scholarly journals Relationship-Centered Advising in a Medical School Learning Community

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 238212051982789 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Frosch ◽  
Mitchell Goldstein

Background: Medical schools are required to have formal advising structures; however, there are limited data on how to optimally meet that mandate. Learning communities (LC), with their emphasis on longitudinal relationships, offer a unique scaffold for advising. Program description: The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (JHSOM) LC focuses on curricular and extracurricular longitudinal connections between students and advisors. A core component of the LC is a relationship-centered advising (RCA) model drawing from best practices in physician–patient relationships, life coaching, and social contract theories. The key elements of the model include dyadic and small group advising, while the LC structure allows for faculty development in these domains. Relationship-centered advising approaches the collaborative advising work between students and advisors through explicit valuing of personal experiences, mutual respect, and earned trust. Framing the advising relationship in this way allows it to grow with the student along their medical school journey. Program evaluation & results: Student and faculty satisfaction with this model is high. Data from annual, anonymous student evaluations consistently indicate high degree of trust in and satisfaction from these relationships. Discussion: Relationship-centered advising aims to create a relationally anchored platform on which students can develop their personal and professional identities. This LC-based advising model is adaptable across schools regardless of structure and resources.

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 238212051983037
Author(s):  
Robert Tamai ◽  
Neel Koyawala ◽  
Barbara Dietrick ◽  
Debanjan Pain ◽  
Robert Shochet

The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Learning Community–White Coat Ceremony (LC-WCC) is held each spring as a learning community (LC) event. Learning communities (LCs) connect people to learn and work across boundaries to achieve a shared goal. The LC-WCC invites first-year students to collaborate with school leaders, define the class professional values, and innovate with community members. Class-elected student leaders recruit peers to join committees to plan and lead several aspects of the ceremony, including a class-nominated speaker, a personal statements presentation, a patient inclusion presentation, a class-authored statement of values, and artistic performances. Student cloaking is performed by LC advisors in their LC small groups. A 2015 post-LC-WCC survey asking students to compare experiences of a traditional Stethoscope Ceremony (SC) with the LC-WCC found that the latter significantly increased students’ sense of accomplishment (38% vs 68%, P < .001), sense of connection to the school (59% vs 82%, P < .001), to classmates (71% vs 93%, P < .001), and to the event (42% vs 76%, P < .001). Cloaking as a community is an effective way for a medical school LC to instill a greater sense of community and student leadership in this milestone celebration of humanistic values in medicine.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 238212052110148
Author(s):  
Jasna Vuk ◽  
Steven McKee ◽  
Sara Tariq ◽  
Priya Mendiratta

Background: Medical school learning communities benefit students. The College of Medicine (COM) at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) provides medical students with academic, professional, and personal support through a learning community (LC) made of 7 academic houses. Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of the academic house model at UAMS utilizing a mixed-methods survey. The aims were to: (1) assess student experience and satisfaction with academic houses, (2) describe the realms of advising and guidance, and (3) identify areas for improvement. Method: An online survey was assigned to 723 COM students (all students enrolled, first through fourth years) at UAMS in March 2019. The survey was comprised of 25 items (10 multiple-choice, 8 on the Likert scale, and 7 open-ended questions). Data was depicted using frequency and percentages and/or thematic review of free-form responses. Results: The survey response rate was 31% (227 students). The majority of students responding (132, 58.1%) attended 2 or more face-to-face meetings with the faculty advisor within the preceding year. However, 27 (11.9%) students did not have any meetings. Approximately two-thirds of the respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with the guidance and direction provided by their advisors [very satisfied (n = 83; 36.6%); satisfied (n = 77; 33.9%)]. Themes that emerged from student generated areas for improvement include time constraints, advisor/advisee interest mismatch, and perceived inadequacy of advising content/connections. Conclusions: This study confirms the effectiveness of the LC model for advising and mentoring in the COM at UAMS. Uniquely, this study identifies not only learners’ satisfaction with their LC but also highlights areas for improvement which are widely generalizable and important to consider for institutions with or planning to start an LC.


2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 228-235
Author(s):  
Christopher Haymaker ◽  
Amber Cadick ◽  
Allison Seavey

Social class and privilege are hidden variables that impact the physician–patient relationship and health outcomes. This article presents a sample of activities from three programs utilized in the community health curriculum to teach resident physicians about patients within context, including how social class and privilege impact physician–patient relationships and patient health. These activities address resident physicians’ resistance to discussion of privilege, social class, and race by emphasizing direct experience and active learning rather than traditional didactic sessions. The group format of these activities fosters flexible discussion and personal engagement that provide opportunities for reflection. Each activity affords opportunities to develop a vocabulary for discussing social class and privilege with compassion and to adopt therapeutic approaches that are more likely to meet patients where they are.


1985 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-21
Author(s):  
Robert B. Howard

Legal Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Jonathan Brown

Abstract Professors MacQueen and Thomson have defined ‘contract’, within Scots law, as denoting ‘an agreement between two or more parties having the capacity to make it, in the form demanded by law, to perform, on one side or both, acts which are not trifling, indeterminate, impossible or illegal’. This definition reflects the fact that Scottish contracts are underpinned by consent, rather than by ‘consideration’. This, naturally, has the potential to be of great significance within the context of physician/patient relationships, particularly since the 2006 case of Dow v Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust acknowledged that these relationships could be contractual in nature. This observation is of renewed importance since the landmark decision in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board, which found that physicians must ensure that they obtain full and freely given ‘informed consent’ from their patients, prior to providing medical services. In light of the present medical regime which requires ‘doctor and patient [to] reach agreement on what should happen’, the basis of liability for medical negligence, in Scotland, requires reanalysis: ‘To have a contract only when the patient pays is not consistent with a legal system which has no doctrine of consideration in contract’.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ella Catharine Sykes ◽  
Qi Zhuang Siah ◽  
Julie Browne ◽  
Caitlin Golaup

BACKGROUND Facebook is a well-established social networking platform that is commonly used by medical schools as an educational resource, but there are few studies assessing the roles of a non-academic Facebook page in medical education. Cardiff University uses Facebook primarily as a student support and engagement platform through its ‘C21’ Facebook Page. OBJECTIVE To explore the role of a non-academic Facebook page in medical faculty-student communication and examine how the page is perceived by the student body. METHODS We collected and analysed C21 Facebook Page usage data to obtain descriptive information on reach, engagement and content. We also distributed an anonymised survey to evaluate and explore users’ interest in, experience of and engagement with the content. RESULTS Of the 1021 posts on the page in 2019, the highest post-engagement rate occurred in the Student or Staff News category (13.5%) and the lowest in Medical Research News (3.5%). Survey feedback on the page was overwhelmingly positive (n=89; 84.8%), and respondents reported a high degree of trust (n=95; 90.5%) in the page. Students would like to see more ‘CV-building’ Opportunities advertised on the page. CONCLUSIONS The C21 Facebook Page is an important resource in developing community within the medical school and facilitating student engagement with both the C21 course and wider medical opportunities. It is perceived as an appropriate channel of communication between the medical school and students.


Author(s):  
Jordan Mason

Abstract Recent literature on the ethics of medical error disclosure acknowledges the feelings of injustice, confusion, and grief patients and their families experience as a result of medical error. Substantially less literature acknowledges the emotional and relational discomfort of the physicians responsible or suggests a meaningful way forward. To address these concerns more fully, I propose a model of medical error disclosure that mirrors the theological and sacramental technique of confession. I use Aquinas’ description of moral acts to show that all medical errors are evil, and some accidental medical errors constitute venial sins; all sin and evil should be confessed. As Aquinas urges confession for sins, here I argue that confession is necessary to restore physicians to the community and to provide a sense of absolution. Even mistakes for which physicians are not morally culpable ought to be confessed in order to heal the physician–patient relationship and to address feelings of professional distress. This paper utilizes an Episcopal theology of confession that affirms verbal admission and responsibility-taking as freeing and relationally restoring acts, arguing that a confessional stance toward medical error both leads to better outcomes in physician–patient relationships and is more compassionate toward physicians who err.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 238212051982791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Shochet ◽  
Amy Fleming ◽  
James Wagner ◽  
Jorie Colbert-Getz ◽  
Monica Bhutiani ◽  
...  

Background: Learning communities (LCs) are intentionally designed groups that are actively engaged in learning with and from each other. While gaining prominence in US medical schools, LCs show significant variability in their characteristics across institutions, creating uncertainty about how best to measure their effects. Objective: The aim of this study is to describe the characteristics of medical school LCs by primary purpose, structures, and processes and lay the groundwork for future outcome studies and benchmarking for best practices. Methods: Medical school LC directors from programs affiliated with the Learning Communities Institute (LCI) were sent an online survey of program demographics and activities, and asked to upload a program description or summary of the LC’s purpose, goals, and how it functions. Descriptive statistics were computed for survey responses and a qualitative content analysis was performed on program descriptions by 3 authors to identify and categorize emergent themes. Results: Of 28 medical school LCs surveyed, 96% (27) responded, and 25 (89%) provided program descriptions for qualitative content analysis. All programs reported longitudinal relationships between students and faculty. Most frequently cited objectives were advising or mentoring (100%), professional development (96%), courses (96%), social activities (85%), and wellness (82%). Primary purpose themes were supporting students’ professional development, fostering a sense of community, and creating a sense of wholeness. Structures included a community framework, subdivisions into smaller units, and governance by faculty and students. Process themes included longitudinal relationships, integrating faculty roles, and connecting students across class years. Conclusions: Medical school LCs represent a collection of high-impact educational practices characterized by community and small-group structures, relational continuity, and collaborative learning as a means to guide and holistically support students in their learning and development as physicians. In describing 27 medical school LCs, this study proposes a unifying framework to facilitate future educational outcomes studies across institutions.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document