LCME Update...

As most are aware, we are awaiting our final decision and outcome from the LCME. We expect our final report with our accreditation outcome to arrive by early March, after the LCME vote in February. But that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of quality improvement work going on. The Office of Accreditation and our CQI Steering Committee are developing Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs) with offices across the continuum and developing the infrastructure for a continuous quality improvement program. Current efforts are focused on our likely LCME citations. However, future plans include identifying other areas where ongoing monitoring, review, and improvement can be useful. We look forward to seeing how our office can assist others in creating opportunities to improve what we do and how we do it! [Submitted by Joe Oppedisano]

Human Resources Update

HR updates have shown to be an important topic at each all-staff meeting and Dean's forum, so Mary Belisle will be submitting updates for every bi-monthly Pulse edition.  

2020 P.A.T Information

Many have inquired about the 2020 PAT and annual review timeline. This process has been delayed this year.  We can expect the reviews for 2020 to open up in late Winter or early Spring, and more communications will come as we get closer.  For now, staff can continue to access the goals section of the PAT.  Don't forget to discuss your goals with your managers at your regular one-on-one meetings.  If you are struggling with goal writing, the Medical School HR team is offering a monthly Goals Writing Workshop.  You can learn more here! 

REMINDERS:

Access Keys: Contact Marianne Watters if you are planning to work onsite and need a general access key or key to B620

OME Mail:  Mail for your program needs to be picked up at least once every two weeks - if not more.

In Our Programs....

Admissions

Admissions Interviews -The Office of Admissions spent the summer exploring, researching, and piloting the most effective ways to run our interview day program. In the end with the help of staff, faculty, undergraduate interns, and our SIME intern we chose to move forward conducting our Multiple Mini Interviews via Zoom using their breakout room feature, timers, and adjusting our stations. Interview season started a month later than normal due to the pandemic and MCAT testing. We are one semester in and have received positive feedback so far! Interview days were added due to an increase in applications. We look forward to having a successful Spring semester and are always looking for interviewers! If you are interested in being a part of our interviewer team, please feel free to reach out to me directly at crystale@umn.edu. 

Revisit Day - As our Admissions work has transitioned to 100% virtual this season, what was formerly Revisit Day will transition into multiple events throughout the Spring and an Admitted Student Forum on April 9th. I will reach out directly to offices involved instead of sending a general invitation this year. Thank you all for your support in welcoming the incoming class. Admissions staff hopes to be reunited with you at the Goldy Gopher photo booth at a Revisit Day sometime in the future! 

Continuing Professional Development

CPD is in the midst of a 12 week implementation for CloudCME, a software designed for accredited CE providers. The system offers features like annual disclosure collection for faculty, text in attendance, 24/7 self-service account access for records and conference materials, and a mobile app that will modernize the learner experience. The platform includes robust features that will streamline the work of our departmental coordinators who support accredited Grand Rounds, Journal Clubs and M & Ms. We are excited to reduce their administrative burden as it relates to serving our departmental faculty learners. Stay tuned for more updates as the site goes live in April!   

Graduate Medical Education

We are very excited to have Molly Pierson join the GME team as the new GME Accreditation Administrator.  Molly joins us from IMG Academy where she was a Program Manager in the Athletics Department.  See more about Molly in the "Welcome New Staff" section.

Other news: Check out what else has been happening in the GME world in the  GME Newsletter  and  the Resident & Fellow Newsletter.

Undergraduate Medical Education

Assessment & Evaluation

Update on Item Bank - The item bank of 10,000 questions is growing. Within 3 months, over 30 writers have been trained and they have produced over 1600 items. Each item is meticulously mapped to discipline, system, thread or learning objective. We are on schedule and on budget. This is a team effort and we thank Dr. Claudio Violato for the vision and the training, Eric Martin LaPlante for helping us develop the Qualtrics template, Bethany Schowengerdt* for editing and curating the items, and Cynthia Johnson for assisting with hiring and budgeting.

*Bethany Schowengerdt is the item bank curator who was hired to train and support the item writers, and ensure that the items meet technical standards. 

Institutional Assessments from the Office of Assessment and Evaluation -The Milestone Simulation, usually the first spring Institutional Assessment and usually administered in the SimPORTAL in February, will be administered this year in April. It will be optional for both Twin Cities and Duluth students and will be offered in both an in-person and a virtual format to all MS2s in the new M Simulation Center in the Twin Cities. Information will be sent to all MS2s via several channels.

The CBSSA (Comprehensive Basic Science Self-Assessment) will open for Twin Cities MS2s at noon on February 26 and close at midnight on March 21. Vouchers will be provided to Twin Cities MS2s through Canvas, and more information will be provided through several channels. Duluth students take their CBSSA at a different time and their vouchers are administered by the Duluth campus.

The Year 2 OSCE, usually administered in March/April on both campuses, was scheduled to be combined for the first time last year, but was cancelled due to the pandemic. It will be postponed again this year to a future date, pending many factors, including vaccine availability for students and standardized patients.

The CCA (Clinical Competency Assessment), usually administered to MS3s in April/May, was cancelled last year due to the pandemic and will be postponed again this year to a future date, like the Year 2 OSCE, pending many factors. 

State of UME Report - The annual State of Undergraduate Medical Education Report is now complete! This year's edition is 152 pages and features two new chapters: one dedicated to UME's COVID-19 response and the outcomes of that response, and one dedicated to the results of the Diversity Engagement Survey. One particularly exciting finding from this year's report is that no Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are in the "red zone," for the first time since the KPIs were introduced in 2018. The 2020 report, along with a 9-minute summary video, will be sent to all staff, faculty, and students sometime in the upcoming weeks. 

Changes in A&E -Amanda Koch joined the Office of Assessment and Evaluation as the new Director of Assessment for Years 3 & 4 (Workplace Based Assessment) on January 27. Read more about Amanda in the Welcome New Staff section. Adam Maier, Assessment Systems Analyst, will now report to Amanda. Cynthia Johnson, whose role changed some time ago, has a new title: Operations Associate. 

Curriculum

From the Assistant Dean, Betsy Murray - The bi-campus Curriculum team has been hard at work, along with our Assessment colleagues, on Curriculum and Assessment renewal, scheduled for launch in AY 2022-2023. This is our first year, dedicated to Design and Development. We are so happy to be working with a dedicated and energetic task force to reach for the challenge of an ambitious Education Council charge. We've been working together since September and the early shape of our shared, bi-campus curriculum is beginning to emerge. For more details, take a look at our first quarterly newsletter from December. From me and my co-chair, Kevin Diebel, thank you to the dozens of people who have been a part of this process. We look forward to the work ahead.

Becoming A Doctor Course -We just finished up the January session of Becoming a Doctor for MS3s and MS4s. This week-long course is focused on empowering students to transition successfully and resiliently into the role of physician in residency and beyond. This January, the course was delivered entirely virtually, and included several plenaries, workshops, and selectives designed to foster professional identity formation through skills in reflective practice and advanced clinical skills. Students had the opportunity to engage with experts about the latest updates on COVID-19 and impacts of structural race and racism in healthcare.  

The next Becoming a Doctor series will be August 24-27, 2021.

RPAP/MetroPAP

We are in the middle of the exciting season of recruiting and interviewing students for the next program year and communicating with potential RPAP and MetroPAP sites about student placement. It's always inspiring to meet with students and hear their goals for the future and what kind of physicians they hope to be. This year, we held all info sessions and interviews virtually - thanks to Katie Krasaway and the amazing group of all LIC staff, we were able to practice Zoom breakout rooms for virtual interviews and post a number of videos and resources online for students to view on their own time. Our sites across the state are as engaged and excited as ever, and look forward to welcoming another cohort of RPAP and MetroPAP students next year. We will be finishing our placement process in the next couple of  weeks! 

Student Affairs

Office of Learner Development - The Office of Learner Development is pleased to announce 2 transitions.  The first involves the departure of James Cooper who will be taking his remarkable talents and self to our DEI office to help in their emerging efforts and programming. James will be missed in student affairs, however, we're excited for the opportunities that await him and heartened that he will be nearby. In a second dose of good news, we are pleased to introduce everyone to our new program coordinator, Shannon Nelson. Shannon is returning to Minnesota (and the University) after living and teaching in California. We are so appreciative that she chose to take on this role and look forward to her contributions to our efforts here in MedEd. (Learn more about Shannon in the "Welcome" section)

Career Development & Residency Match - Winter and Spring is a busy time for career development and residency match preparation.  The MS-1s and MS-2s have the opportunity of attending seven different Specialty Spotlights, a series designed to support career exploration and to learn more about a wide variety of career paths.  Additionally, we are offering an Introduction to CV writing workshop for MS-1s  on February 3rd and an Explore Your Options:  Alumni Networking workshop for both MS-1s and MS-2s on February 12th.  MS-3 students are in the early stages of preparation for the residency application process and will be having a Residency Workshop Bootcamp series in early April.  It will be a combination of pre-recorded content and live Zoom Q&A and panel sessions.  The MS-4 students are in the final stages of residency interviews, which took place virtually this year due to COVID-19.  According to our surveys and other feedback, they reported feeling very prepared after using the Big Interview Medical and other resources.  We are excited for Match Day on March 19th to celebrate their success!!

Important upcoming events -

Match Day 2021 will be held virtually on Friday, March 19. 

We will make a decision on the format for Commencement (virtual or in person) by March 1. Commencement this year, regardless of format, will be Friday, May 7. 

Grab a cup of coffee/tea/hot cocoa (and maybe a donut) and join us on the first Thursday of the month in welcoming new staff at the "Virtual Coffee Break-Welcome New Faces!" zoom event.  We will be welcoming the following new staff on Feb 4 at 10:45.  A meeting invite was sent to all staff with a zoom link.  See you then!

The interns continue to work remotely and have very flexible hours. If and when you are interested in requesting assistance for short-term or long-term projects or for onsite events/projects please complete the “Request for Remote Work” form (please do not use the old form).  Contact Marianne Watters if and when you want a student designated to work a number of hours/week in your program.

Virtual Coffee Bar/Water Cooler Chats

Many of us miss the casual conversations and friend-shipping that took place around the coffee bar on Mayo 6th floor - not to mention the donuts and other left-over treats!  We miss hearing the special announcements, weekend/vacation stories/pictures, personal accomplishments, and sharing of ideas.  In this new section we bring the Coffee Bar/Water Cooler conversations virtual! 

Please think about what you would like to share for the March/April edition of the Pulse.  Don't wait to submit it -  send it to Marianne Watters or use the newsletter submission form.

Staff Talents

At our end of year OME all-staff meeting, several staff (including one student intern), shared their talents with us in a virtual talent show via Flipgrid.  If you didn't have the opportunity to see it, you can still check it out here.   If you have a talent that you would like to share, please add it to the showcase!

One of our student interns, Niloofar Sohi,  shared a beautiful musical number on her viola called "From One Land to the Other."  This piece was written by one of her dear friends from her home country. She gave permission to share the story of how/why the piece was written.

"From one land to the other is a piece that my great friend and composer Setraeh Shafii composed and dedicated to me. We were classmates in Tehran Music School for 6 years back home in Iran. Then both of us immigrated to different countries to continue our education. It has been years that we have not seen each other and we don't know when we would have the chance to meet again. So, one day when we were talking on the phone she asked me to play viola for her, like the time we were in school.  She said she got inspired by my playing and started to write this piece for me, in memory of our country and our childhood. From one land to the other was a piece she wrote in Germany and I played it in the United States while both of us were thinking of Iran."  

More Tasty Recipes.. 

Check out some of the new recipes added to our OME cookbook "Remotely Good Recipes"including a wonderful apple pie recipe from one of our interns, Zixin Chen, and a delicious soup recipe submitted by Maija Braaten.

Please add your favorite recipe by copying one of the slide templates and adding your recipe to the copied slide - with a picture of the finished project if possible (or send it to Marianne). We'd love to see our staff cookbook grow!

Also - tell us about the recipes you've tried so that we can give them the stars they deserve!

In Case You Missed It...

The nation's first ever youth poet laureate, Amanda Gorman, recited a beautiful and emotional poem, "The Hill We Climb" at the Presidential Inauguration on January 20.  If you did not hear it, take a few minutes to read and absorb the power of it.  

Thank you to James Cooper who provided the following information and  opportunities for staff to engage in the meaningful work being done in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and inclusion.

• The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has officially launched its website. Visit med.umn.edu/odei to learn more about the office and all things Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within the Medical School. Any feedback or request can be sent to ms-odei@umn.edu

• ‘Collaborator-in-Chief’ — Meet the Inaugural Vice Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion -  Ana Núñez, MD, FACP

  • Staff are encouraged to utilize the EVENTS, HOLIDAYS & TRAINING OPPORTUNITY Calendar webpage for awareness.

• Josie R. Johnson Human Rights and Social Justice Award - nominations due Feb. 15

The purpose of this award is to honor University of Minnesota faculty, staff, and students who exemplify Dr. Johnson’s commitment to creating respectful and inclusive living, learning, and working environments.

• Join us for our next SADI Lunch & Learn Discussion on February 18 - REMINDER!! SADI invites you to join us on February 18 from 11:30 am - 1:00 pm as we read and discuss our first book, "How to Be an Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi. We welcome all who would like to join the discussion, please plan to attended even you aren't able to finish reading the book, come where you are. 

Need to find a copy of the book? Here are a few suggestions:

• • • UMN Bookstore

    • Magers & Quinn

    • Moon Palace Books

    • Apple Books

    • Audible

Please RSVP if you plan to attend to receive the Zoom link. Note, we will be using the breakout feature to facilitate our discussion.   

• Webinar opportunity: Anti-Racism Work: Dismantling your Practice

Feb. 18, 2021, Noon – 1:30 p.m, offered by Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing

• Promote The Wellbeing Lecture Series website

• "Kudos to Janell [Lopez] for working to start a consistent coordinator onboarding process! While she's busy doing everything for our students, she's also helping orient their coordinators (and directors), which is no short order. Thanks for repping UME so hard to our affiliated colleagues, Janell!!! You truly embody the "I care if you succeed" attitude. " [Andrea Medina]

• "Austin Calhoun - the Office of Learner Development took on 2 position recruitment processes around the holidays and Austin was simply fantastic in her efforts to coordinate, problem solve, create content and basically keep it all progressing smoothly. We are so fortunate to have her guiding our OME efforts. Thank you!" [Scott Slattery]

• "Kudos to Scott Davenport for being Scott Davenport. Scott is the rudder of Student Affairs - his years of experience steer the office away from hidden dangers and he is the voice of calm as Student Affairs has transitioned into a more fully functioning office of support (notably with the academic advising & career development programs).  He may not ring his own bell, so we decided to do it instead.  Kudos Scott!" [Scott Slattery]

•  "Ali Niesen & Joe Oppedisano for their efforts in supporting the Houses program. When the Houses program encountered a bump in the road last Fall, Ali and Joe stepped forward to offer their creative, visionary and technical talents to help keep things on track ... sort of like AAA for the program.  Because of their efforts and bottomless optimism, the Houses program is undergoing some fundamental organizational shifts that should allow the program to better realize it's promise and potential. Here's an apple for each - thank you! " [Scott Slattery] 

• "Carol Sundberg:  Your leadership has truly been inspirational and I am grateful that I get to learn from you every day.  Thank you for setting a good example of what leadership can look like. " [Heather Woeste] 

• "Heather (Woeste) and Le Que (Heidikamp) have done an amazing job in organizing the tracking process for over 1,000 residents and fellows who are in the process of getting their COVID-19 vaccination." [Christy Illig] 

• "Jennifer (Burks) started a few weeks before the pandemic started, and has been  working remotely since we were all sent home in March. She has been able to juggle so many projects, meetings, newsletters, and anything that comes her way. I'm grateful that she is on the GME team."  [Christy Illig]

• "A big 'Thank you' to Tami Brown who filled in and helped out several programs in OME when they were short-handed.  She is incredibly skilled and is a true OME team player!"  [Marianne Watters]

• "The GME office would be lost without the leadership of Carol (Sundberg), Susan (Culican), & Kaz (Nelson) over the past year. Their connections with the community have shown to be invaluable in moving GME forward in such a tough time. I'm so grateful to be working with such a strong, intelligent, caring, and creative group of leaders." [Christy Illig] 

• "A big shout out to Esther Dale who recruited, interviewed, and trained 35 student Item Writers in November and December. Claudio Violato, Adam Maier, Kayla Kranitz, and I all had opportunities to lend a hand, as did Bethany Schowengerdt, the Item Bank Curator. Mary Belisle in HR provided herculean support to get them all hired before the holidays so they could start writing over the winter break. It was amazing and fun to see this project come together! " [Cynthia Johnson] 

• "Carola Kulow and Jodi Brenden Amir- thank you for your hard work and unending commitment to our year+ long RPF process! It was often arduous and definitely a learning process but we made it!" [Hannah Holzschuh]

• "Kudos to Andrea [Medina] for building departmental Canvas sites to organize and house all offered electives! The organizational framework she developed will be so useful for students, faculty, and staff to explore our clerkship elective offerings!" [Jess Blum]

• "Kudos to Janell [Lopez] and Katie [Krasaway] on yet another successful LIC Match meeting! Thank you for all your work to make the experience seamless." [Jess Blum]

• "Many thanks to Mary Belisle for helping so many staff in OME with HR needs and providing her expertise.  We are all lucky to have her working with us!  You are amazing Mary!"  [Marianne]