An Innovative Approach for Integrating Mandatory, Longitudinal Spirituality Training into the Medical School Curriculum

Problem: Most Americans indicate they are religious and/or spiritual and wish to have their beliefs taken into account when engaging with health care providers, yet gaps in medical education and health care practice remain. To underscore the importance of spirituality as a significant social determinant of health, a team at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York developed mandatory spirituality and health training for students integrated into all 4 years of the undergraduate medical education curriculum. Approach: From 2014 to 2020, a small group of faculty took an innovative approach, launching the initiative and expanding the team by engaging interprofessional faculty and staff from across the institution. The team used an iterative process to integrate 4 distinct modules into 4 existing courses, spanning the four years of medical school. Outcomes: The majority of students found that the spirituality and health curriculum was valuable to training and professional development. They appreciated the importance of patients’ spiritual needs; valued learning about the role chaplains play in patient care and how initiate a consult; and indicated they intended to integrate spiritual history-taking in their patient care. With respect to process, 3 key factors—establishing an interprofessional team, working through an iterative process, and integrating the curriculum into existing courses—were critical to designing and implementing the modules. Next steps: The team aims to expand and improve the curriculum by linking learning to specific standardized competencies as well as developing more specific performance assessments to demonstrate achievement of competencies. Professional development efforts will be enhanced so faculty can better model and reinforce the integration of spirituality into health care practices, and expand the curriculum on spirituality and health into graduate medical education

The Human Rights and Social Justice Scholars Program: A Collaborative Model for Preclinical Training in Social Medicine

Background: Despite the importance of the role social justice takes in medical professionalism, the need to train health professionals to address social determinants of health, and medical trainees' desire to eliminate health disparities, undergraduate medical education offers few opportunities for comprehensive training in social justice. The Human Rights and Social Justice (HRSJ) Scholars Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is a preclinical training program in social medicine consisting of 5 components: a didactic course, faculty and student mentorship, research projects in social justice, longitudinal policy and advocacy service projects, and a career seminar series. Objectives: The aim of this article is to describe the design and implementation of the HRSJ curriculum with a focus on the cornerstone of the HRSJ Scholars Program: longitudinal policy and advocacy service projects implemented in collaboration with partner organizations in East Harlem. Furthermore, we describe the results of a qualitative survey of inaugural participants, now third-year medical students, to understand how their participation in this service-learning component affected their clinical experiences and professional self-perceptions. Conclusion: Ultimately, through the implementation and evaluation of the HRSJ Scholars Program, we demonstrate an innovative model for social justice education; the enduring effect of service-learning experiences on participants' knowledge, skills, and attitudes; and the potential to increase community capacity for improved health through a collaborative educational model

The Human Rights and Social Justice Scholars Program: A Collaborative Model for Preclinical Training in Social Medicine

BACKGROUND: Despite the importance of the role social justice takes in medical professionalism, the need to train health professionals to address social determinants of health, and medical trainees\u27 desire to eliminate health disparities, undergraduate medical education offers few opportunities for comprehensive training in social justice. The Human Rights and Social Justice (HRSJ) Scholars Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is a preclinical training program in social medicine consisting of 5 components: a didactic course, faculty and student mentorship, research projects in social justice, longitudinal policy and advocacy service projects, and a career seminar series. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this article is to describe the design and implementation of the HRSJ curriculum with a focus on the cornerstone of the HRSJ Scholars Program: longitudinal policy and advocacy service projects implemented in collaboration with partner organizations in East Harlem. Furthermore, we describe the results of a qualitative survey of inaugural participants, now third-year medical students, to understand how their participation in this service-learning component affected their clinical experiences and professional self-perceptions. CONCLUSION: Ultimately, through the implementation and evaluation of the HRSJ Scholars Program, we demonstrate an innovative model for social justice education; the enduring effect of service-learning experiences on participants\u27 knowledge, skills, and attitudes; and the potential to increase community capacity for improved health through a collaborative educational model

Medical Student Learning From Residents in the Workplace

Purpose: To explore what third year medical students learn from residents and which teaching strategies are used by residents in their interactions with students in the clinical workplace environment. Method: In this multi-institutional qualitative study between January and March 2012, the authors conducted focus groups with medical students who were mid-way through their third year. Qualitative analysis was used to identify themes. Results: Thirty-seven students participated. Students contributed 228 comments related to teaching methods used by residents. The authors categorized these into 20 themes within 7 domains including Role-Modeling, Focusing on Teaching, Creating a Safe Learning Environment, Providing Experiential Learning Opportunities, Giving Feedback, Setting Expectations and Stimulating Learning. Role-Modeling, the most frequently classified method of teaching in this study, was not included in the three most popular “Resident-as Teacher” (RAT) models. Strategies such as offering opportunities for safe practice, involving students in the team and providing experiential learning opportunities were not emphasized in these models. 197 student comments representing the knowledge and skills students learned from residents were categorized into 33 themes within 9 domains including Patient Care, Communication, Navigating the System, Adaptability, Functioning as a Student/Resident, Life-Long Learning, General Comments, Career/Professional Development and Medical Content. Most areas are not emphasized in popular RAT models. Conclusions: Residents serve as critical teachers of students in the clinical workplace. Current RAT models are based largely on the teaching behaviors of faculty. The content and teaching strategies identified by students in this study should serve as the foundation for future RAT program development

Mission Critical: Reimagining Promotion for Clinician-Educators.

Academic clinician-educators who teach health professions trainees and lead educational programs have been penalized by the mismatch between their daily contributions to the academic mission and traditional promotion criteria focused on peer-reviewed publications and external reputation. Despite two decades of incremental approaches, inconsistency and inequity persist in the promotion process for clinician-educators. The authors propose five steps to mark a new approach to academic advancement for clinician-educators: (1) elevate the scholarly approach to teaching over peer-reviewed publications; (2) allow clinician-educators to identify an area of focus; (3) broaden the evidence for educational excellence; (4) prioritize internal referees; and (5) increase clinician-educator representation on promotion committees. Achieving meaningful change requires transforming entrenched traditions and policies at multiple levels. Changes that advance equity are necessary to retain academic faculty members who train the next generation of health professionals