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December 16, 1998 BULLETIN Faculty Council Palliative Care Center, Medical Education Lead AgendaAt the November meeting of the Faculty Council, members recommended the use of the Harvard Medical School name for the HMS Center for Palliative Care. The request will now go forward to the governing boards. Proposed center codirectors Susan Block, assistant professor of psychiatry at HMS and DFCI, and Andrew Billings, assistant clinical professor of medicine at HMS and MGH, reported that the aims of the center are to foster education and research in end-of-life care and to be a local and national resource for this emerging field. The center will bring together faculty from across the HMS community to expand and integrate ongoing activities in palliative care. It will also assist affiliates who are developing palliative care services. Considering Medical Ed The council then considered three reports on medical education that compile faculty and student observations of student knowledge, skill levels, attitudes, behaviors, and other aspects of education after twelve years of the New Pathway. Daniel Podolsky, the Mallinckrodt professor of medicine at HMS and MGH, presented the report of the Committee to Assess the Effectiveness of Preclinical Curriculum in Providing Basic Science Foundation in Core Clinical Rotations, which described the results of two surveys the committee sent to faculty and students. From the faculty, it was learned that while all of the preclinical sciences were judged to be important in preparation for the clinical rotations, a subset--anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology--were deemed especially important. HMS students were judged by faculty from all core rotations to have adequate preparation in all areas of relevant basic science knowledge. However, the committee judged that a rating of adequate, while reassuring, should not be held as a sufficient goal for HMS. Podolsky said the committee recommended more detailed analysis of the preparation students receive in anatomy, pharmacology, therapeutics, and physiology, and allocation of more time during the preclinical curriculum to these disciplines; a review of alternative strategies for sequencing the components of the core preclinical curriculum; development of mechanisms to identify the needs of individual students for enrichment prior to core clinical rotations to address the variability in readiness found in the survey; a more formal assessment of faculty involvement in undergraduate medical education; and a review of the curriculum and educational goals of the core clinical rotations to identify opportunities for dovetailing effectively with the preclinical curriculum. Faculty, however, were consistent in their view that students entering core clerkships were both highly talented and motivated, with good skills in clinical reasoning and information gathering. Both students and faculty agreed on the importance of the preclinical sciences in the core rotations. Students perceived a need to increase their exposure to rotation-specific disease knowledge prior to core rotations and to juxtapose instruction in pathophysiology with their core clerkship experiences. Marshall Wolf, professor of medicine at HMS and BWH, presented the report of the Committee to Assess Possible Improvements in Preparation of Students for Clinical Clerkships. He noted that the success of HMS students in competing for and excelling in residency training programs suggests they develop superb clinical skills during years three and four of their training. All three groups recommended that there be more explicit delineation of the expectations of the various team members, students, residents, and attendings. Respondents also agreed that prior to the beginning of the clerkship, students need a greater understanding of the roles of the various members of the health care team, including residents, interns, and nurses. Also needed are better skills in developing differential diagnoses, assessments and plans for individual patients, and better presentation skills. Student Partnerships Residents expressed considerable concern about students' styles and attitudes. Committee members expressed great enthusiasm for some sort of "big sib" relationship in HMS II so preclinical students could gain insight into the role of the student during the clinical years. HMS IV students and residents were suggested as possible "big sibs." Many residents from other schools have reported that fourth-year students successfully served in this role. Also receiving significant support from the committee was the idea of an evening seminar at the end of the student's second year and the preparation of a detailed guide to clerkships for incoming clinical clerks. George Thibault, professor of medicine at HMS and BWH, presented the report of the Committee on Professional Development. He noted a heightened interest in the professional development and training of medical students in their preparation to become physicians, as today's graduates face a unique set of professional challenges. The dramatic changes in the organization and financing of medical care over the past two decades have called into question long-held assumptions about the role of the physician as patient advocate. The guiding precept for the committee was to identify and target opportunities to reinforce common beliefs and values around professional development and conduct. Thibault stressed that HMS should take a leadership role in this very important area. The committee's recommendations include rewriting and enforcing a code of professional conduct and responsibility, specifically, a statement of the School's professional standards to be included in communications and publications for students and faculty. The policy should also be revised to include the aspiration of altruism for those entering the profession. Evaluation of student conduct should include empathy, respect, responsibility for standard setting, and responsibility for advancing knowledge in the field of medicine. Other recommendations include making specific reference to Harvard Medical School's statement of professional standards in the process of admission and in HMS publications; fostering and rewarding faculty as role models of professional conduct; developing explicit opportunities to discuss and model the tenets of professional conduct in all academic experiences during medical school; strengthening the system of feedback and evaluation; creating a central resource office for student advising and remediation under the direction of the associate dean for student affairs; and promoting scholarly activity in the area of professional development.
Buehrens Named Associate Dean for Planning
Eric Buehrens has been appointed the associate dean for planning and facilities, reporting to Paul Levy, executive dean for administration. "Eric brings an outstanding background in capital planning,
as well as a strong track record in facilities construction and
operation, both of which will be of immense help to HMS and the
affiliated hospitals over the coming years," Levy says. "It's an exciting period in biomedical research and education, and I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to assist the Medical School in planning for and meeting the challenges of the next few years," Buehrens says. Honors and AdvancesSpaulding Rehabilitation Hospital announced its new president, John E. Cupples, on Nov. 2. Cupples has been executive vice president of the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for Aged and previously served in several management positions at BWH before joining HRCA in 1987. "John's extensive experience in settings across the health care continuum is an excellent background for Spaulding's new president," says David Storto, vice president of nonacute care services for Partners HealthCare System. In September, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Widowed Persons Service (WPS), awarded its Special Recognition Award to Phyllis R. Silverman, lecturer on social welfare at HMS and associate in social welfare in the Department of Psychiatry at MGH. Silverman was honored for her research in the late '60s and early '70s that revealed the value of a widow-to-widow support network and demonstrated its effectiveness. Her work pioneered the idea of one-to-one intervention for grief support and became the foundation for the AARP Widowed Persons Service. The American Chemical Society (ACS) has awarded its 1998 Henry A. Hill Award to John Neumeyer, lecturer on psychiatry at HMS and McLean and director of the Medicinal Biochemistry Laboratory at the hospital. The award recognizes Neumeyer's distinguished service to the Northeastern Section of the ACS, for which he has served as publications committee chairman, councilor, and trustee. He was the founder and first chairman of the section's Medicinal Chemistry Group in 1964. Charles Vert Willie, professor of education and urban studies at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and Theodore C. Bililies, a psychiatry instructor at McLean, have been elected to the Board of Trustees of the Judge Baker Children's Center. |
At
the ceremony for the fourth annual A. Clifford Barger Excellence
in Mentoring Awards on Dec. 2, excellence awards went to Jessica
Henderson Daniel, assistant professor of psychology in the
Department of Psychiatry at Judge Baker Children's Center,
and Michael Laposata, associate professor of pathology at
HMS and MGH. Guerda Nicolas (right) presented the award to
Daniel (left), saying that she "taught me how to be a professional
woman, a professional black woman. She taught me that I do
deserve certain things. She demonstrated ways to deal with
obstacles." Daniel was the first woman and first African American
to receive the Barger award. Honors for Lifetime Achievement
in Mentoring went to Edward Kravitz, the George Packer Berry
professor of neurobiology, and Jonathan Borus, professor of
psychiatry at HMS and BWH.