Great Clinicians Great Educators. The Master Medical Educator: Filling an Unmet Need

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2 Great Clinicians Great Educators The Master Medical Educator: Filling an Unmet Need Leonard A. Levy, DPM, MPH Associate Dean for Education, Planning & Research Director, Center for Bioterrorism and All-Hazards Preparedness Professor Family Medicine/Public Health/ Biomedical Informatics

3 Objectives At the end of this presentation attendees will be able to: 1. Describe the basics for a program to produce health professions faculty with the skills to facilitate student learning. 2. Develop a template for health professions faculty to prepare them to facilitate students to purge outdated knowledge, skills, and concepts, perhaps no longer safe, and perhaps no longer cost effective.

4 Years of education, training, and experience leading to the development of a highly competent clinician does not assure that a person is an accomplished medical educator.

5 The medical education process has become an academic discipline. To become a master medical educator, it is essential to receive formal education including the many ways people learn.

6 Educators no longer are nor should such persons be simply repositories and articulators of information. In the current data revolution with electronic accessibility to information, educators of today and even more so in the future must transition their role and become facilitators of learning.

7 Facilitators promote and assist learners at every level to employ the learning style most effective for them. People learn in different ways and should not be required or forced to learn in the same way. Even the most charismatically delivered lecture may not result in maximum retention of knowledge and concepts.

8 Future and current health professionals must become self-directed active learners. Knowledge, skills, and concepts are and will continue to change rapidly. Learners must be prepared to purge clinical knowledge, skills, and concepts that become outdated and are no longer safe, and/or cost effective.

9 Learning must be a lifelong process, especially in the clinical setting, often occurring without the presence of an educator. It involves identifying and employing evidence-based approaches to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

10 Educators and learners alike must recognize and accept the importance of being able to conduct objective assessment of the learning process. The assessment team must include not only the educator and learner in the health care setting, but also the patient (actual or standardized-simulated).

11 A pilot program was planned and developed with Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine and the NSU Fischler School of Education and Human Services leading to the degree of Master of Science in Medical Education.

12 Rather than have faculty from the School of Education be exclusively responsible for the program each of the six 6-credit hour courses is provided by two faculty: One from the School of Education The other from the College of Osteopathic Medicine or another college/program in the NSU-Health Professions Division.

13 Beginning as a pilot program, the initial class consisted of 12 students, 11 completing the 36-credit hour course of study. Each student in the pilot group held faculty appointments. They were health professionals at NSU-COM, NSU-Dental Medicine, NSU-Pharmacy, and NSU-Nursing & Allied Health.

14 The course was designed to be completed in 3 years, each year consisting of 12 credit hours, taking 6 credit practica in the fall and the same number in the winter semester. No course has a prerequisite for enrollment in any other course.

15 Future students will be recruited from faculty in the medical and of other health professions focusing on first professional degree and graduate medical education. The course of study may be conducted three times a year allowing students the option of completing the degree in as few as 2 years if instruction is taken at the rate of 18 credit hours per year.

16 The course is completely on-line. Students have access to the curriculum no matter where they may be located. Additional option: certificate program consisting of 18 credit hours.

17 The degree is granted by the NSU Fischler School of Education and Human Services. Regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

18 The outcomes will meet the needs of educators who train physicians and other health care professionals who will be practicing in a rapidly evolving environment requiring self-directed learners & problem solvers.

19 Admissions Criteria Applicants for the Master of Science in Health Professions Education must hold a faculty appointment and have a terminal degree in any health professions field. This is usually a doctorate for most medical and other health care disciplines. Exceptions: Physician assistant and nursing faculty when a Masters will be accepted.

20 Course of Study Students will complete 6, six-credit hour practica: HED 600- Practicum in Teaching Medical and Other Health Professions Students in a Diverse Learning Environment HED 610- Practicum in Implications of the Domains of Human Development on Health Professions Students HED 620- Practicum in Technology Resources for Health Professions Education

21 HED 630- Practicum in Effective Instruction Strategies in Health Professions Education HED 640- Practicum in Assessment and Measurement in Health Professions Education HED 650- Practicum in Research and Health Professions Education

22 Example of Course Description HED 630-Practicum in Effective Instruction Strategies in Health Professions Education Knowledge of adult development and learning theory will promote a more effective learning environment. A key role in health care practice and delivery is the ability to communicate effectively with patients about their conditions and treatments.

23 The student s paper will synthesize the principles taught in this course and apply them to case examples. As preparation for the case examples and research it will include citations from the literature of narrative medicine, or other sources in which patients stories are highlighted.

24 Conclusions Information is easily accessible permitting instantaneous availability of current and evolving knowledge and concepts. Health professions educators must be both clinically astute and highly sophisticated in the processes by which people learn. While the primary forum for education over the millennia has been the classroom lecturer, the educational process is now rapidly going through major transformation.

25 Faculty will not become redundant but rather will experience a change in their role. Since this has occurred so rapidly, the acceptance of these changes is likely to have significant resistance. Simply being an outstanding clinician will not insure that health professions faculty will be outstanding educators.

26 Technological changes in health professions education and discoveries clarifying how people learn has created a new academic discipline with a body of knowledge, concepts, and a need for research. This discipline is called medical education creating a need for formally trained master medical educators.

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