ABSTRACT: Developing a national collaborative of medical educators who lead clinical skills courses.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
The majority of US medical schools now have pre-clerkship clinical skills (PCCS) courses. Course directors for these often logistically complicated courses may be in different medical specialties and, historically, have had few formal opportunities for communication and collaboration with their counterparts at other institutions. As such, we hypothesized that leaders of PCCS courses would benefit from a national network.
SUMMARY:
In this paper, we outline the methodology used to form a national collaborative from grass roots interest. Over three years, a self-identified eleven-person task force with national representation has created an organization for PCCS course directors from US medical schools called Directors Of Clinical Skills courses (DOCS) that meets annually.
CONCLUSIONS:
Through iterative presentations at regional and national medical education meetings, we have produced an inventory of educational issues for those developing, administering, and evaluating PCCS courses. Further development of this nascent organization is ongoing. Our process is generalizable.
via Developing a national collaborative of medic… [Teach Learn Med. 2012] – PubMed – NCBI.
Written by Brian S McGowan, PhD
Brian is a research scientist and educational technologist. He helped transform Pfizer’s Medical Education Group and previously served in educational leadership roles at HealthAnswers, Inc.; Acumentis, LLC.; Cephalon; and Wyeth. He taught graduate medical education programs at Arcadia University for 10 years. Dr. McGowan recently authored the book "#socialQI: Simple Solutions for Improving Your Healthcare" and has been invited to speak internationally on the subject of information flow, technology, and learning in healthcare.
