Guest Speaker: Richard DiCarlo, MD, Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education, Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans
Elements of the Month:
- 1.1 Strategic Planning and Continuous Quality Improvement
- Submitted question about this element: In terms of monitoring compliance with LCME standards, what kinds of processes would be considered satisfactory? One example could be a structured monitoring process that obtains status updates from individuals charged with monitoring a compliance aspect on a periodic basis (e.g. annually, etc.). Another option would be to develop data systems in place that would be able to flag any compliance problems on a continuous basis. One example of the latter is a database for all new clinical sites that is compared with a database of affiliation agreements, and a person to monitor it, to ensure all new community sites have affiliation agreements. Could you provide some feedback on the LCME expectations for a compliance monitoring process? What is an example of an unsatisfactory monitoring process?
- 1.4 Affiliation Agreements
- 9.4 Assessment System
- Submitted question about this element: Knowledge is commonly assessed using exams, skills are commonly assessed by direct observations of behaviors, but how are “behaviors and attitudes” assessed if not by observation of some kind of targeted behavior? Some of our program objectives are phrased as “Students must demonstrate respect for…the fundamental requirement of compassionate treatment of all patients”. Is narrative feedback to students that they demonstrated compassionate care of patients (in either a clinical or simulated situation) sufficient documentation that such an observation was made and that the student displayed a sufficient level of competence? If not, what would be required?
- 9.5 Narrative Assessment
- Submitted question about this element: We are curious about under what conditions narrative assessment in courses is expected and what forms it should take. For example, in a large class format where there are no or very few small group sessions, is narrative assessment expected? In such courses, a number of our course directors will send a detailed, individualized exam performance report to students, which shows them how well they performed in specific content areas, would this kind of report be considered narrative assessment? If a course does have small group sessions, does the narrative assessment have to be directed at individuals or is it enough to provide the group with narrative assessment? Lastly, if a course does have small group sessions, can the narrative assessment be given in a face-to-face verbal format, rather than written format and how should we document that such an approach was used?
- 9.8 Fair and Timely Summative Assessment
Presentation Slides:
Submitted Questions
- Please explain the updates to tables 12.0-2 and 12.0-3 in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 DCI for Full Accreditation Surveys.
- If our medical students are exposed to residents in an AACOM accredited GME program at a clinical site rotation, should we include that for 3.1 Resident Participation in Medical Student Education?
- Element 9.7: Our program has a formal policy that all students in required clinical clerkships receive formative feedback from clerkship directors at the midpoint of those clerkships. For the preclinical years, formative feedback in our basic science courses is provided by course directors in the following ways: 1) if individual students request it, 2) when a student is struggling academically based on their academic performance in the course, or 3) when a student exhibits professionalism issues in the course. Longitudinal courses across multiple years such as our foundational course for doctoring provide formative feedback in the first two years for every student. Would our preclinical courses meet the LCME expectation for 9.7?
- I am interested in the LCME’s broad vision of education in scientific method and Clinical & Translational Research. What knowledge, attitudes, and skills does the LCME think graduating medical students should have? It would be nice if the LCME would provide us with excellent examples of how medical schools are currently addressing these huge topics.
- I am writing with a question about the Career Planning Services GQ table (11.2-1) in the 2017-18 DCI. I could be wrong but unlike most tables that go up to 2017 for the GQ tables, the version we are using only includes the career planning services data up to 2016. Could you please let me know if I have missed any communication from LCME regarding this issue?
