03.08.13A Medical School Rethinks Teaching and Practice
I recently wrote about my fascinating visit to a start-up medical school, founded on the idea that better teaching ought the be more central to medical education. The University of South Carolina Medical School, Greenville is brand new this year and really serious about the power of teaching and practice in preparing doctors. The administration selects faculty based on teaching skill and trains their practitioners and researchers intentionally to help them become great teachers.
One of the most exciting parts of the endeavor is the way practice is so strongly embedded in the curriculum—and the physical design of the school. Dean of Administration Robert Best gave me a tour that blew me away. The second floor of their instructional building is built around the idea that practice is central to success. Simulation rooms built to look like hospital and exam rooms surround a central area where trained actors and medical professionals who play the roles of patients in the simulations can sit and wait for assignment. Each room is wired with a camera and one-way mirror. Being observed or video-taped is par for the course, as is getting feedback and trying again. From technical aspects of medicine—diagnosing details correctly—to human—listening carefully and actively to patients, the skills of medicine get refined through intentional practice.
