Unmasking the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC)
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How was the LIC created?
While we had a relationship with UVM Larner School of Medicine, Frank Bailey, M.Ed., Tania Bertsch, MD, Dean of Clinical Education, and I worked for a year, reviewing published literature and going to national meetings, to design a Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship. The clerkship would be situated in Maine and be offered to UVM medical students. We ran the clerkship with UVM students for one year and transitioned the LIC to UNE COM the following year. We are currently in our third year with UNE COM students in the LIC.
What do you hope will be the outcome of the LIC?
We have two goals for the LIC. First is to provide students with an excellent educational experience in a rural community in Maine. An experience that develops their clinical skills deeply and fosters their interest in caring for the underserved rural population that encompasses a deep understanding of the social determinants of health at play in rural settings. The second goal is to educate a group of physicians that are likely to practice primary care disciplines in a rural Maine Community.
How is UNE COM involved in the project?
UNE COM reviewed and approved the curriculum for the LIC and allowed us to implement it as a pilot project. They partner with Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center to share in providing the needed financial and administrative support. UNE COM is also actively involved in recruiting students to apply for the LIC and in helping us review the applications, interview the applicants and select the students for the next year. Further, they support our assessment initiatives and provide access to the technology needed.
Tell me about your role as Regional Dean:
As the Regional Assistant Dean, I oversee most of the third-year clerkships for up to 42 UNE COM students that are with us for their entire third-year, we conduct their end of rotation assessments, we collect and complete consensus assessments of their clinical performance in each of the disciplines. We also offer fourth-year, one-month electives and sub-internships for 45-60 UNE COM students per year. My role specifically includes recruiting and maintaining clinical faculty, providing Lead Preceptors for each of the third-year clinical disciplines, helping to design faculty development opportunities, and monitoring and maintaining performance of each of the clerkships, electives, and sub-internships to assure the students are getting a quality educational experience. Fortunately, I have an excellent team of individuals that do all the hard stuff.
How is it different than what you were doing previously?
Before becoming the Regional Assistant Dean at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, I was the Lead Preceptor for the Surgery Clerkship, serving as Chief of Surgery at NL-EMMC, and practicing cardio-thoracic surgery. As far as my educational responsibilities, I delivered the content for the surgery clerkship for 4-6 students at a time, did their mid-rotation formative assessments, and provided their final summative assessments. I did not have responsibility for oversight of the other clinical disciplines, faculty recruitment, faculty development, input on curricular design or assessment methods. At EMMC, I did not manage the Undergraduate Medical Education team. <>
“LIC students build deeper relationships with their preceptors and patients through continuity of those relationships