Dooley Noted: 12/18/2013
My genius boss at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dr. Todd Olson, announced last year that our lab practical exams were to be largely taken as a team.
Individual questions were still stationed, but half of the practical was to be taken by the dissection team.
I can’t speak for the faculty, but I thought this might not properly test the individual performance. But, skepticism without testing hypotheses is unfounded. So, I trusted the trial’s results to see if I was right.
I could never have been more wrong.
What I saw unfold forever changed how I viewed the “I” in team.
These students studied together and planned team dynamics. They had discussions of the anatomy, embryology, and clinical correlations. They got excited to postulate what answers were correct.
The most charging observation? They were so relaxed, and many told me the experience was quite fun.
THAT is what healthcare can be.
We can diminish the “I” in team and discuss more, help more, postulate more. We can co-care more and seek more help.
I don’t know why I ever doubted this would work, since the team faculty dynamic is so beautifully effective on educating students. Why would team examination dynamics not have the same effect?
And the carryover – oh, the carryover – of starting semester 1 medical students in a mindset of helping their peers.
To quote one student, he said this about the team practical portion:
“I can’t know everything in medicine. This type of exam helps me learn to reach out to my colleagues.”
Be a strong contributor, but the strongest response will always be a team of care for students and patients.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley
P.S. Score outcomes were pretty much the same, with the exam team based or not, when compared to previous years.