The UNMC College of Medicine is embracing a monumental change in fall of 2017. With its Training the Physicians of Tomorrow curriculum redesign in full swing, the university is supporting developmental staff and faculty with invaluable resources at the end of a mouse click.
A comprehensive online resource center was launched in November to help the curriculum development teams incorporate active-learning teaching methodologies and new technology into their educational designs to make courses more engaging for students.
Pamela Arellano, curriculum transition coordinator, and Teresa Hartman, a member of the Interprofesional Academy of Educators and associate professor in the education and research services department of the McGoogan Library of Medicine, created the resource center. It is designed to connect faculty and staff with expertise from E-Learning, the Interprofessional Academy of Educators, faculty development, the simulation lab, the Office of Medical Education and the McGoogan Library, in addition to providing curriculum templates and lecture support.
Not only does the resource center link curriculum developers with the departments they will need to incorporate active-learning techniques into their classes, it also connects them with one-on-one assistance from seasoned educational professionals.
“It is our hope that faculty and staff will reach out to connect to these resources, to us, and to each other to increase their effectiveness in the classroom,” Arellano said. “We want the faculty to know there is an entire team at the ready, poised to support them.”
Training the Physicians of Tomorrow will be the first major overhaul the College of Medicine has implemented in its curriculum since the early 1990s.
While health systems, teamwork, communication, quality care and population health have been addressed in the current curriculum, they were not fully integrated. In addition, the college is moving away from traditional large group, lecture-based instruction in favor of interactive, small group and experiential learning.
UNMC also is incorporating the use of 21st century-educational technology through iEXCEL, which will provide realistic, hands-on simulated learning environments at the Global Center for Advanced Interprofessional Learning in 2018, electronic medical records (EMR) interface, and the Apple initiative, incorporating a variety of teaching and learning solutions.
“This is a highly evolved curriculum,” Arellano said. “These developers have a lot of new, exciting resources at their fingertips. It’s our job to help them navigate those resources.”
The Training the Physicians of Tomorrow Resource Center can be accessed here.