 Medical Student Education Mission Our mission is to provide a scientifically based educational program and environment that prepares graduating physicians to enter any endeavor in medicine. Vision The University
of Cincinnati College of Medicine envisions medical student education as
an integrated, systematic, and student-centered learning process rooted
in the principles of both population based and patient-centered medical
care. As graduates, each student will possess:
To envision what changes in medical education are necessary, we have compared the present characteristics of medical education with those necessary to educate the physician of the future: Present Characteristics
of Medical Education
1. Increase learning
by incorporating contemporary pedagogical teaching strategies into the
curriculum for medical students.
It is our goal to decrease hours devoted to lectures and to increase opportunities for other types of learning. Effects of changes in the curriculum will be monitored by outcome measures and analyses of costs so that we can retain strategies which enhance student performance and are cost effective.
As the teaching of medicine has changed—methods, locations, content—so also must we change the process of evaluating our students, curriculum, administrative and educational policies. We will implement systematic assessment of students’ clinical skills and behavior with timely feedback aimed to correct deficiencies. We will benchmark student performance against national norms and emphasize problem solving with diverse databases. We will also develop methods of objective evaluation of student experiences in all core clerkships across the various training sites. These sites are distributed among several different institutions within our region and require continuous monitoring and re-educating of both full and part-time/volunteer faculty to assure uniform quality assessment and evaluation of our students. Though decentralization of instruction of our students obviously results in the mandatory partial decentralization of evaluations, the College must be extremely sensitive to the fact that evaluation must be uniform and centralized to a significant degree.3. Define knowledge and competencies expected of our students. Core knowledge and competencies expected of students must be defined using as benchmarks the generally similar recommendations of the AAMC, the LCME, and the NBME. The curriculum will be audited regularly using our curricular database to reduce redundancy and to identify areas of deficiency for correction. Financial models for support of medical education and reward of faculty will be further refined to encourage innovation, small group interactive instruction, and interdisciplinary teaching. We must seek optimal ways to utilize our large, distributed health system for clinical teaching while maintaining and documenting quality education under the control of the full time faculty of the medical college. The full time faculty of the College is responsible to the Board of Trustees of the University and to accrediting bodies for the education of students who are to receive the MD degree from the University.4. Educate physicians who can apply information from the basic sciences to clinical problems. Focus will be upon integration of basic and clinical sciences throughout the medical curriculum. We will begin with the Year I and II curricula with the aim of developing and implementing an integrated Year I and II experience. We will utilize a Task Force and outside consultants to facilitate planning and management of the new Year I-II experience. Opportunities for more extensive application of basic science to clinical problems within the clinical biennium will be sought through pilot projects such as our integrated curriculum in the neurosciences.5. Incorporate the concept of a longitudinal curriculum into medical education in specific content areas. There are many topics that must be effectively incorporated within all years of the medical curriculum. Some of these topical areas are: Epidemiology, Evidence-based Medicine, Cost Effective Medicine, Prevention and Wellness, Ethics, Cultural Competence, Information Technology, Women’s Health, Child Health, Substance Abuse, Interpersonal Violence, Genetics, Geriatrics, Nutrition, Environmental Health, Occupational Medicine, Cancer, Tobacco Control, and Law and Medicine.6. Educate students who utilize information technology effectively. Effective use of informational technology throughout the curriculum will be key to thinking independently, and being life long learners. Information technology will be utilized effectively in the curriculum to reduce dependence on lectures, to encourage problem solving, and to conduct both self directed and formal evaluation of knowledge.7. Have a faculty with excellent teaching skills. Our basic science and clinical faculty will need to adapt their methods of teaching to utilize advances in educational technology. As clinical education becomes more decentralized in our health system, more dependence will be placed on part-time faculty, many of whom are not experienced teachers. These faculty will need special attention, if they are to become and remain effective teachers. It is crucial that the College of Medicine and its faculty remain responsible for the education of its students. The departments must remain involved in certifying part-time clinical teachers who will instruct medical students at various sites. The Office of Medical Education will annually conduct systematic evaluation of all courses and teaching to provide feedback to course directors, instructors, department directors, and curriculum committees.8. Have residents who are excellent teachers. Residents provide a significant amount of instruction to and evaluation of students. Although they generally have not been trained to teach, many are eager to improve their skills.9. Establish an atmosphere of professionalism and provide role models for students. Students learn to be physicians in part by observing more senior physicians in action. Physician behavior can be improved by better definition of expectations and formal examination of the ethical and historical base of the profession.Measurable Benchmarks of Success in Medical Student Education 1. A curricular Task Force will evaluate the Years I and II curriculum and recommend changes to be fully implemented by the 1999 academic year. 2. Objective evaluation of students’ clinical skills and behavior will be implemented by the 1999 academic year. 3. Objective evaluation of student experiences in all core clerkships across the various training sites will be implemented by the 1999 academic year. 4. Greater than 96% of First Takers will pass parts I and II of the USMLE and greater than 25% will rank among the top 20% of First Takers nationally. 5. All students will be computer literate and capable of utilizing information systems appropriately by the 1999 academic year. |
