Topic of the Month: Independent Student Analysis (ISA)

Speakers: Students from the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University:

Douglas Campbell (Class of 2019)
Miriam Nathan (Class of 2019)
Jeffrey Anderson (Class of 2018)

Presentation Slides: March 8, 2018 Connecting with the Secretariat Webinar

Presentation Recording: 

Submitted Questions for the Secretariat on the ISA:

1. How do you balance the requirement of the students’ autonomy in conducting the ISA, while at the same time ensuring they present a synthesized version of the survey results as summary?
2. My question relates to the presentation of ISA data in the DCI. The LCME instructs students to use a 4-point Likert scale and a NA option for no opinion/not experienced yet.  Students are instructed to provide the number and percentage of respondents choosing each option for each question. That data is provided in tables in the ISA appendix, but the DCI typically asks for % satisfied/very satisfied.How do you recommend presenting results in which the %NA seriously affects the percentage of satisfied students?  For example:75% NA, 5% dissatisfied, 20% satisfied–vs-20% NA, 5% dissatisfied, 75% satisfied

General Submitted Questions for the Secretariat:

1. Does the LCME categorize Physician Assistant as interprofessional? Since PAs are often called “physician extenders” and  their training, goals, roles, etc. are the same as MDs but on a shorter timeline, is this a significantly different health profession in terms of the learning objectives for medical students? If you have a PA student and an MD student on the same clerkship, does this address, in part, Element 6.7? Does a PA member of a health care Team address, in part, Element 7.9?