Category: medical education

The Value of Reflection in Clinical Teaching

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By Patricia Stubenberg

“No words are ofterner on our lips than thinking and thought.”  – John Dewey

The teaching physician has opportunities for personal and professional growth through reflection and revisiting not only their own experiences in training and practice, but also their role as clinical teachers with medical students and residents.  Studies on reflection in teaching are abundant including, Freese’s work on Reframing One’s Teaching1, Dewey’s Art of Reflection2, and the theoretical underpinnings of reflective engagement, metacognition, and transformative learning.  The literature on reflection in clinical teaching is expanding through scholars including, Irby et al.3 and Sanders4.  This essay offers perspective on the value of reflective activity to advance medical education in training the next generation of physicians…
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Learning Anatomy: Between Fear and Reality

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By Wessam Ibrahim

Learning Anatomy is a journey.  All medical students have some memories about their anatomy courses; some have good memories and some don’t.

It’s October 1995.  I was a first-year medical student at my medical school in Egypt.  I had never seen a corpse except in horror movies.  I was so scared and I really thought that those bodies weren’t real. The instructor started “Well, who would like to start dissection?”  I whispered to myself this guy must be crazy.  He continued: “You guys have to do it”. OMG, I guess I will have to cut that dead body. Surprisingly I volunteered.

Years were going so fast.  I graduated from medical school and decided to have anatomy as my career.  How did I do that? Again, I don’t know; but I know that I am so passionate about teaching medical students and my utmost joy is to see them succeed in medicine…
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Self-Reflection Through a Glass, Darkly

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By Josh Hopps

It is the end of the USMLE Step 1 exam season in undergraduate medical education.  If UME is a solar system, Step 1 is the sun, irradiating and superheating some, leaving others cold and frozen out, and supporting life for those who thrive in intense and constrained circumstances.  Its enormous gravity pulls students toward it at the cost of medical school grades, well-being, and finances1, and impinging on medical schools’ autonomy in determining their UME curricula.  Students whose single-minded purpose for years was getting into medical school very quickly shift their focus to the Step 1 exam because of its outsized emphasis in the residency selection process2.   In years past the Step 1 conversation began at the beginning of the second year of medical school or at the end of the first year for an ambitions few.  Students now ask about First Aid for Step 1 before they’ve even matriculated…
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Medical Education Research and IRB Review

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By Emily Anderson

Medical school curricula now emphasize evidence-based medicine.  We also need to prioritize evidence-based educational strategies.  There are some great educational innovations happening at our medical school, but too few publications highlighting these.  Conducting research on medical education faces many barriers, not least of all, lack of funding.  Publication in any peer-reviewed academic journal usually requires some evaluation data; to get in a top-tier journal, you need solid research methodology, clearly defined outcome measures, and sufficient sample sizes.  Medical education journals are notorious for rejecting small pilot studies, which is discouraging.  Perhaps even more daunting are the Institutional Review Boards (IRBs).  Studies indicate that medical education researchers face challenges in IRB submission and review (1,2).  Unfortunately, we often end up implementing new programs – and maybe even doing a solid program evaluation – but never sharing what we’ve learned with colleagues outside our own institution…

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Social Scientists in Medical Education: Important Contributors to the Educational Mission

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By Bobbie Ann Adair White and Leila Diaz

When we began our careers in medical education in the early 2000s, our roles (Student Affairs and Admissions) were adjacent to those of educators but not truly intertwined in content development and delivery. We found there were opportunities to create and lobby for co-curricular social sciences content, but often these were ancillary to the basic and clinical sciences. However, in the mid 2000s content such as leadership, and interprofessional education began to gain traction, and the popularity of small group delivery methods grew. These trends opened doors for social scientists to contribute more meaningfully within the curriculum…
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Sacred and Profane: Balancing the sanctity of the human body with the mechanics of cadaver dissection

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By Michael Dauzvardis

Often heard on the first day of anatomy lab:

“Oh— I’m so glad the cadaver doesn’t look real. It is gray and ashen.  The skin is wrinkled and the head is shaven. I can do this— I’ll make the first cut.”

In fall, in medical schools across the country, students begin their initial rite of passage on their journey to becoming a physician by undertaking the task of cadaver dissection.  It is the job of the anatomy faculty to assist the students in this profane act by teaching them how to use scalpels, long knives, saws, hammers, and chisels in the disassembly of the human body.  At the same time, it is also the job of the anatomy faculty, campus ministry, and other enlightened students to hit the “spiritual reset button” and remind all dissectors not to neglect the “human” in human dissection.  Most medical schools now have an opening (and closing) ceremony focusing on the sacredness of the human body and the unselfish gift and generosity of the donors…

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What is the Future of Ethics Education in Medical Schools?

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By Micah Hester

In 2004, Lisa Lehman and colleagues noted that “Despite widespread agreement that ethics should be taught [in medical schools], there is little formal consensus concerning what, when, and how medical ethic is best taught” (2004, 682).  Eleven years later, the Project to Rebalance and Integrate Medical Education (PRIME) group in its Romanell Report (2015) followed like Lehman when saying, “Despite broad consensus on the importance of teaching medical ethics and professionalism, there is no consensus about the specific goals of medical ethics education for future physicians, the essential knowledge and skills learners should acquire, the best methodologies and processes for instruction, and the optimal strategies for assessment.”  In other words, we know that the content, form, place, and number of hours in the curriculum devoted to the ethics (and related concerns such as professionalism and values clarification) varies greatly.  There are roughly 170 medical schools (both allopathic and osteopathic) in the United States and Canada, and there are roughly 170 different ways that ethics is taught to medical students across the continent…
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Not Your Father’s Medical Humanities

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By Delese Wear & Therese Jones

No one would argue that the definitions of “health” and “medicine” are different.  However,  when some of us began to urge a change regarding those words as modifiers—as in medical humanities being replaced by health humanities—there have been varied responses:  from expressions of puzzlement to charges of academic nitpicking.

Words matter—an assertion often glossed over in academic medicine.  For example, consider the thousands of words written about the important differences between “compliance” and “adherence” (though compliance is still commonly used) as well as an equally large number on the effects of derogatory labels of patients (many of those also still said and heard).  Moreover, the sloppy, varied, and ubiquitous use of educational trends labeled as “professionalism,” “reflection,” and “competencies” has made significant pedagogical deployment and evaluation of them almost meaningless in medical education…
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Welcome to the Ralph P. Leischner, Jr., MD, Department of Medical Education

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The department brings together Loyola Stritch’s efforts regarding “teaching to teach and learning to learn.” We are part of the new era in academic medicine that gives the same priority to our educational mission as our research and service missions. We aim to turn out a diverse physician workforce who treat patients according to the highest standards of care, are community leaders who promote social justice in health care and society, and who have the research, advocacy, and quality improvement skills to be effective change agents. It is the mark of a Stritch alumnus to reflect upon his or her ongoing personal and professional development as her vocation unfolds.  Such a physician is usually not formed by accident but benefits from a supportive community of mission-driven educators who constantly strive to improve their abilities to serve such medical students.  The department contributes to the building of this community…Read More »