Developing A National Collaborative Of Medical Educators Who Lead Clinical Skills Courses

Abstract

Background: The majority of US medical schools now have pre-clerkship clinical skills (PCCS) courses. Course directors for these often logistically complicated courses may be in different medical specialties and, historically, have had few formal opportunities for communication and collaboration with their counterparts at other institutions. As such, we hypothesized that leaders of PCCS courses would benefit from a national network. Summary: In this paper, we outline the methodology used to form a national collaborative from grass roots interest. Over three years, a self-identified eleven-person task force with national representation has created an organization for PCCS course directors from US medical schools called Directors Of Clinical Skills courses (DOCS) that meets annually. Conclusions: Through iterative presentations at regional and national medical education meetings, we have produced an inventory of educational issues for those developing, administering, and evaluating PCCS courses. Further development of this nascent organization is ongoing. Our process is generalizable.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Rhode Island Area Health Education Center (AHEC) for its support of the initial stages of this project as well as the following individuals: Benjamin Blatt, MD, Steve During, MD, Donna Eliott, MD, Andrea Flory, MD, Wendy Madigoski, MD, F. Stanford Massie, MD, Alex Mechaber, MD, Felise Milan, MD, Elsa Mylona, PhD, Jeffrey La Rochelle, MD, Ron Silvestri, MD, and Sara Tariq, MD. The authors have presented components of this work at several medical education conferences including a series of American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC)'s Northeast Group on Educational Affairs (NEGEA) regional meetings: 2010 in Hartford, CT; 2011 in Washington, DC; and 2012 in Boston, MA; at the AAMC's Western Group on Educational Affairs (WGEA) 2011 regional conference in Palo Alto, CA; and at the AAMC's 2011 national meeting in Denver, CO. The authors had no external funding to support this work.