In preparation for becoming the health care
professionals of tomorrow, students at the University of Texas Medical Branch all train to be the
best practitioners they can be in their chosen areas
of concentration. In addition, they will soon be
required to take a broader look at the overall field
of health care.
After defining a group of
general competencies all its graduates should take from the classroom to the
workforce, TEAM IDEAL has announced a plan that will require students to master
twelve areas
common to every discipline the school covers
before graduation.
The program will ensure
graduates have a handle on basic issues common to
all health-care professions. Areas covered will
include cross-cultural competencies, legal and
ethical issues, research, management, critical
thinking, communication, and professional role
development.
After a thorough study of core competencies and
curricular approaches in health professions education
in 1996, the Pew Health Professions Commission
found that although these approaches were
badly needed, almost no such initiatives had been
successfully developed across the nation.
Responding to that need, a task force of 18 UTMB
faculty members met for 18 months to develop IDEAL. Within two years TEAM IDEAL plans to
have systems in place to teach, apply and evaluate
the competencies as well as document mastery on
the transcript of every graduate. Part of the plan is
to provide interdisciplinary capstone learning
experiences aimed at providing practical, team-oriented
opportunities for gaining and demonstrating
the competencies.
"We spend a great deal of time training students to
be proficient in their particular type of therapy,"
said Helen Rogers, assistant professor of physical
therapy. "We’ve needed to find a way to show they
are part of a team. The students will learn that
their discipline is just a small piece in a much
larger puzzle. Our hope is that we not
only turn out excellent therapists,
but great members of the healthcare
team as well."
IDEAL will use outside-the-classroom experiences to weave
the competencies into the students’
learning at UTMB.
Instead of simply combining the
subjects into a required course,
students may use technologies like
the Internet or CD-ROMs or participate
as a group in special learning
opportunities to absorb the required information.
"We will give students a list of required
competency lessons they must complete
during each year here," said Marilyn
Childers, assistant professor in the
respiratory care department. "They can
get together in groups, work at someone’s
home or the library, and learn from one
another as they complete the lessons.
They will learn the same teamwork skills
necessary for success after graduation
while they are still students."
Charles H. Christiansen, SAHS dean, said, "The health care systems of the future will
require professionals who work together for the
benefit of the patient, are effective communicators
and understand that patients expect to be involved
in health care decisions affecting them.
"For this reason, providers of tomorrow must be
prepared to offer informed options to their patients,"
Christiansen added. "They must recognize
that doing things right and doing the right things
always are different sides to the same coin. The
workforce will increasingly require more than
simply a degree specifying technical proficiency in
a given discipline."
Written by John Tyler
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