Outcomes of a Longitudinal Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Preclerkship Curriculum.

Purpose: To evaluate whether quality improvement (QI) and patient safety (PS) training in preclerkship medical education resulted in students' development and retention of knowledge, application-based and perceived skills, and attitudes throughout clerkships.

Method: A longitudinal QI/PS curriculum with multimodal curricular components was implemented in the preclerkship curriculum between 2015 and 2017 at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Rhode Island. Assessments were administered at baseline (T1), end of year 1 (T2), Clinical Skills Clerkship (T3), and end of clerkships (T4) in the intervention cohort (n = 97).

An Interactive Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Workshop for First-Year Medical Students.

Introduction: There is a call to incorporate quality improvement and patient safety (QI/PS) content into undergraduate medical education, though limited literature exists on optimal teaching strategies. We designed a required, interactive workshop for first-year medical students to introduce principles of QI/PS, specifically focusing on student attitudes, knowledge, and skills.

Methods: We used active learning principles from existing literature and included the application of QI/PS concepts, engaging in PDSA (plan, do, study, act) cycles, conducting root cause analyses, and creating a fishbone diagram.

Contrasting Incoming Medical Students' Attitudes Dual Degree vs Traditional Tracks.

Background And Objectives: The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University (AMS) recently implemented a novel dual degree MD-ScM program in primary care and population medicine (PC-PM) that enrolls up to 24 of its nearly 144 yearly matriculants. The overarching goal of this track is to train medical students to become physician leaders who focus on issues in population medicine within primary care.

Methods: We conducted a baseline assessment of the students enrolled in this parallel track in comparison to our traditional students to identify characteristics of and group differences between students in the PC-PM program and traditional students.

Predicting United States Medical Licensure Examination Step 2 clinical knowledge scores from previous academic indicators.

The use of multiple academic indicators to identify students at risk of experiencing difficulty completing licensure requirements provides an opportunity to increase support services prior to high-stakes licensure examinations, including the United States Medical Licensure Examination (USMLE) Step 2 clinical knowledge (CK). Step 2 CK is becoming increasingly important in decision-making by residency directors because of increasing undergraduate medical enrollment and limited available residency vacancies. We created and validated a regression equation to predict students' Step 2 CK scores from previous academic indicators to identify students at risk, with sufficient time to intervene with additional support services as necessary.

Substance Use Disorder Training Workshop for Future Interprofessional Health Care Providers.

Introduction: Rates of substance use disorders, including opioid misuse, continue to rise despite national initiatives. Because of this, health professional schools from Rhode Island joined together to design and implement a single-day interprofessional education workshop on substance use disorder training.

Methods: This workshop consists of four sessions.

Access to treatment for opioid use disorders: Medical student preparation.

The current opioid epidemic requires new approaches to increasing access to treatment for patients with opioid use disorders and to improve availability of medication assisted treatment. We propose a model where medical students complete the necessary training to be eligible for the waiver to prescribe opioid medications to treat these disorders by the time of medical school graduation. This plan would increase the number of Drug Abuse Treatment Act of 2000 (DATA 2000) waivered physicians who could gain additional experience in treating substance use disorders during residency and provide the access to clinical care needed for individuals suffering with opioid use disorder.

Proceedings from Bridging Health Disparities to Address the Opioid Epidemic: A Symposium at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Objective/background: In response to the unprecedented rates of illicit drug use, including opioid addiction and overdose in Rhode Island, local healthcare institutions, led by the Warren Alpert Medical School (AMS) of Brown University, collaborated to present "Bridging Health Disparities to Address the Opioid Epidemic." This symposium sought to educate a wide array of healthcare providers and professionals around opioid use disorder, including the state of the opioid crisis in Rhode Island, national efforts around opioid misuse and how providers can work together to stem the opioid crisis in the state.

Design And Methods: The symposium included a keynote session which aimed to increase knowledge and decrease stigma.

An interprofessional education workshop to develop health professional student opioid misuse knowledge, attitudes, and skills.

Objective: To implement and evaluate an interprofessional workshop focused on increasing student knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward opioid misuse.

Setting: The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, April 2016.

Practice Description: Health professional students from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, social work, and physical therapy participated in an interprofessional education workshop focused on opioid use disorder.

Playing in the "Gutter": Cultivating Creativity in Medical Education and Practice.

In comics, "gutters" are the empty spaces between panels that readers must navigate to weave disjointed visual sequences into coherent narratives. A gutter, however, is more than a blank space--it represents a creative zone for making connections and for constructing meaning from disparate ideas, values, and experiences. Over the course of medical training, learners encounter various "gutters" created by the disconnected subject blocks and learning experiences within the curriculum, the ambiguity and uncertainty of medical practice, and the conflicts and tensions within clinical encounters.

The Primary Care-Population Medicine Program at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

The United States healthcare system has been in a period of rapid evolution over the past decade, a trend that is anticipated to continue for the foreseeable future. Physicians are increasingly responsible for the quality of care they provide, and are being held accountable not just for the patient in front of them, but also for the outcomes of their patient panels, communities, and populations. In response to these changes, as well as the projected shortage of primary care physicians, the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University (AMS) developed the Primary Care-Population Medicine (PC-PM) program, which builds upon the traditional curriculum with major integrated curricular innovations.

Future health disparity initiatives at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

As the United States embarks on health care reform through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to practice medicine will change. Education centered on health disparities and social determinants of health will become increasingly more important as 32 million Americans receive coverage through the ACA. In this paper, we describe future initiatives at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in training medical students on health disparities and social determinants of health through mechanisms such as the Primary Care-Population Medicine Program, the Rhode Island Area Health Education Center, the Scholarly Concentration program and other mechanisms.

Health disparity curriculum at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

There is increasing recognition that, in addition to acquiring knowledge of basic sciences and clinical skills, medical students must also gain an understanding of health disparities, and develop a defined skill set to address these inequalities. There are few descriptions in the literature of a systematic, longitudinal curriculum in health disparities. Using Kern's six-step approach to curriculum development along with principles of experiential and active learning, student champions and the Office of Medical Education developed a multimodal health disparities curriculum.

An intensive medical education elective for senior medical students.

Peer teaching by medical students is increasingly consid- ered an effective and efficient instructional modality with value for both teachers and learners. In 2012, twelve senior medical students participated in an inaugural, four-week Medical Education Elective at The Alpert Medical School of Brown University. The first week emphasized education theory and skills.

A new clinical skills clerkship for medical students.

Background And Objectives: The transition to clinical clerkships can be challenging for medical students. In the context of a formal clinical curriculum redesign, a curriculum team led by family physicians systematically planned and implemented a 3-week course to prepare new third-year students for specialty-specific clerkships.

Methods: Informed by a formal needs assessment, we developed a classroom-based Clinical Skills Clerkship (CSC) with varied instructional approaches.

Introducing technology into medical education: two pilot studies.

Objectives: Educators are integrating new technology into medical curriculum. The impact of newer technology on educational outcomes remains unclear. We aimed to determine if two pilot interventions, (1) introducing iPads into problem-based learning (PBL) sessions and (2) online tutoring would improve the educational experience of our learners.

Incorporating iPads into a preclinical curriculum: a pilot study.

Background: The incorporation of technology into medical education is critical for learners. Little is known about the effect of integrating iPad technology into undergraduate medical education.

Aims: We introduced iPads into the first-year curriculum in 2011-2012.

Developing a peer-mentor program for medical students.

Background: Doctoring is a 2-year preclinical course designed to teach medical students fundamental clinical skills.

Purpose: We designed, implemented, and evaluated an innovative and cost-effective peer-mentoring program embedded within Doctoring. Our Teaching Academy (TA) included a formal orientation for teaching "Fellows.

An introductory interprofessional exercise for healthcare students.

Objective: To evaluate healthcare students' perceptions of an introductory interprofessional exercise and their team dynamics.

Design: A workshop was developed, combining second-year medical students, fourth-year nursing students, and third-year pharmacy students to work as an interdisciplinary team. The teams alternated between working together on patient cases focusing on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, and on the evaluation of standardized pneumonia patients.