|
|
|
What we do: The quality of teaching for medical students and undergraduates by the Department has been consistently recognized as excellent. Since 2003 the Department has been an active participant in the Vermont Integrated Curriculum at the College of Medicine, a series of multidisciplinary courses. Pathologists participated in the design and evolution of the courses from their inception, and have been instrumental in the formation and continued success of the new curriculum for students during their first two years. Pathologists – attendings, housestaff officers and student fellows alike – give lectures, teach in laboratories, and facilitate small group colloquia in Cell and Molecular Biology, Human Structure and Function (gross anatomy, microanatomy and physiology), Attacks and Defenses (anemias and general pathology), Nutrition, Metabolism and Gastrointestinal (includes endocrine pathology), Connections (skin, bone and joint), Cardio-Respiratory-Renal, and Generations (includes placental and childhood diseases, genital tracts, breast, hematological diseases, and aging). The courses are described in more detail on the University of Vermont College of Medicine Website. In addition, the Department offers electives for medical students in the third and fourth clinical years.
We have created and maintained a Virtual Gross Pathology Museum, which contains at least one image from each of the gross specimens in our wet teaching collection. The Virtual Pathology Museum is indexed by course, lab, organ and organ system, disease, and pathological process. Word searches are also possible. High quality digital images include arrows and labels, ancillary information, and matching radiological images when appropriate. The museum can be accessed by our medical students on the web, and there are plans to make the museum accessible to other medical schools.
More recently, we have created a digital image for each of the microscopic slides in the student slide collection. Students may access the slides using a “virtual microscope”, which allows continuous magnification from roughly 1X to 40X objective, and comparisons with other slides in the set, including normal slides from histology. Students may use the virtual microscope anywhere there is a computer, and can view the slides in small or large groups.
What we believe: As a department, the pathologists think that teaching at all levels is important work, and that all pathologists should be effective and inspiring teachers. Computer-based teaching tools help to ensure continued excellence, and allow our faculty to continue to set high standards in the face of a rapidly changing and expanding knowledge base. We strive to attain and maintain the excellence of the medical student teaching program, with continued emphasis on small group, computer-based interactive learning, which fosters the development of students as problem solvers and critical thinkers.
To this end we:
- Continue the development of computer-based learning.
- Enhance small group learning experiences through the creative use of the computer to demonstrate gross, microscopic and molecular material in the context of textual factual information.
- Continue the development of case-oriented learning.
- De-emphasize the role of large group lecturing as a form of learning and increase active over passive learning. We will increase the quality of the lectures that are given.
- Maintain the quality and current level of support of allied health professional education.
- Reward faculty for teaching excellence and participation, and foster the development of faculty as medical educators.
|
|
|
|
Residents graduating from our program will be knowledgeable and marketable through flexible and balanced training aimed at cultivating excellent diagnostic, consultative, investigative and management skills to prepare for outstanding careers in academic or private practice, as well as success in obtaining board certification. Our residency program will be:
- Fundamentally educational. Clinical education derived through graduated responsibility will be given the highest priority, while providing excellent patient care, and recognizing the value and need for service work. A cornerstone of the educational process will be the structured involvement of residents in clinical or basic research projects preferably leading to publication in peer reviewed journals.
- Collegial and stimulating. We will create an environment in which mentors foster maximal personal and professional growth and development of each resident, as well as mutual respect among faculty, staff, and residents, and between the divisions of anatomic and clinical pathology.
- Resident driven, with shared governance, reliance, and responsibility with regard to processes such as determining the structure of our training, and providing significant input into outcomes such as the scope of our training.
- Dynamic. We are committed to continual reassessment and change, striving to improve each aspect of the program.
- Interactive, with residents involved in function and decision making in laboratory administration and management.
- Nationally recognized, by resident attendance and participation in national pathology meetings, as representatives to resident sections of national pathology and medical professional organizations, and through publication in scientific literature.
|
