West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnerships
West Virginia Area Education Center Program.
WV Rural Health Schools Committee
10:00am – 12:00pm
November 12, 2007
Days Inn Flatwoods, WV
Members in Attendance: Karen Bailey, Mary Anna Love, David Bowyer,
Jo Ann Raines, Dennis McCutcheon, Nannette Van Dyke McDonald,
Ralph Utzman, April Vestal, Richard Meckstroth, Robert W. Foster
Hilda R. Heady, Sandra Y. Pope, Kathleen Bors, Carla See, Jacki Novacich,
On Conference Call: Norman Ferrari.
Chairing the meeting: Hilda R. Heady
The meeting was opened with the explanation of why we were meeting as just the Schools Committee. Hilda R. Heady after a “lengthy discussion and some reflection at the Schools Committee meeting in September 2007 and subsequent e-mails among members, I feel it is time to asses the functions of the committee and address some of the changes in our program over the past few years.” ~ Hilda R Heady.
History of Schools Committee:
“The Schools Committee was the first committee of our partnership and served primarily as the policy development arm for the Vice Chancellor and maintained the communications among the schools and between the schools and the community training sites. The curriculum function within the early days of the Kellogg program was very strong and much of the work on this Kellogg committee migrated into our partnership when both programs were merged in 1995.
We have grown exponentially since those days, and now need to address program growth within our total RHEP/AHEC program. The anticipated increase of students in the field beginning in the summer 2009, will impact our current system, and the mechanisms through which we implement our curriculum must be prepared.” ~ Hilda R. Heady.
Charges to the Committee:
- “Policy development and implementation to meet the needs of the schools, the partnership, and the local communities.
- There needs to be a vehicle for the schools to address issues particular to interaction at the school level, among the schools, and between the schools and the community based training sites.
- It is imperative that the Schools' own the curriculum and not be disjointed from the community service learning part of the community based curriculum.
- · Take the lead on the interdisciplinary curriculum with the Faculty Development Committee. The Faculty Development committee has done some tremendous work in defining the ID Curriculum and the experiences for students that meet these interdisciplinary curricular objectives. However, sometimes, there appears to be a disconnect in communication between the schools and the community training sites around the ID curriculum. In this regard, the Schools Committee could help the partnership immensely by performing the following:
- § Develop a system to review the IDE curriculum and designate the "best practices" among the wide variety of IDEs that are available for students the committee should make recommendations on improvements and changes and do so in consultation with the Faculty Development Committee.
- § Develop a statement that clearly defines the interdependent aspects of the interdisciplinary curriculum, i.e. what are the interdependent skills that all rural providers should have to be effective in a rural environment? This work could be guided by a review and updating if needed, of our graduate outcome objectives and the AHEC competencies.
- § Clearly define the relationship and interaction needs among the Schools Committee, the Joint Curriculum and Outreach, and the Faculty Development Committee around the curriculum.
- · Develop a mechanism for the schools to learn from each other around matters such as accreditation processes and visits, rural health teaching content, etc. Give serious consideration to the make up of the Schools Committee and review membership for redundancy in other committees.
- § The Schools committee needs to have a forum for the school reps to hash out issues, and it also needs a forum for school based faculty to interact with field based faculty.
I ask that the Committee have a report on their work by June 30, 2008, and that if there are specific policy revisions or new policies to be developed that these be drafted by July 30, 2008.”
~ Hilda R. Heady.
Questions in the past had been brought up of the development of a committee of just the medicine Schools. There is nothing that prohibits the development of such a committee, yet there has never been someone to take the lead in creating a committee. This will need to be addressed, and how do we build into this.
Reactions on the Charges:
Dr, Norm Ferrari: It seems a bit over whelming for this group of individuals when we don’t meet that frequently. The part we are lacking is the school reps to hash out issues. A private conversation on what’s really going to happen now that we have increased in enrollment is what needs to happen. There are all kinds of issues that need discussed. We have not had a form where we could have these discussions.
Dr Robert W. Foster: The reason for combinding committees was redundancies of members, number of meetings, and distance we all have to travel. There are reasons to have us all together and reasons for some separate conversations.
Hilda R. Heady: The increase of enrollment is a good example why the schools of medicine want separate committees and meetings, but with the increase of enrollment it is not just localized it is across the board in all disciplines.
Dr. Norm Ferrari: Correct. It needs to happen as a whole not just with the schools of medicine.
Dr. Robert W. Foster: There has been an evolution in composition of the committee since it was Kellogg. We are not just the deans and administrators any more, but a more eclectic group.
Hilda R, Heady: If I had to choose from this list of charges that I would want to see started or completed by the end of June they would be policy development and; implementation to meet the needs of the schools, the partnership, and the local communities; and develop a mechanism for the schools to learn from each other around matters such as accreditation processes and visits, rural health teaching content, etc. Give serious consideration to the make up of the Schools Committee and review membership for redundancy in other committees. That would be great.
Dr. Richard Meckstroth – We would need to review the outcome objectives and concrete them before looking at the best practices.
Hilda R. Heady – Agree.
Nannette Van Dyke – McDonald – RN program has their own curriculum and there are problems arising with consortium projects and the discipline’s curriculum.
April Vestal – What needs to happen is the curriculum needs to be brought up at the AHEC/RHEP Joint Committee meeting to discuss the curriculum.
Dr. Kathleen Bors - I felt the same way as Norm felt. It does all feel overwhelming. We need to increase the frequency of meetings to make the chargers achievable. Also, if you are on the committee then you should be present at the meeting. Representatives need to be at the meetings to make this work.
Dr, Richard Meckstroth - A major challenge, as well, is the increase in students and what a realistic expectation in what the site coordinators can do. Their have been complaints from students on the unavailability of the site coordinators. When Site Coordinators were asked about this they stated they had 50 or more students at one time. How can this be meaning full for everyone? We depend too much on the site coordinators to answer questions and to do it all.
Hilda R. Heady – We can’t increase the numbers of site coordinators to compensate for the increase of students do to budget issues. We are working to increase the base budget.
Let’s spend the rest of our time in this meeting focusing on these charges and how we can structure ourselves to accomplish them.
David Bowyers – Let’s develop a 3 year plan to work with the charges that way we have a strategy.
Hilda R. Heady – I am more than happy to work with the committee to structure a 3 year plan. Where do we start?
Dr. Norm Ferrari – I think we need to address the increase in enrollment and what the requirement for graduation along with the RHEP requirement will be.
The WVU School of Medicine is changing there rotation for fourth year students from calendar rotations to 4 week blocks. It may be an issue for site coordinators.
Dr. Robert Foster – WVSOM changed to 4 weeks blocks 3 years ago.
Dr. Kathleen Bors – 3rd year WVU medical students are already on 4 week blocks and so is Marshall.
Dr. Richard Meckstroth – But, not all schools may be on the same block,
at the same time
Carla See – The WVU Pharmacy School has had complaints of new pharmacy students coming in on their rural health rotation in the middle of the medical students rotations and residents rotations, so we changed our blocks for that reason.
Hilda R. Heady – General Agreement is to be looking at the impact of the increase of student numbers?
All Agree
Hilda R. Heady – Next, can be the graduate outcome compendancy along with the interdisciplinary curriculum?
Dr. Kathleen Bors – Since we know it is coming perhaps we can siphon off and re- design while we are looking at them collectively.
Hilda R. Heady – I see no problem in keeping three items on School Committee Agenda. But, we should not go any further, because the Field Faculty Committee has done their work, and we have it in writing. Curriculum Outreach will want to see what evolves from here and Site Coordinators will be excited with the outcome because they are overwhelmed.
I am willing to take this discusion and draft up a work plan. Sandra, April, and I can work on that and send it out for responses.
How do we want to structure our meeting time?
Carla See – There needs to be more than quarterly meeting.
Dr. Robert Foster – Can we do this online?
Carla See – RHEP has the SOLE site. We could make a SOLE site for the meetings.
Dr. Norm Ferrari – The impact of enrollment needs to be a face to face or conference call, because a lot of questions will come up, and it is hard to do on a Web Conference.
Established 2 dates for meetings:
- ü January 27, 2008 at 6:00pm at Embassy Suites.
- ü Phone Conference February 25, 2008 at 1:00pm
Items to address at the meeting:
Worries: It is hard for communities to plan not knowing when, where, or how many with the concerns to Student increase. Along with housing, preceptors, and vacations, etc. as problems too.
Preceptors and what the curriculum is like should be what we are tackling.
Sandra Pope – What are our preceptor numbers?
Hilda R. Heady – Jodie can get the numbers for us.
Dr. Kathleen Bors – The problem is with preceptors wanting students. Then when they get several students at the same time or months at a time they feel overwhelmed and stop taking students. We need to address number of preceptors in areas taking students.
Hilda R. Heady – What preceptors are taking students? It needs to be more specific. Because, I can get Rose to do a run on the data.
Dr. Norm Ferrari – Are there times preceptors won’t take students? Some want students, but not every month. Just a couple a year.
Hilda R. Heady – We need to define currently. The past year, 2 years, etc. to find out which preceptors are taking students and how many.
Dr. Kathleen Bors – Past data does not always reflect the current issues we are facing. We need to know who will take students and how many this upcoming rotation.
Hilda R. Heady – The only way to do that is to call every field faculty and ask them, and preceptors are not so forth coming with information on when they can.
The challenge of this committee is to figure out a way to solve these problems.
Dr. Robert Foster – The past two years of active preceptors?
Hilda R Heady – What does active mean?
Dr. Robert Foster – Preceptors that have taken any students in the past 2 yrs.
Hilda R. Heady – Another question, what are the months they haven’t taken students? That would be a better question.
David Bowyers – We should possibly survey the field faculty. Create a survey and attach a letter signed by all the schools deans. This may give us a clear answer on all questions.
Jo Ann Raines – Ok Norm, so we what need to bring to the table in January is the 3rd year and 4th year student numbers, and their start and stop dates.
Hilda R Heady – The total on the increase in student enrollment is 961.
Are there any other questions? Meeting is adjourned.
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