Undergraduate Medical Education

Connecticut Children’s is the sole clinical teaching site for inpatient pediatric education of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, educating the entire student population of third-year medical students annually during inpatient pediatrics, along with outpatient clinical sites, pediatric subspecialty elective rotations, and advanced clinical experiences (sub-internships) for fourth-year medical students in preparation for transition to pediatric residency.

The mission of the Division of Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) at Connecticut Children’s is to provide inclusive and engaging experiential and didactic education for the University of Connecticut medical students with teachings centered around the unique medical needs of the child, the importance of a patient- and family-centered approach to care, and a holistic view of the child in relation to their family, community, and society. The goals of the pediatric clerkship are to engage the third-year medical students in the active multidisciplinary and patient- and family-centered care of pediatric patients across the spectrum from newborn and well child visits to acute inpatient care for common and subspecialty conditions, and the care of children with medical complexity. To accomplish this goal, third-year students spend their inpatient pediatrics clerkship time rotating on the inpatient medical and surgical floors, working with general pediatric and subspecialty teams, in experiential learning in the pediatric emergency department and newborn nursery, and in case-based sessions about clinical topics, interactive workshop sessions for quality improvement, and high-fidelity simulation. Fourthyear medical students participate in advanced clinical experiences in the inpatient pediatrics sub-internship, serving as essential providers fully in the role of an intern in preparation for the transition to residency. Pediatric subspecialty electives support a breadth and depth of pediatric-specific medical education for students spanning medical and surgical specialties and different clinical environments. ADAPTATION TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC In late March 2020, medical students across the country were removed from clinical rotations in an effort to respect and practice physical distancing and limit all clinical settings to essential personnel in the wake of Covid-19. In the absence of clinical teaching and learning, clerkship directors were tasked with providing a virtual curriculum for their clerkship students. The Division of Undergraduate Medical Education at Connecticut Children’s used this potential setback as an opportunity to innovate and collaborate in finding new ways to teach students virtually.

As many institutions were faced with similar challenges, several local institutions formed a multi-institutional collaboration to capitalize on collective faculty resources and expertise, and to simultaneously teach all of the affected medical students. Formed and organized by division director Joanne Crowley, MD, MSEd, with extensive contributions by Allyson McDermott, MD, MAcM, and Dr. Mary Brown of Tufts University, the result of this collaboration was the New England Pediatric Education Collaborative (NEPEC), a virtual Pediatrics curriculum offered to all medical students from the University of Connecticut, Tufts University, and Quinnipiac University who were scheduled to be on their pediatric clerkship from March 23, 2020, through April 17, 2020. This innovative and unprecedented collaboration allowed minimal interruption to clinical education during the most trying of times. Content goals and objectives were based upon the recently revised 2019 COMSEP General Pediatric Clerkship Curriculum. Our curriculum was delivered via the Blackboard Collaborate platform using various methodologies including didactic sessions, case-based conferences, interactive tutorials, live oral presentation practice, team-based learning clinical reasoning, journal club, and a virtual simulation session. Each NEPEC session had specific learning objectives and pre-conference assignments, and each live session allowed for student participation via video and audio, small breakout groups, and real-time audience polling. To maximize engagement during conferences, emphasis was placed on visual diagnosis, video demonstrations, and audience response systems. All sessions were recorded, and students were asked to complete conference evaluations as part of curriculum evaluation and improvement.

The NEPEC resulted in 40 sessions with over 60 hours of content. A total of 71 students participated in our virtual curriculum, with up to 55 learners “attending” any given individual conference. The majority of students who completed conference evaluations rated all conferences combined as “excellent” or “good” for overall quality of the conference (86 percent), effectiveness of the conference presenter (86 percent), and level of active engagement of the conference (76 percent). Comments from students described acquisition of new knowledge, additional learning questions, and constructive feedback on each session. Student comments for several conferences indicated they especially appreciated educators who highlighted the relevance of their conference content in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This collaborative effort has resulted in an online curricular product including learning objectives, conference pre-work assignments and video-recorded conferences. Due to its innovative nature, this work has been accepted and disseminated as oral presentations at two national conferences, the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP), and the Association of American Medical College’s (AAMC’s) Group on Educational Affairs in 2021.

STAFF

Joanne Crowley, MD, MSEd Director, Pediatric Undergraduate Medical Education

Allyson McDermott, MD, MAcM Assistant Clerkship Director, Inpatient Pediatrics

Andrea Richardson Medical Education Registrar