Engaging with Students

Faculty members who serve on the Admissions Committee help shape each incoming class at YSM, having a profound impact on our educational mission and the future of medicine. Specific duties may include:

• Interviewing invited applicants
• Advocating for applicants at Admissions Committee meetings
• Offering prospective students important information and insights about YSM
• Participating in the student selection process

There are many ways for faculty to engage with students through the Program for Biomedical Ethics (PBE):

• Consider joining the affiliated faculty and staff of the PBE
• Serve as an advisor to a medical student who wishes to engage in research (including thesis) related to medical ethics
• Serve as a small session leader in the Professional Responsibility course for first year students
• Teach (or co-teach) a special session/program for students sponsored by PBE, on an ethics-related subject for which you have particular experience or expertise
• Participate in an elective on Medical Ethics coordinated by the Program for Biomedical Ethics
• Lead a seminar hosted by the Bioethics Interest Group, a student-led group sponsored by the PBE.

There are many ways to engage in the MD curricula. For example, there are teaching and course director opportunities across the curriculum (preclinical courses, clerkships, electives, and subinternships). Faculty are needed to work with teams of educators and students implementing new curricular content areas, to be members of committees focused on the development of new instructional pedagogies, and to be part of committees working to develop more effective paradigms for formative and summative assessment that are consistent with the Yale System of Medical Education. Opportunities are also available to participate on standing review subcommittees addressing the continuous quality improvement (CQI) of the courses, clerkships, electives, and subinternships.

Within the curriculum, there are many opportunities for clinicians to engage in the mentoring of students focused on the development of clinical skills and professional identity formation. These include:

• Interprofessional Longitudinal Clinical Experience (ILCE): Yale medical, physician associate, and nursing students are coached together as part of small teams in the clinical environment. The focus is on practicing interview and physical exam skills. Tutors work with students one half day per week for 16 weeks.
• Medical Clinical Experience (MCE): Teams of four second-year medical students work with a tutor(s) to further hone their clinical skills in interview, physical exam, and clinical reasoning. These sessions also focus on the development of professional identity for future physicians. Faculty tutors work with students one half day per week for 23 weeks per year.
• Teaching Clinical Skills: In this course faculty share their skills and knowledge to train first and second-year medical students in interview, physical exam, and clinical reasoning. Clinical Skills workshops occur on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons throughout the academic year in our Clinical Skills Suite.
• Longitudinal Coaching: The coach works with the student throughout their Yale School of Medicine (YSM) undergraduate medical education training, supporting the student’s professional development and reviewing individual progress in meeting the milestones toward attaining YSM’s nine MD Program competencies.
  
• Precept in Your Office: Community-based preceptors are needed to facilitate student encounters with patients. They oversee students in a clinical setting in which students are mentored in the meaningful and effective clinical encounters with patients. Preceptors in these sites facilitate the further development of clinical skills, clinical reasoning, and oversee the gradual increase in responsibility and independence during a student’s clerkship year. Students in these settings often report that they feel like they become part of the practice. These rotations are frequently considered as among the most enjoyable and rewarding experiences of the clerkship year. Student rotations are typically 2-4 weeks in length.
  

DICE: There are many opportunities to engage with DICE’s programs and other initiatives including:

• Attending the monthly social for underrepresented MD, PhD, and MD-PhD students through First Sunday Socials
• Serving as a mentor for underrepresented students
• Supporting student affinity groups
• Pipeline and Recruitment Programs
  • PATHS -Pathways to Advance Training in Health and Science
  • YSEMA-Yale Summer Enrichment Medical Academy
  • First Look Immersion
  • Amgen Biomed Surf
  • AASA-Arts and Anatomy Science Academy for New Haven public school elementary students

The Office of Global Health Education (OGHE) focuses on student education while engaging faculty in teaching around global health themes, serving as global health research mentors, and fostering a community of clinician educators engaged in global health.

• Faculty are needed to serve as research mentors and to help foster a community of clinician educators engaged in global health.
• For faculty clinician educators engaged in global health programs and projects, the Global Health Council provides an opportunity to connect with other colleagues across the three health professions schools. The group meets the first Tuesday of the month at noon. Participants share project updates, best practices and opportunities for collaboration. If you are interested in joining, please email Nickia Corley to be added to the list.
• Funding opportunities are available to faculty through OGHE’s Global Health Education Innovation Award. The award is to promote faculty research programs in global health education at Yale and provide opportunities for medical students to learn methods relevant to research in medical education.
• Faculty in global health are encouraged to visit the OGHE website to learn more about the opportunities available to Yale medical students.
• The Yale Institute for Global Health serves as the focal point for global health research, providing support for identifying funding opportunities, and fostering mentorship and networks for faculty interesting in global health.

Faculty are welcome to attend Program for Humanities in Medicine (PHM) lectures and other PHM-sponsored activities, space-permitting.

Faculty interested in serving as mentors for humanities summer research or other projects, especially those with expertise in curricular evaluation and qualitative or mixed-methods research, should contact Program Director Anna Reisman. Please also contact Dr. Reisman for more information about the PHM and to join its listserv.

Faculty, especially clinician-scientists, interested in participating in various aspects of the MD-PhD Program should email md.phd@yale.edu.

• The heads of the advisory houses provide guidance and support around academic, professionalism, and career decisions throughout the students’ time in medical school.
• Faculty serve on the Progress Committee, which meets monthly to ensure that every medical student is on track to graduate and meet their professional goals.
• House affiliates play a key role in supporting community building, career exploration, and providing mentorship. Our goal is to have representation from every medical specialty in each house, so that we create a robust opportunity for students to connect early and at different time points with mentors, role models, and future colleagues.
• The Office of Student Affairs oversees a large number of student interest groups, all of which are required to have a faculty preceptor to guide and oversee activities within the groups.

• Research mentors help mentor students with summer research projects and/or their thesis requirement.
• START@Yale (Summer To Advance Research Training @ Yale): START, which pairs medical students with faculty research mentors during the summer before the first year, regularly seeks additional mentors.