Student feedback indicates that the learning community is a valued part of the
FSU College of Medicine experience. The regional clinical campuses each have
an education/administration building that features a community room like the
one on the FSU campus for use by students during their clinical training years.
DISTRIBUTED CLINICAL TRAINING MODEL
The legislative studies that led to the design of the college of medicine’s clinical
training model examined the educational needs of physicians in the current
health care environment, and various funding models for medical education.
Based on these studies, a nontraditional clinical training model was recommended.
This recommendation was made into law, which directed FSU to establish
clinical campuses in specific Florida communities. These clinical campuses
were to utilize existing health care facilities and recruit and train community
physicians to serve as clerkship faculty. The establishment of these clinical campuses
and the development of a curriculum to support this training model was an
important challenge. The initial step taken to establish the model was to establish
a community board for each campus and develop affiliations with community
partners in each campus region.
Currently, the college of medicine, following the legislation’s mandate, has
regional clinical campuses in Orlando, Pensacola, Sarasota, and Tallahassee, and
has affiliation agreements for the education of medical students with all major
hospital systems and other health care providers in the communities where the
regional clinical campuses are located. These community partners have a seat
on the local community board and participate in the training of medical students,
recruitment of community clinical faculty, and other community activities
related to the successful operation of the clinical campuses.
Each regional clinical campus is headed by a campus dean who reports to the
chief academic officer at the FSU College of Medicine. The individual clerkships
on each regional campus are headed by campus clerkship directors recruited from
the local physician community. The individual clerkships are coordinated across
the college’s regional campus sites by a discipline-specific education director who
is responsible for coordinating the content, delivery, and assessment of the clerkship
curriculum. The education director verifies comparability of the educational
experience in the specific discipline across campuses. Student support staff and
fiscal and information technology support are also available on all campuses.
An ongoing clerkship faculty development program is critical to the success
of the distributed clinical training model. Community physicians who serve as
clerkship faculty are required to participate in faculty development sessions at
their regional campuses. Regional campus clerkship directors come to the main
college of medicine campus in Tallahassee regularly for sessions of curricular
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