New School Year, New Way to Share News!
Dear Students,

Classes of 2025 and 2026 - we are excited to welcome you over the next few weeks. Classes of 2023 and 2024 - we are so glad you started the year off strong.
 
We are committed to continually improving the quality of your educational experience. There are many ways we receive student feedback, recommendations, and requests - and have been working hard to address and implement them. Whether through the Independent Student Analysis, Graduation Questionaire, course liaisons, or student leaders - leadership and faculty appreciate and value your input.
 
This newly created newsletter will be sent at least once a month and include changes we make, announcements, reminders as well as some items just for fun - like recipes, memes and photos from events.

We wish you the best of luck during this next academic year!

Dr. Z and Dr. D
Kira Zwygart MD, FACP
Associate Dean, Student Affairs
Deborah DeWaay MD, FACP
Associate Dean, UME
Welcome to USF! We know you will be learning a lot over the next few weeks. Check out the Office of Student Affairs website for resources.

COLLEGIA REVEAL: Friday July 22 4pm-6pm in MDD Auditorium
Course 5: Infection and Immunity schedule along with exam schedule are posted in canvas.

ORIENTATION: We look forward to seeing you this Friday July 22nd

RISE: Next Steps Meeting - Friday, July 29th 1-3 PM in MDD 542-533 The session is mandatory for the SSAE awardees and optional for Core and SELECT students who wish to do research.

USMLE-Rx and First Aid Flash Facts enrollment and discount is available. Click to read the email sent to the class mail list.
ONBOARDING: DME leadership has had ongoing meetings w/ TGH, USF, VA and Moffitt to streamline and improve the onboarding process.

Reminder: Don't forget to log onto Moffitt at least every 90 days and the VA every 60 days to maintain your access. Full instructions can be found in the Canvas Onboarding Course.
MD Career Advising: Virtual Specialty Mock Interviews begin August 8th

Supplemental ERAS applications opens August 1st. Please read Dr. Mayer's Residency Preparation Information email.

The NRMP Charting Outcomes biennial report came out on July 18th.

Core: Don't forget to log onto Moffitt at least every 90 days and the VA every 60 days to maintain your access. Full instructions can be found in the Canvas Onboarding Course.
Preclinical Years (Year 1/Year 2)
Independent Study Time (IST) and Self-Directed Learning (SDL) 
In the preclinical years, you will see on your schedules time marked IST and SDL.

  • IST is time to do pre and post-work for your different courses aka the “homework” for each class. This may be reading an article, preparing an H&P for doctoring, or completing a post-session assignment.

  • Your SDL time is for you to pursue self-directed learning. If you need suggestions on how to organize this time, please go to the self-directed learning canvas site for suggestions or contact Dr. Amanda Chiplock, our integration director for SDL, [email protected]. 

  • Please see canvas for your IST and SDL. Additional details regarding the MCOM guideline for Medical Student Hours in Year 1 and Year 2 can be found in the AY22-23 Student Handbook.

*Example schedules: Core Students | SELECT Students

Tuition is due July 29th. You can view your tuition assessment in Archivum. Q&As related to tuition can be found here.
All Class Years
Gallery of Specialties - Sept 14th (more details to come)

Are you interested in what happens at the administrative meetings held by the Department of Medical Education? Be on the lookout for our new monthly meeting digest emails. These will give a brief summary of the meetings and who your student representatives for those meetings are. 
AY 2022-2023 Handbook
The 2022-2023 MD Student Handbook is now available on the MCOM Student Affairs website.

You will be receiving an email from DocuSign to attest to receiving the handbook and understanding its contents in the next few weeks. If you have any questions about the Student Handbook, please reach out to any of the deans or the Office of Student Affairs.
In this section we share changes made based on your feedback!
Feedback from students via multiple evaluations said that in year 2, Course 5: Infection and Immunity and Course 6: Cardio, Pulm, Renal were overloaded and there wasn’t enough time to study.

Changes for this year:
  • Extended Course 7 Neuro, Endo, Repro, Rheum, Derm by 1 week.
  • This allowed the movement of material to C7 from C6 and for us to move some material from C5 to Year 1.
  • We are confident based on other students who have taken STEP that this change would best address your concerns, and we included Dr. O’Callaghan in the process.  
What Else is New Thanks to You?
This Newsletter
This newly created newsletter will be sent in the middle/end of each month to all MD students to share reminders of changes and major activities.
New MD Student Handbook Design
We redesigned the handbook with headers and subheadings, and a clickable table of contents so topics are easy to find. We also added new content and sections based on your feedback in surveys.

MEDITATION APP
Exciting news! Access to Headspace Premium (meditation app) for all MD students will launch August 1st. Stay tuned for more information on how to access. 
My SSP
Adjusting to a new academic year can feel overwhelming. Remember that My SSP is here to support you 24/7. Take advantage of virtual counseling, in-the-moment text or phone support, and more! Visit https://myssp.app/us/home.    
Peer Support Network
Weekly office hours are back! Drop in on Teams
(Mondays,7-8pm)
to chat with a PSN member. They are here to support you! 
*Want to talk to a PEER? Click HERE to connect with a member of the Peer Support Network!
**Mental health matters. Check out the My SSP program or talk with a USF Counselor, HELPS Provider, or Wellness Coach.
COVID PROTOCOL - USF CAMPUS
Students with symptoms of COVID-19 should get tested with a COVID-19 rapid antigen test and wear a mask. If the rapid antigen is:

Positive:
  1. Isolate for 5 days from the onset of symptoms.
  2. Schedule a telehealth appointment with an SHS provider to be evaluated and to present a negative Covid test at day 5 or later.

Negative:
  1. SHS will send a PCR test.
  2. Do not have to isolate unless the PCR comes back positive, then the student will need to isolate a minimum of 5 days from the onset of symptoms.
COVID PROTOCOL - LV CAMPUS
Students must complete the daily symptom screen. A green pass must be shown to the supervisor/preceptor/SR resident/clerkship director before seeing patients.

If a student fails the daily COVID screen in Conversa:
  • do not report to clinical
  • submit an absence request form, contact the clinical team and Dr. Brannen
  • get tested per the guidance in Conversa
  • quarantine until test results are reported to Employee Health (EH)

To return to clinical duty students must be cleared by EH and follow the Return to Work After COVID-19 Guidelines
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Welcome to AY 2022-2023! We are so excited to see everyone either back in sessions or getting ready to be back in sessions! Our MS IIIs are in their clerkships now, and working hard, Doctoring Three sessions have already begun and we have been training our new SPs to accommodate our updated cases. Our MS IV students are preparing to meet their small groups in Doctoring One and Doctoring Two and we are actively working on everyone’s scheduling at CAMLS in the Center for Experiential Learning and Simulation,
  • We have a new team member: Ms. Jessica Culver, who joined us mid-July and is busy getting our first-year schedules up and running from the SP perspective. 

  • We updated B-Line, which now lives in the Cloud and will hopefully give us a more reliable system for recording your sessions and completing your written notes. 

We live both in CAMLS on the 3rd floor (CSEC) and in MDD on the 3rd floor (remember, just beyond the ELL!). We look forward to seeing everyone soon. Please stop in and say hi!
Preparing for LCME

We are well underway prepping for the LCME reaccreditation site visit that will occur in April 2023.

Here is a quick refresher on what the LCME is and why it is important to students.
What is the LCME?
  • The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) is the nationally recognized accrediting authority for medical education programs leading to the MD degree in US (and Canada). Its authority flows through the Department of Education.
  • Every eight years the LCME conducts a peer-reviewed process of quality assurance and quality improvement that determines whether a school’s medical education program is in compliance with established nationally-accepted standards of medical education quality. MCOM’s last review was in 2015. Its next review is in April 2023.
Why is LCME accreditation important to you as a student?
  • LCME accreditation is required in almost every state for licensing graduates and receiving federal funding, including financial aid and NIH research support.
  • Graduates of LCME-accredited schools are eligible to matriculate into residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
  • The accreditation process provides a valuable opportunity for a thoughtful and comprehensive self-assessment of the program and the student learning environment.
What will happen with the recently completed ISA report and recommendations?
  • The student voice and contributions vis-à-vis the ISA (and other external surveys such as the Y2Q and GQ) are taken very seriously by our LCME accreditors and site survey team.
  • The ISA report is a crucial part of the institutional self-study that has begun and will conclude with the site survey team visit in April 2023.
  • Further discussion and follow-up is happening on the ISA report recommendations right now, and will continue over the coming months.
  • Many of the ISA recommendations are being addressed already. Some will need further discussion (such as focus groups) with students, before plans can be crafted and implemented. There will be ample opportunity for your input and suggestions. 
Show Me DeWaay...
Eating well in life and especially in medicine can be hard and expensive. The key is to simplify and pick foods you actually like.

You don’t need a different meal for every day of the month. Figure out your favorites and cook those.

Are you a planner, grabber or like leftovers?
If you are a planner: meal prep your lunches for the week. Buy containers with several sections. Instead of sandwiches, which get stale, do crackers [in a bag in the cabinet so they don’t get stale] with cheese, meat or other protein, veggies, fruit and dip.
If you are a grabber: stock your fridge/cupboard with things that you can easily grab in the morning such as bags of nuts, bars, sticks of cheese, whole fruit. You may want to package things in smaller bags when you get home from the store since pre-packaged stuff is always more expensive.
If you like leftovers: always make extra for dinner and that is your lunch the next day.
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 1 hr 30 min | Servings: Yield: 8 servings

DeWaay's Tips:
  • Eat the chicken for dinner one night
  • Cut off the rest of the chicken and make a chicken salad for lunches.
  • Put what is left in a slow cooker with your favorite veggies, spices and chicken broth for soup.