College of Human Medicine Develops, Delivers New Pandemics Course In Response to COVID-19

The College of Human Medicine had to make some decisions. After all, the Shared Discovery Curriculum requires clinical experience as a foundation to the hands-on training that CHM students receive. Yet in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the college made the necessary call to remove students from their clinical posts.

“I am disappointed that our students are not currently in clinical settings, and I think it is deeply important for students to re-enter clinical rotations soon,” said Dr. Aron Sousa, CHM Interim Dean in the April 3rd Dean’s Update. “The whole point of our curriculum is that students will be useful, because being useful is a powerful educational experience and the key to their future performance.”

The college decided to quickly transition from inpatient clerkships to delivering remote courses before preparing Late Clinical Experience students for a safe return to patient care. A small group of CHM administrators were charged with addressing those tasks. What they produced was a three credit-hour graduate-professional course for over 250 clinical clerkship students.
 

“In the meantime, we are preparing all of our Late Clinical Experience students to return to clinic in these trying times through a completely new college course, HM691 Clinical Knowledge, Ethics, Epidemiology in Pandemics," stated Dr. Sousa in his following Dean's Update in April 10th.

"And, you can follow along with students here. We’ve made the course open to the world.”

The goal in mind was for students to truly understand the COVID-19 pandemic. For in that understanding, the key was for students to achieve competence in the necessary sciences, clinical knowledge, and public health principles required to assist potential patients diagnosed with COVID-19.

The college employed a multidisciplinary approach, implementing principles in public health, economics, epidemiology, ethics, and even history with layers of the medical sciences as it pertained to disease management. Faculty from our college, the Eli Broad College of Business, James Madison, Microbiology, the Kent County Department of Health, the Economics Department, the Center for Ethics and a couple of our own MD-MBA students were all utilized. Rising second- and third-year students will also take versions of the course later in the spring.

Nearly all faculty who were approached to participate did so enthusiastically, including many who were unaffiliated with the college.

“Organizing this course gave me a new and profound gratitude to be able to work at MSU. Each and every faculty member who was approached to participate in this course responded with an urge to help,” said Dr. Gary Ferenchik, CHM faculty member and Director of JustInTimeMedicine, the College of Human Medicine's own web-based content and assessment management system. “I work at a university full of hidden gems. These are faculty who are not only extremely sophisticated in their area of expertise, but who can teach with clarity and passion.”

The content was ultimately delivered by 29 faculty members from various disciplines. In two weeks, 24 separate sessions were delivered—in sequence from the macro level (history, economics, public health and ethics) to the micro level (necessary sciences related to direct patient care).

Each session’s academic goal was focused around learner-centered questions, such as:

• How is COVID-19 testing done and is it accurate?
• How do I stay safe on the front-lines?
• What can I learn from the 1918 influenza pandemic?
• What ethical principles can I use to help me take care of patients during the pandemic?

Delivered over Zoom videoconference, the sessions had specific goals, learning objectives, and resources to help students prepare for the building content. Those preparatory resources included pre-recorded videos featuring front-line providers in hotspots like Detroit and even further down the road in New York City. Videos also included patients afflicted with COVID-19, which were enhanced by interactive virtual cases. Faculty followed up with more comprehensive answers that were posted online via JustInTimeMedicine.

Despite the natural challenges with delivering on such a task in such short notice for a class size of over 250, an end-of-class questionnaire showed high marks. A total of 92% of students agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “Compared to before this course, I am more confident in my grasp of the necessary sciences needed to understand the COVID pandemic.”

This necessary knowledge provides students a foundation to readily engage with the foreseeable challenges ahead, as the country continues to grapple with the coronavirus. Students feel more confident that they can handle the tasks that health professions undergo during a pandemic. This is important, as the college prepares to reintegrate CHM students into the clinics.

By not having students gain valuable hands-on experience, Dr. Sousa believes “We, as a profession, pay for this in graduates who need a bootcamp before residency and residency graduates who are not experienced enough to enter practice. COVID-19 challenges us to decide what kind of profession we want to have, and I argue we want our students to be treated like the intelligent, well-educated, highly capable adults they are. They should be safe, to be sure, but they should be a part of the profession.

"Getting students back in clinic involves making sure students are safe, that they expand capacity of our health care system, and that we use PPE and other scarce resources efficiently and responsibly."

Late Clinical Experience students will be heading back into the clinics soon. In them, they’ll have a whole new perspective, a whole new foundation on what it means to be a doctor during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please see our COVID-19 Information and Resources page to view a repository of information regarding COVID-19 including recent news, frequently asked questions, CDC guidance and definitions, the university's response and updates from Dean Sousa.