 3 weeks

 

• 20% of patients have neurological problems
• Neurology only provides sustained clinical experience in neurology during medical school and residency for 95% of medical students.

Clerkship is 2 weeks.

 

What are they doing right now?

·      Neurology clerkship

·      inpatient and outpatient experience in GNV/Jax

·      7 clinical problems sets

·      locally written clerkship text focused on the needs of the generalist

 

Problem with current clerkship

Students rate as too short

            In carrying out clinical responsibilities, required reading, solving problem sets and preparing for tests

            Workload complaints

            Time pressure limits opportunity to use reference material and med literature

            8 1/2 days is not enough time to learn principles of neurology

            need for 3^rd week to consolidate what they have learned

            time pressure compromises our ability to adequately evaluate these students

 

A New, 3-week Clerkship

• Remain in the IGC rotation
• Excellent working relationship with IC leadership
• Compatibility of substance of teaching
• Promotes preservation of 7 seminars devoted to discussion of clinical problem sets
• Provides students the opportunity to further consolidate knowledge and skills in neurology during 4rth yr

 

• GNV (increase from 3 to 5 students)
• Add 1 week outpatient rotation, facilitated by recent increase in neurology faculty and expansion of neurology clinics

 

• JAX (increase from 2 to 3 students)
• Students can be accommodated by existing inpatient rotation-outpatient consult service rotation format
• Coordination of student clinical rotations in GNV and Jax by designated staff member

 

 

Making a 3-week clerkship a reality

 

1. New clerkship director, Bayard Miller will join our faculty in Jan and will assume directorship in July
2. I will continue to contribute to keeping didactic materials current and will provide consultative support

 

Dr. Watson commented that the great strengths in neurology are the residents teaching.

Jax will follow that model according to Dr. Ochoa.  Dr. Romrell remarked that the students think their neurology clerkship is a positive thing.

 

Several questions came up:

Are there adequate faculty for the students?

 

How will this impact family medicine/geriatrics?

We are expanding geriatrics faculty at present and this will take place over next year. Based on the report of the Geriatrics Curriculum Subcommittee, Dr. Davidson and Dr. Meuleman have discussed the possibility of increasing the geriatric content in the curriculum to 3 weeks, with one week in the current location with neurology and ambulatory medicine, and a 2 week immersion experience in the fourth year, to be possibly paired with anesthesiology (which is a 2 week rotation).

 

Dr. Harrell states that we have to watch for marginalization of the educational content. Dr. Hatch felt that there would be no loss of appropriate content.

 

Dr. Hatch made a motion to suggest neurology expand to 3 weeks,, replacing one of the weeks of geriatrics; at the same time, the motion specifically expanded geriatrics, by adding a two week required rotation in the fourth year, the content of which will to be decided by Dr. Meuleman and the new geriatric faculty. Dr. Harrell seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

 

The next meeting of the Curriculum committee will be on December 14.  After the first of the year, the meetings will be the 4^th Tuesday of each  month unless the 2^nd Tuesday is needed.