Dear Students,

This is the time of year when those of us on the Tampa campus wish we were on the LVHN campus.

It is still 90 degrees, despite the Halloween candy being put in the stores. Publix has put out their pumpkin bakery items, and I am sure the Starbuck pumpkin spiced latte will soon follow.

LVHN campus, please enjoy your fall weather and feel free to rub it in, as we are sure to in February.  Whether you are enjoying weather in the 70s or 90s we hope you make time to get outside and do something fun.

Warmly,

Dr. Z and Dr. D

Class of 2026

9/12 – Course 1 Test 2

Class of 2025

9/19 - Course 5 Test 3

9/22 - Course 5 NBME

Class of 2024 Core

9/22 - Obstetrics NBME

9/23 - Primary Care, Internal Medicine, & Pediatrics NBMEs

MDD Small Group Learning Rooms Unavailable Sept 17th & 18th

The carpets in the SGLs at MDD will be cleaned during the weekend of Sept 17th and 18th. SGLs will not be available for use during that weekend. 

Florida Medical Association Medical Student Section Membership

The Florida Medical Association (FMA) is the premier professional organization for physician leadership, advocacy, patient care, and education in the state. Comprising 25,000 members spanning all specialties, ages, and locales, the FMA is the largest and most influential physician advocate organization in Florida. The FMA protects physicians and our ability to care for our patients by influencing the legal, regulatory, ethical, economic, and public health issues that are most important to us. More info on what medical student members do can be found here. 

The Medical Student Section (FMA MSS) is an integral and vibrant part of the FMA. You can connect with physicians and medical students across the state and exert your influence on the challenges facing the practice of medicine. Membership is free, you can join by clicking here.

Student Scholarships - FMDA's Certificate in Excellence

The Florida Society for Post-Acute and Long-term Care Medicine is offering scholarships to cover tuition for their Leveraging Clinical Staff Engagement - A Certificate of Excellence in PALTC Program. It is a minimum of 20 hours of online training on a virtual platform accessible 24/7. Click for more information.  

I wanted to share what is involved when scheduling our clinical exams. 

Clinical practice exams are used across all 4 years of medical school. Pedagogically, assessment in medical school can be very challenging. When we do assessments in real medical practice, the challenge is that each situation a different. The patient is different. The attending and resident may be different etc. If we do clinical practice exams and attempt to control the variables, the challenge becomes that, despite the amazing work of our simulation team, there is an artificial quality to the exams. That is why medical schools across the country use both assessment methods in their curricula. Although there are always challenges, I am so grateful that we have Dawn Schocken, who is an internationally recognized expert in simulation, leading our team.

When we are scheduling standardized patients (SP) and activities there are many moving parts.    

Despite having a very large SP population, twice the size of any other Florida medical school, there have been ongoing challenges with Covid: SPs getting sick or not being comfortable being an SP. 

We have a large SP group because we deliver more of these experiences than any other school. In addition, our SPs support all USF Health Colleges not just the MD students. Scheduling itself is also complicated since there are multiple MD classes that have overlapping experiences.

Although we try very hard to schedule these experiences for each class, sometimes students have to have a CPX exam or other experience after a multiple choice exam. When this happens we rotate who in the class does this so that it is not the same student each time.

Please know - if we could make it work so that we never do this, we would.

- Dr. DeWaay

We receive feedback about student experiences in many ways; some are formal (e.g., ISA and GQ) and others less so (e.g., hallway conversations). Here, we reflect on just a few.

Examples of formal processes in place to collect student feedback include course and clerkship evaluations as well as end-of-year surveys administered by the Office of Assessment and Evaluation. Elected student representatives also collect course and clerkship evaluations from their peers through Qualtrics throughout the academic year. This data is shared at student liaison meetings, where student representatives and DME administration and staff review concerns voiced by students and discuss possible solutions for improving the student experience.

These are just a couple of the examples by which students can have an impact on both the academic and non-academic aspects of our program, both immediately and for future students.

Always striving to improve and provide the best possible experience and outcomes, we incorporate student feedback in an ongoing fashion, although it may not always feel that way. Some changes can be put in place quickly; others require a longer timeline. 

In future LCME updates, we will spotlight Element 12.6 Student Health and Disability Insurance. 

When I work with students on the wards and they are struggling with their presentations, the first thing I have them do is to stop using EPIC on their phone for their presentations. Instead I have them go old school and put all of their patients on cards and present from the cards. If you are struggling to learn, please look at how you are taking notes. Studies have shown that writing with pen and paper is far more effective than taking notes on a laptop. Another option (that I have switched to) is using a tablet with a pencil and a notes program. I find I get the same memory benefit without carrying around all of the notebooks.