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Making the Rounds with Founding Dean Dr. Barbara Atkinson
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I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the Meadows School's first Career Discovery Day last week with Dr. Said Daneshmand. We met with junior and senior students who are interested in becoming physicians and shared about our own careers. I particularly enjoyed Dr. Daneshmand's presentation, as he explained to the students how he became a world-renowned infertility specialist. His passion for medicine and his unique field are remarkable and inspirational for the students. Seeing their enthusiasm underscored once again the importance and value of the UNLV School of Medicine.
This experience led me to think about our future students and the traits we'd like to attract:
- Live and work in Nevada: Educate Nevada students, those who have strong ties to Nevada, and students from neighboring Southwestern states. We plan to embed students in the community throughout their education so they can become intimately familiar with Southern Nevada. If they do have to leave for their residency training, we want them to come with new ideas and skills.
- Diversity: Attract students reflective of the diverse backgrounds, beliefs and cultural values that make up our great community. Diversity in the student and faculty population will enrich everyone's education.
- Community service: Community service in health-related fields underlines the student's dedication to helping others. The path to becoming a physician is a long one (a minimum of 11 years after high school), and students need to know they aren't choosing their career because someone thinks they should, or because of money. We want students with a deeper understanding of what it means to be a physician.
- Qualities: We've had two admissions committees discuss the personal qualities we want our students to exhibit. In addition to academic achievement, we want to attract students who demonstrate community activism, leadership, perseverance, resiliency, optimism, and dedication to exemplary patient care.
- Admissions: Courses students will need to complete prior to admission include biology, chemistry and biochemistry, and psychology/sociology/behavioral science. We'll also recommend courses in genetics, immunology, physiology, molecular biology and statistics. If you are a physician, you might notice these requirements are different from the traditional set as they don't include physics or organic chemistry. The current MCAT test, which applicants for any medical school must take, has changed its emphasis from physics toward social and behavioral health. Organic chemistry is almost less central to our core curricular focus.
If all goes well with our accreditation process, we can start recruiting our charter class of 60 students in October. The first class will start July 17, 2017 and each student will receive a full-tuition scholarship. These students will be pioneers as they work with us to streamline, modify and improve our curriculum as they go through each section. The charter class will always have a special place in the history of the UNLV School of Medicine.
Best wishes,
Barbara
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As the curriculum for the new UNLV School of Medicine takes shape, developers are ensuring students will be equipped with strong skills for handling medical ethics dilemmas.
Read more.
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American's Diabetes Hour
I joined Bob Fisher, AM 720 KDWN and Dr. Jerry Reeves, Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs, HealthInsight of Nevada on Sunday. We discussed diabetes, its impact on patients, and how our medical school will educate future physicians to care for diabetic patients. You can listen to the program here.
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