Yale School of Medicine Education Priorities 2021
After four months of speaking with and hearing from many Yale School of Medicine students, faculty, and staff, I have compiled a preliminary list of priorities for medical education. There are still more of you to meet and hear from, so these priorities will be refined and developed further in the months ahead. The list, not in order of importance, includes:
1. Develop innovative approaches to medical education that are irrevocably engaging and compelling, enhanced by increased use of simulation and evolving technologies and resources.
2. Improve how we recognize, value, and promote participation in our educational mission, including funded protected time for key educational roles and contributions and clearer guidelines about promotion for clinician educators.
3. Identify and address challenges to faculty and student engagement in our curriculum, while embracing the Yale System of medical education.
4. Increase the health equity content across our curricula and develop our faculty in regard to this content, focusing not only on what we teach, but how we educate ourselves and our trainees.
5. Further empower our learners to meaningfully monitor their progress across their curricula, so that they arrive at residency or their first position knowledgeable, competent, and equipped for the challenge of life-long, self-directed learning and patient care.
6. Provide more individualized support, coaching, and mentoring to our learners, recognizing their diverse backgrounds and needs.
7. Develop and implement new strategies to increase and support diversity among our learners, faculty, and staff.
8. Continue to strongly embrace scientific inquiry and research, while expanding opportunities for all types of research across disciplines, including projects that address social determinants of health and health equity.
9. Promote further collaboration in educating our trainees across sciences, disciplines, and professions, including our Physician Associate, Physician Assistant Online, MD, and PhD programs and our colleagues from Yale School of Public Health, Yale School of Nursing, and Yale New Haven Health, to promote mutual respect and teamwork in caring for our patients with empathy, humility, and compassion.
10. Support and increase engagement with our community and our patients considering societal circumstances that may impact their health, including racism and bias, and foster a commitment to address health disparities through research, advocacy, and clinical care.
11. Evaluate and improve our curricula, pedagogies, and means of assessment through a carefully designed continuous quality improvement process.
12. Create an inclusive and affirming environment with an ethos of respect, mutual support, and professionalism that provides resources to support wellness and community building.
13. Promote and augment education and scholarship in bioethics and humanities in medicine.
Note: On August 13, 2021, two priorities were added to the original list.
Jessica Illuzzi, MD, MS
Deputy Dean for Education, Harold W. Jockers Professor of Medical Education