Impact of Virtual Interviewing on Time and Financial Costs for NRMP© Applicants: Did Regional Campus Students Save More?

Background and Objectives: The sudden change from in-person to remote interviews by the National Residency Matching Program© (NRMP©) in 2020 was expected to result in significant financial and time savings for applicants. This project aimed to compare savings before and after the 2020-2021 interviewing season reported by students graduating from our institution’s regional and main campuses. Methods: Data were collected over a six-year period at a Midwestern medical school. Each year, approximately 120 main campus and 75 regional campus students are surveyed regarding specialty choice, number of applications and interviews, time, and expenses to complete the NRMP. Chi-square and t-tests were used to determine statistical differences by campus and by specialty in savings during the 2020-21 interviewing season compared to the previous five years. Results: Data were provided by 957 students. The response rates were 81.5% (regional) and 82% (main campus). Compared to the previous five years, in 2021 main campus students saved $3,990 (79.9%) and regional campus students saved $2,789 (77.1%). The previous highly significant differences in expenses between campuses ($1,386 ± $243) dropped to $185 (p = 0.3). On both campuses, applicants to non-primary care specialties saved more than their classmates applying to primary care. The largest average saving was reported by non-primary care applicants on the main campus ($4,207) and the smallest by regional applicants to primary care ($2,328). Main campus applicants reported saving 13.1 and regional campus 15.4 days interviewing in 2021. The smallest average time saving was reported by main campus applicants to non-primary care (12.7 days) and the largest (16.2 days) by regional campus applicants to primary care. No significant changes occurred in number of applications, interviews, or Match outcomes in 2021 compared to previous years. Conclusion: Prior to 2021, students from our institution’s regional campus reported lower costs and similar interviewing time than their peers on the main campus. Cost and time were significantly decreased in 2021 for both regional and main campus students applying to any specialty and differences between campuses reduced to non-significant levels. The number of applications, completed interviews, and Match outcomes remained similar to previous years. Changes to the NRMP© incorporating remote interviewing may reduce applicant costs by 80% and provide up to two weeks of available curricular time in the senior year of medical school.

A Student-Directed Community Cardiovascular Screening Project at a Regional Campus

Introduction Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is an important threat to public health, especially in rural communities. Clinical medical students at a rural regional campus can be a valuable resource to plan and implement CVD risk factor case finding project in the host community. Methods Directed by a representative county advisory council and supervised by a regional dean, clinical medical students designed and implemented CVD screenings at several public locations, recording health history and measurements of blood glucose, total blood cholesterol, and blood pressure. Those screened with abnormal readings were directed to definitive care including the local student-directed free clinic. Students were surveyed using a Likert scale before and after participation to assess their confidence in executing a community health project. The Baptist Health Madisonville IRB approved the protocol as exempt and the authors have no conflicts of interest. Results Over a period of almost two years in 2017-2019, 572 participants were screened. The demographics reflected those of the entire county, except screening was focused on adults. High blood pressure was found in 43%, high glucose in 28%, and high cholesterol in 48%. These values were similar to published countywide prevalence proportions. The student pre- to post- increase in confidence was remarkable (p< 0.000). Conclusions Our results show that regional campus medical students directed by a representative county advisory council and supervised by a regional dean can successfully implement a community CVD screening effort. The students also expressed a dramatic increase in their confidence in designing and implementing such a project. Lessons learned are shared for consideration by those at other regional health campuses.

Promoting a Sense of Belonging Among Underrepresented Medical Students Through Cross-Cultural Programming

Background and Hypothesis: Despite improvements in recruiting trainees from underrepresented backgrounds, there is a paucity in programming designed to enhance underrepresented in medicine (URM) students’ sense of belonging and well-being. In addition to academic stressors, URM students may experience discrimination and stereotype threat, all of which contribute to burnout. Although Indiana University School of Medicine is one of the largest and more diverse medical schools in the country, URM students continue to experience disconnectedness from peers, mentors, and faculty from URM backgrounds due to the regional campus model. To address the complex challenges URM students face, the Cross-Cultural Student Success Retreat (CCSSR) was created. We hypothesize that URM students will feel an increased sense of belonging through participation in the retreat. Project Methods: The CCSSR was developed in partnership between Medical Student Education and the Office of Diversity Affairs as a response to concerns of isolation and burnout among URM students. The program is designed to be cohort style where day-long events take place twice an academic year to engage students with minority faculty and activities designed to promote sense of belonging, retention, and success. The retreat is broken into four sessions; self-discovery, self-efficacy, bias/perception, and well-being. Each of the sessions includes a presentation, discussion, and activity. Results: The retreat was found to be a success, with positive responses received from 36 participants across each session. Outcomes included an increased awareness of personal biases and prejudices, heightened sense of belonging among peers, and a feeling of empowerment to make their environment more inclusive. Conclusion and Potential Impact: The positive outcomes of the retreat strongly suggest a need to implement long and short-terms programs catering specifically to the success of URM students. Ultimately, addressing the specific challenges faced by URM students will decrease rates of burnout and isolation among this population.

Impact of a Regional Campus on the Placements of Students at Rural Pharmacy Experiential Sites

Pharmacist shortages in rural communities underscore the need to focus on increasing the pipeline of pharmacists practicing rurally. Experiential placement in rural communities is one method to approach this challenge. Regional pharmacy campuses may facilitate rural experiential placements. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of a regional campus on the number of rural experiential placements. This retrospective analysis compared experiential student placements in the five-year periods before and after the addition of a regional school of pharmacy campus. Experiential placements in the designated time periods were compared with respect to numbers of overall pharmacy practice experiences, experiences in rural locations, and rural counties with rotation sites. The average distance to rural sites was also compared. Differences in rural experiential placements were not statistically different. The number of rural counties with pharmacy experiential placements grew from eight to twelve, and driving distance increased. While institution of a regional campus contributed to an increase in the number of rural counties with experiential placements, overall rural experiential placements did not statistically differ versus suburban placements. Additional inquiry into factors that affect rural placement is needed to influence strategies to develop and maintain rural experiential sites and consistently place students at those sites.

Energizing scholarly activity in a regional medical campus

Implication Statement Medical education is increasingly delivered at distributed sites away from Academic Health Sciences Centres. The Council of Ontario Faculties of Medicine recommends schools develop resources and metrics to foster regional campus scholarly activity. Opportunities for distributed program trainees must support learning core skills in research and critical appraisal to comply with medical school accreditation standards and to develop their interests and skills in scholarly work for their future medical careers. We describe a scholarly activity program that is a template for distributed campuses or regional teaching sites seeking to increase learner and faculty engagement and research productivity.

Teleneurology Teaching Service at a Rural Regional Campus

Regional rural medical school campuses offer many opportunities for medical students to gain more hands-on experience, have more direct interaction with attending physicians, and cultivate a deeper understanding of challenges and opportunities specific to rural medicine. Some specialty services such as neurology are not available at these small regional campuses, and telemedicine technology can be a valuable tool to address this need. We report the implementation of teleneurology stroke consultation services as part of the third-year neurology clerkship at a regional medical school campus. We analyzed daily clinical notes and student satisfaction surveys. Students saw many common and important presentations of cerebrovascular events. Students worked as part of a multi-disciplinary care team while following these patients through their hospital course with effective instruction provided by remote stroke neurologists. All students strongly agreed that telemedicine was a positive component of the clerkship. We conclude that teleneurology is an effective way to provide inpatient neurology clinical exposure, especially when remote attendings have a strong screen presence and are enthusiastic about teaching. We believe these findings could be useful to other campuses considering similar teaching methods, as innovations in telemedicine continue to address challenges in medical education and clinical care. The authors have no conflicts of interest to report and the Baptist Health Madisonville Institutional Review Board found this study to be exempt.

EXPRESSÃO GÊNICA DO METABOLISMO LIPÍDICO DA CHIA SOB DOSES DE FÓSFORO

A chia (Salvia hispanica L.) é uma planta anual herbácea considerada como fonte natural de ácidos graxos ômega-3, fibras, proteínas e antioxidantes. No entanto o cultivo no Brasil ainda é recente e as informações e recomendações técnicas existentes são limitadas, principalmente a respeito de adubação e época de semeadura. Portanto, o presente trabalho objetivou avaliar o efeito da aplicação de doses de fósforo na expressão de genes responsáveis pela síntese de lipídios da cultura da chia. Foi conduzido o experimento em na Fazenda de Universidade Estadual de Maringá no Campus Regional de Umuarama. O solo usado no experimento é um Latossolo Vermelho Distrófico típico, com textura arenosa. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi o inteiramente casualizado com quatro e cinco repetições. Os tratamentos foram compostos por quatro doses de P2O5 aplicados na semeadura (0, 40, 80 e 120 kg ha-1). Foi avaliada a expressão dos genes responsáveis pelo metabolismo de lipídios OLE1 e MGAT. Palavras-chave: Salvia hispânica; teor de óleo; adubação fosfatada. Lipid metabolism gene expression of chia under phosphorus rates ABSTRACT: Chia (Salvia hispanica L.) is an annual herbaceous plant considered as a natural omega-3 fatty acids, fibers, proteins and antioxidants source. However, cultivation in Brazil is still recent and the existing information and technical recommendations are limited, mainly regarding fertilization. Therefore, the present work aimed the phosphorus rates application effect on the genes expression responsible for chia plants lipid synthesis. The experiment was conducted at farm of Universidade Estadual de Maringá at the Regional Campus of Umuarama, Paraná, Brazil. The experimental design was a completely randomized design with four and five replications. The treatments were composed of four rates of P2O5 at sowing (0, 40, 80 and 120 kg ha-1). The expression of the genes responsible for lipid metabolism OLE1 and MGAT. Key words: Salvia hispanica; oil meaning; phosphate fertilization.

Perangkat Lunak Berbasis Opensource di Bidang Telekomunikasi Untuk Menumbuhkan Minat Siswa di Purwakarta terhadap Teknologi

Nowadays, opensource-based technology has begun spreaded into telecommunications field. It can be seen by the number of distributed opensource-based software tools at telecommunications field. The use of opensource based software has a huge impact both on the speed of innovation and for any individual that involved in opensource based projects. The Sistem Telekomunikasi Study Program from Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia Purwakarta Regional Campus has held an opensource introduction activity in the field of telecommunications for high school students (SMA, MA, SMK) in Purwakarta at August 29, 2020. This activity aims to introduce the opensource paradigm to grow their interest and attraction of participants to start looking at source code, trying to use it thus they can contribute to opensource projects. Activities are held offline according to the Covid-19 protocol using blended learning method. The results of the activity showed that the participants were very satisfied with the event and interested in further learning about opensource based tools.

SMART BRT ITERA Management: A Pilot Project of Indonesia's Inclusive Bus Campus System

Sustainable transportation service is not only about reducing exhaust emissions but about its impact on society.This work seeks to analyze the potential of ITERA Smart Bus Rapid Transit (Smart BRT ITERA) as a regional campus buses in creating the accessibility needed by the wider community, affordable in terms of tariffs, efficient and supporting economic development and reducing emissions and waste generated in the Institut Teknologi Sumatera (ITERA) in Lampung, Indonesia. As a commitment to sustainability by planning Smart BRT ITERA form of collaboration with the Ministry of Transportation of the Republic of Indonesia. ITERA, in this case, acts as the operator of 10 buses grants by the Ministry to serve this activity. It is hoped that this project can become a best practice for other universities in Indonesia