University of Virginia School of Medicine
Curriculum Committee
Minutes
12.04.03

Surgery Conference Room, 4:00 p.m.                       

Present (underlined) were: Reid Adams, Eve Bargmann,  Robert Bloodgood,  Anita Clayton,  Gene Corbett, Carl Creutz,  Donald Innes (Chair),  Vern Juel, Howard Kutchai, Chris Peterson, Jerry Short, Linda Watson,  Bill Wilson, Brian Wispelwey, John Bell,  Sarah Jones, Maria Meussling, David Shonka, Guests:  Elizabeth Bradley, Evan Heald, John Jackson, Nancy Payne,  Debra Reed (secretary)

1. Contemporary Clerkship/Elective/Selective.  The development team is making progress and will work toward having a plan in place by February/March, 2004 with implementation in 2005.  The “plan” is still in the discussion/development stage and comments from interested faculty are welcomed. A clear sense of the 2005-2006 clerkship/selective/elective year will be needed for a late winter retreat.
   
   The 2004-2005 Clerkship schedule is approved with minor changes from the previous year.  See attachment.
   
   
2. All curriculum development teams will be encouraged to keep the LCME data collection standards and questions in mind when working on their various projects. See LCME – database http://www.lcme.org/database.htm section 2 of the 2004-05 most recent edition.
   
   
3. Clerkship Clinical Skills Teaching & Assessment Project.  Members of the development team, Eugene Corbett, Elizabeth Bradley, Evan Heald, John Jackson, and Nancy Payne met with the Committee to discuss the project.  A grant from HRSA Bureau of Health Professions funds the project.  The project has three major goals, 1) to develop and integrated skills teaching program, 2) to assess the clinical skills of medical students, and 3) to develop online support capability.  
   
   The project is working on developing clinical skills workshops for clerkships such as Internal Medicine, AIM, Family Medicine and Pediatrics.  A set of criteria will be developed to maintain consistency and quality control.   The team will develop and implement appropriate clinical skills testing methods for students.   A website will be designed to relay teaching information and help with the student assessment.
   
   Workshop criteria:
   
   The purpose of the workshops is to enable each student to acquire hands-on competency in the performance of selected skills commonly applied in day to day clinical practice. The underlying goal is to create an overall program of clinical learning which nurtures in the student the kind of competence and confidence that comes from knowing how to actually do clinical work. The clinical skills for these sessions are selected for their relevance to basic clinical skill learning, and for their practical applicability to contemporary clinical practice. Because of the fact that they are intended to be proficiently learned at the clerkship level, they also serve the purpose of training the student to participate more effectively in the care of patients.
   
             Essential characteristics of a clinical skills workshop include:
   
   • format & content be designed to enhance skill acquisition (not merely knowledge transfer from teacher to student);
   • format be designed for interactive student participation throughout the workshop session;
   • content be case-based;
   • format & content  be planned at the outset so that it can change in response to evaluation and feedback from students and other pertinent observers;
   • the workshop can be given in a 60 to120 minute time period;
   • recommended that the workshop be designed such that should the need arise, a colleague could lead the workshop in the absence of the workshop leader.
     
     The Clinical Skills Assessment – first pilot OSCE was November 17, 2003 and focused on:
     
   • Health care literacy (communication)
   • Teach correct peak pulmonary flow technique
   • Perform a standard electrocardiogram
   • Phone triage an infant with fever
   • Perform a standard blood pressure
   • Examine the knee for ligamentous/meniscal normality
   • Examine for a cardiac gallop
     
     
     The master clinical skills website plan includes:
     
   • Clinical skills teaching sessions and related educational materials;
   • Capability for online student evaluation of CS teaching sessions;
   • Student clinical skills performance database (for administrative analysis, research);
   • Longer term educational outcome database;
   • Overall program evaluation

Dr. Corbett distributed outcome data from a clinical skills improvement project at Maastricht Medical School in the Netherlands.  Improvement was evident secondary to the project. A poll of University of Virginia School of Medicine showing student’s confidence levels in various clinical skills was also distributed.

The Committee supports the Skills Project agreeing that increasing skills levels will not take time from “knowledge” learning, but will enhance the curriculum, improving both medical knowledge and clinical skills.

Donald Innes/dmr