Greetings - I hope everyone will have the chance to catch their breath this weekend. The other day in this thread I mentioned the work we had been doing to optimize the transition of our students away from the clinical environment and leverage their desire to help while still learning about other professional skills using the preparation and response to this pandemic as the backdrop.
Below is a high level outline for a course that our Class of 2021 and 2022 will be enrolled in for April and May (potentially June depending upon outbreak progression). It includes the course objectives, teaching methods including service learning and assessment strategies. We do have some of these details fleshed out but still some work to do before launch on April 6. Finally, we have partnered with our College of Public Health and will approach all other health professions Colleges (they are in the same boat) as we believe this could be done in interprofessional teams as well.
Course Objectives
- Link the characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to its clinical manifestations, method of transmission, complications, and treatment
- Summarize the potential impact that social determinants of health have on the spread of emerging infectious diseases
- Apply ethical principles to decisions related to the care of patients, communities, and societies affected by outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases
- Evaluate the impact of local, state, and national policy decisions on the spread of emerging infectious diseases
- Summarize the components of an effective disaster preparedness plan and the physician's role within it
- Plan for potential mental, spiritual, and social consequences that affliction with or strategies to mitigate emerging infectious diseases may engender
- Compare and contrast the response to the current pandemic to that utilized in past outbreaks or other countries
- Reconcile advice for social distancing with professional obligations to care for patients
- Describe the positive and negative roles that traditional and social media can play in managing emerging infectious diseases
- Contribute to the response to and recover from the current pandemic in the health system or community through service learning
Course Delivery
This course will be delivered in an online fashion, with the exception of the service-learning component, utilizing recorded lectures, assigned modules and readings, large- and small-group Zoom sessions, discussion boards and other web-based tools. Most learning will be asynchronous, however, there will be weekly small-group discussion boards for which virtual attendance will be required. Students will be required to research a topic of their choosing related to the course objectives and generate a 5-6 page research paper and develop a short presentation to share with each respective small group.
Service Learning
Students will be required to participate in at least 16-hours of service/volunteer activities in support of ongoing efforts to control, mitigate and/or recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Assessment
Student learning will be assessed using a wide variety of modalities including reflection, writing assignments, quizzes, critical analysis, completion of assignments engagement in small-group activities and the research paper/presentation. The course will be graded in a Pass/Fail and will not contribute to class rank, however, extra certifications will be created to acknowledge those who demonstrate work beyond the curricular requirements.
Timing
The student workload is expected to be approximately 20 hours per week averaged over the course of the rotation. The rotation will begin on Monday, April 6, 2020 and conclude on Friday, May 29, 2020.
I hope this is useful for the community. If so, will continue to share updates and more details as they emerge over the next week or so. Be safe everyone.
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Kelly Caverzagie
Associate Dean for Educational Strategy
University of Nebraska College of Medicine
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2020 10:29
From: Latha Chandran
Subject: Mobilizing medical students to help in the COVID crisis
Thanks so much Kelly for this posting. I have been thinking about setting up something like this and your post made our team even more eager to launch something similar. We cannot let such an incredible and important learning opportunity go to waste especially from the learning perspective of a future physician. Would you be willing to share your syllabus etc with us? Thanks again. Feel free to email me directly latha.chandran@stonybrookmedicine.edu.
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Latha Chandran
Vice Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs
Renaissance SOM at Stony Brook University
Original Message:
Sent: 03-18-2020 08:21
From: Kelly Caverzagie
Subject: Mobilizing medical students to help in the COVID crisis
At the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, we had been proactively planning for removing students from the clinical environment for, as you mention, several months. As a transition, we are developing a new rotation for all clinical students that encompasses learning objectives critical to disaster preparedness and emerging infectious diseases (e.g., leadership, professionalism, ethics, population health, social determinants, etc.) while building in a heavy dose of service learning throughout our community and health system. Some of this service will be supporting the front lines while others may be away from the hospital/clinics. Reflection will be a key component of this rotation. Our overarching goal is to help students continue to learn while channeling their extensive skills and energy to support the greater good. We aim to have this rotation launched by the first week of April.
Kelly Caverzagie, MD
Associate Dean for Educational Strategy
University of Nebraska College of Medicine
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Kelly Caverzagie
Associate Dean for Educational Strategy
University of Nebraska College of Medicine
Original Message:
Sent: 03-17-2020 15:42
From: Latha Chandran
Subject: Mobilizing medical students to help in the COVID crisis
Hello all,
First of all thanks to the AAMC and LCME putting out a statement regarding suspending clinical activities of medical students for two weeks. We at Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University had not done that and students were pushing for it. I don't think this crisis will resolve in weeks, I think it will be months before we have clarity.
If our health care systems get stressed and we need to augment our work force, how best can we organize our medical students to help? I would like for us leaders to think about a coordinated response. We know we will be short on PPEs etc but there are so many other roles that they could serve. These are a few that come to my mind- database work, phone call triaging, scribing, working on research labs to run the tests.. etc.
Would love to hear your thoughts- Thanks
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Latha Chandran
Vice Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs
Renaissance SOM at Stony Brook University
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