Rethinking health care to better serve our communities is at the heart of Dell Medical School — and that starts with rethinking medical education. In November, faculty members at Dell Med participated in The Generalists in Medical Education annual conference, where we were challenged by our colleagues from around the world to rethink medical education’s delivery, evaluation and goals in a post-pandemic age.
During the pandemic, we were all forced to shift to a virtual learning environment. Is it possible that some of our learning environments in the post-pandemic age may be better delivered virtually? I was challenged to wonder if a virtual classroom would allow students a greater degree of flexibility in where and how they learn. I learned about different tools that help deliver virtual content — one of which was Padlet, which allows learners to brainstorm together on a virtual white board.
As the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 becomes pass/fail, medical schools are looking for innovative ways to evaluate their students, such as patient-centered interviewing. One school paired students with a mentor who reviewed their evaluations from each rotation in order to help students create their own learning plans for improvement. Our own Stephanie Corliss led a session on self-directed learning where students selected methods of self-evaluation. Self-directed learning becomes increasingly important both during and after training, as physicians are asked to adapt and lead in a rapidly changing health care environment.
Dell Med is at the forefront of creating physicians who lead and collaborate with other professionals to change our health care system. During the conference, Dell Med faculty led sessions on leadership and interprofessional learning. As we prepare to incorporate new health equity competencies into our curriculum, I listened to ways in which other institutions were struggling with how best to incorporate teaching learners how to disrupt health inequity. When we reflected on the failures of communicating scientific facts about the pandemic to the public, I was challenged to rethink how we teach public health communication to our learners.
The conference was a reflection of how Dell Med is both listening to and leading the conversation on what needs to change in medical education in order to meet the needs of our patients in a post-pandemic age.