FACULTY

Evaluations (1.7/3)

Student Concern: Students recommended that faculty evaluations should be used to reward good teaching and to require mandatory faculty development for poor/ineffective teaching.

Response: Good teaching is of primary importance to the medical school’s administration. Indeed it is a topic we address regularly in an ongoing effort to monitor and improve quality. The Office of Curriculum Affairs will review all faculty evaluations. Faculty members who receive a rating below 2.5 on a 4-point scale will be sent a letter requesting the faculty member to review the student evaluations and to send written comments to the director of the Office of Curriculum Affairs. A copy of the faculty remarks will also be sent to the associate dean for medical education, the department chair and to the chair of the preclinical subcommittee of the Medical Curriculum Committee.

After receiving the letter, the director of the Office of Curriculum Affairs will meet with the faculty member to discuss specific ways the faculty member plans to improve his or her course instruction. The faculty member will be encouraged to set up an individual consultation with the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning or with the OCA director to improve teaching effectiveness.

The results of the review process will be shared with students who sit on the preclinical subcommittee.

To encourage teaching excellence, the Office of Curriculum Affairs will continue to hold faculty-development workshops on best practice in teaching and learning. The curriculum affairs staff will produce a teaching effectiveness handbook prepared by medical students and Office of Curriculum Affairs staff on effective lecturing and small-group learning.

Timeframe: The review process will begin in the spring semester 2001. The teaching effectiveness handbook will be completed and distributed by the beginning of fall semester, 2001.

Mentoring (2.0/3)

Student Concern: Students were moderately concerned by the lack of mentoring/advising by faculty, and felt the need for more opportunities to interact with clinical and basic science faculty outside of the classroom. Many students specifically noted that their Affinity Group faculty did not fill the role of mentor and students from all four years noted that it was very difficult to find a faculty mentor.

Response: The student affairs office plans a structured mentorship program. The program will provide opportunities for medical students to develop a personal relationship with a member of the clinical faculty during the first year of medical school. Through this relationship the student can arrange early exposure to clinical medicine or research, begin to explore long-range career goals and understand the responsibilities and rewards of academic medicine. Faculty volunteers will take on one to two entering medical students and provide them with information about their clinical and research interests, activities that the student can participate in with their mentor, outside interests, and their personal view and philosophy of medicine. The program will begin with the entering class of 2005, provided sufficient numbers of faculty can be recruited.

The medical school also plans to provide more opportunities for faculty and students to interact outside classroom and hospital setting. A series of brown bag lunches will begin next fall with the faculty advisors from the postgraduate referral committee (the writers of the Dean’s Letters), Career nights with faculty and alumni will also be held. We will invite these advisors and potential mentors to speak about their various specialties and to offer advice and counsel. A variety of forums will also be offered with the intent of providing opportunities for students and faculty to interact in a meaningful way through the exchange of ideas. A forum is planned for the spring semester entitled “Honesty, Honor and Professionalism” where students, faculty, and administrators will explore and discuss what embodies honesty in medicine.

Clinical Faculty (2.2/3)

Student Concern: Students suggested that the role of clinical faculty should be expanded in the first and second year. Students also expressed concern about delays in the submission of student evaluations, and urged recognition of clinical faculty teaching effort.

Response: The task force on professionalism in the medical school curriculum will discuss ways in which clinical faculty can mentor and increase interaction with first-year medical students. The PLME staff and the affinity group program are also developing plans to address professional development. The Office of Student Affairs is developing a faculty mentoring program (see above).

Timeframe: Recommendations on the “Role of the Clinical Faculty in the Professional Development of Medical Students” will be presented to the Medical Curriculum Committee at its September, 2001 Strategic Planning Retreat.

Timeframe: Clerkship directors will endeavor to establish selection criteria by the end of spring semester 2001 so that the teaching awards can be given to faculty and residents in May or June of this year.

The medical education office is developing a new computer management system that will allow faculty members to submit grades and written evaluations on line. This program should be in effect no later than fall semester 2001. Once in place, this new computer software program will help enable clinical faculty to provide more timely evaluations of students’ clinical performance. The issue of late grades will also be discussed at an upcoming clerkship directors’ meeting.