As we enter the fall months, there are several important events that speak to our blessings and duties as citizens of the United States. The events are as follows:
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Constitution & Citizenship Day: September 17th is Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. This day commemorates the September 17, 1787 signing of the U.S. Constitution. Each educational institution that receives federal funds for a fiscal year is required to hold an educational program about the U.S. Constitution for its students. Be on the lookout for more information that will be shared throughout the college this month regarding this historic and important day. To learn more: https://edsitement.neh.gov/.
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U.S. Census: Over the next decade, lawmakers, business owners, and many others will use 2020 Census data to make critical decisions for New Mexico. The results will show where communities need new schools, new clinics, new roads, and more services for families, older adults, and children. Thank you for your willingness to support and participate in the census. By doing so, you are supporting every New Mexican
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Election 2020: If you have not registered to vote, I encourage you to do so sooner than later. Every election is important. We are blessed as a nation for the right to vote and for the freedom to vote for whom we choose. Click here to register to vote.
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- First, thanks to everyone for the warm welcome you’ve extended as I’ve assumed the role of Dean. Dr. Peska left big shoes for me to fill, and I appreciate his ongoing help to ensure a smooth transition.
- It was great meeting many of the students who volunteered their time and effort during the Protect NM PPE Donation Drive on August 29. You all serve as great ambassadors of the College and represented us well in our community, and the PPE you collected is greatly appreciated by those it benefits.
- As of this writing, Drive-Thru Socials are around the corner: The Class of 2024 will be recognized, complete with White Coats, on Friday, September 11. An Ice Cream Social, sans white coats, for the Class of 2023 is planned September 18. I’m looking forward to seeing as many of our students as possible, masked and appropriately distanced, of course.
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Institutional Advancement |
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In collaboration with the Community Engagement Team, the Office of Institutional Advancement is pleased to present the first ever BOO-rell Pumpkin Carving Spooktacular on Friday, Oct. 9. Two hundred free pumpkins and pumpkin carving kits will be passed out to community members during this fun, drive-thru event. Those who are interested will also be able to participate in an at-home pumpkin carving contest with spooktacular prizes! Stay tuned. More details to come.
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Administration & Operations (HR, IT and Finance) |
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HR is beginning the three-year salary review in which we compare employee salaries to market comparators. The compensation comparability information for faculty is taken from the AAMC salary survey at the 25th percentile for rank and discipline, and for staff from national CUPA-HR salary survey or other applicable sources. Salary adjustments will be effective July 2021. If you have any questions about this process, please contact the HR Office.
The HR Office also encourages all employees to get a flu shot prior to October 15! If you have any questions about availability of flu shots, please contact HR.
The Finance Office recently completed the financial audit for the fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2020.
The Facilities and IT Departments continue to support operations under COVID Safe Practices; please reach out to either office if you have questions or need assistance as we continue under Phase One restrictions in the state.
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Laboratory Standard & Hazard Communication Training will be offered online to the campus community on Oct. 30 from 1-3 p.m. All persons wishing to work in the BioScience Laboratory must complete this required training. Registration is now open to faculty, staff and students. Contact Kalli Martinez.
The September Distinguished Researcher Seminar Series will feature Dr. Maria Mylopoulos, Associate Professor and Associate Director of Training Programs at the Wilson Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Mylopoulous‘ research explores the development and maintenance of expertise, with a particular focus on how health professionals deal with uncertainty, novelty and complexity in their daily clinical problem solving. This event is hosted by Anatomy & Cell Biology.
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Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology |
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The department is excited to have the Musculoskeletal System course underway. This course lays the foundation for many of the anatomical and cellular concepts that will be built upon throughout the first two years of medical school, and introduces a tremendous amount of new, medical vocabulary for the students to begin applying. It also provides the students with multiple opportunities to interact in lab, as they start establishing a three-dimensional anatomical understanding.
Our department is also working to finalize our Distinguished Research Seminar Series speakers for the months of September and December and we'll be sending out more detailed information about that soon!
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Department of Biomedical Sciences |
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The Biomedical Sciences faculty started this school year developing methods to engage OMS-I and OMS-II students during the COVID pandemic. Dr. Bramblett directed M2P, Dr. Szalai directed the GI II course and Dr. Stauss directed the CVII course.
Dr. Scott Ochs has been developing several virtual Interprofessional Education opportunities (IPE) as well as preparing to direct the Renal II course. Next week, OMS-II students will be participating in virtual IPE activities with University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) School of Pharmacy students. These will be the first IPE activities that Burrell students have participated in with UTEP. OMS-II students will participate in additional IPE events in the spring with Chapman University Pharmacy School in a telehealth simulation.
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Department of Clinical Medicine |
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The semester is in full swing in the Department of Clinical Medicine, and the faculty and students have settled into blended virtual/in-person teaching sessions. In the first-year clinical skills course, students recently launched into learning formal patient interviewing skills, and subsequently successfully put this training to use by interviewing standardized patients using a virtual platform. The transition to med school is tough, and it was wonderful to see the students have the chance for the first time to step into conducting a patient encounter. In the second-year clinical skills course, students also recently completed a virtual standardized patient encounter in simulation of the live setting, where the cases paralleled the content that they are covering in the Cardiovascular systems course. On campus small group teaching labs have gotten rolling for all OMM and PCP courses and they provide a welcome opportunity – with infection control precautions – to teach necessary hands-on skills in a more familiar setting. |
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Department of Physiology and Pathology |
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The Department of Physiology & Pathology is pleased to announce several recent publications by departmental faculty. Dr. Del Corral had a Research Letter entitled "Increased vasoconstrictor sensitivity to glucocorticoids is associated with the exaggerated systolic blood pressure during submaximal exercise in young healthy adults" accepted for publication in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. Dr. Del Corral is also a co-author on a manuscript entitled “COVID-19 and ethnicity: Does reduced responsiveness to glucocorticoids explain the more aggressive nature of disease among minorities?,” now in print in Medical Hypotheses. Dr. Gosselink, with researchers at UACJ and UTEP, had an article entitled “Maternal Separation Induces Retinal and Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cell Alterations Across the Lifespan of Female Rats” accepted for publication in Brain Research. Additionally, the Burrell-sponsored Medical Explorers program, overseen by Dr. Selinfreund, is currently supporting six medical students to become Wilderness First Aid instructors through the American Safety & Health Institute.
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Office of Enrollment Services |
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The Office of Admissions will begin virtual applicant interviews starting Monday, Sept. 21st. Faculty and staff will receive an email with further information about the interviews and may now mark their availability for the fall interview dates in AMP. Ideally, we will need 5 teams of interviewers from 9:55 a.m. – 12 p.m. and 1:05 – 3:05 p.m.; extended hours of scheduling, if needed. |
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Burrell College has been approved to begin a chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS). The GHHS recognizes students, residents and faculty who are exemplars of compassionate patient care and who serve as role models, mentors and leaders in medicine.
On Saturday, Aug. 29th, Burrell student organizations partnered with ProtectNM to host a PPE donation drive at four locations throughout Las Cruces. The drive collected 275 surgical masks, 65 pediatric sewn masks, 40 adult sewn masks, 198 surgical gloves, 13.5 liters of hand sanitizer and 1,000 alcohol wipes for communities in need.
The current residency application cycle started for the Class of 2021 on Tuesday, Sept. 1. Applications will be made available to programs on October 21st, 2020.
On Friday, Sept. 25th from 4:30 to 6 p.m., the Office of Student Affairs will be hosting a panel discussion for the Class of 2023: Balancing 2nd year and Board Preparation.
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Accreditation and Compliance |
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Revised Policy:
- B1043 Title IX: Sex Discrimination and Harassment- Revised
New/Revised Standard Operating Procedures:
- RSP.015.00 Promoting Objectivity in Research- New
- ADM.004.00 Medical Student Admissions Selections Committee Policies and Procedures- New
- FAF.007.00 Process for Faculty 1099 Contract- New
- FAF.008.00 Appointment of Adjunct and Affiliate Faculty- New
- GA.006.05 COVID-19 Related Procedures- Revised
- FIN.020.01 Federal 90-10 Report- Revised
- HR.011.02 Bonus Procedural Guidelines- Revised
- PCE.014.02 Course Grade Adjustment Procedure- Revised
- GA.006.06 COVID-19 Related Procedures- Revised
- RR.008.01 COMLEX-USA Eligibility Status- Revised
- GA.007.05 COVID-19 Exposure and Containment- Revised
- HR.021.01 Conflict of Interest Disclosure- Revised
- FA.011.01 Federal Direct Loan Reconciliation- Revised
- FAF.001.04 Securing Visiting Faculty and Guest Lectures- Removed
The College continues to monitor COVID-19 and directives from the State. You can find the most up-to-date information on the College’s COVID-19 page.
The College updated Title IX policy based on the new regulations. Additional information can be found here.
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- Faculty Affairs welcomed Stephanie Caballero to our department this month. We are thrilled to have her on board!
- Faculty Focus Groups for faculty development begin Sept. 23. Please fill out the survey from Faculty Affairs to select your group.
- New SOPs are posted for 1099 Faculty Contract process and Adjunct and Affiliate Faculty Appointment Process.
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Students, faculty and staff are welcome to visit the Library to check-out materials and make copies, though the Library is not currently available for use as a study space.
The Library has expanded its hours to the following:
Mon - Fri: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday: 8 a.m. to noon
Sunday: Closed
Bone boxes for use in the Musculoskeletal System I course are now available for 24-hour checkout, with the possibility of renewal if there is not a waitlist for items.
Be sure to check out the Year 1, Year 2, and Clerkship subject guides. They include links to required and recommended textbooks, study materials and journals in related subject areas. If there is a subject guide that you would like the library create, please reach out to library@bcomnm.org.
Library staff remain available virtually outside of posted hours, please email with questions or to make appointments.
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Faculty Assembly meetings have been scheduled for the year:
9 a.m. Friday, Sept. 11
9 a.m. Friday, Nov. 6
8:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 5
8:30 a.m. Thursday, April 22
A Faculty Assembly Team has been created in Microsoft Teams, and contains folders for each of these meetings that will contain relevant documents. A separate Faculty Council Team has also been created and will be used for sharing information among this group. Please contact any member of the Faculty Council Leadership Committee if you don’t have access where you should, or if your faculty appointment has changed.
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“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." – Mark Twain
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi
“Don’t wait on perfect conditions, just go ahead and do something.” – Dan Miller
“Remember that person who gave up? Yeah neither does anyone else.”
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Laughter Can be the Best Medicine |
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A doctor and a lawyer are talking at a party. Their conversation is constantly interrupted by people describing their ailments and asking the doctor for free medical advice. After an hour of this, the exasperated doctor asks the lawyer, "What do you do to stop people from asking you for legal advice when you're out of the office?" "I give it to them," replies the lawyer, "and then I send them a bill." The doctor is shocked, but agrees to give it a try. The next day, still feeling slightly guilty, the doctor prepares the bills. When he goes to place them in his mailbox, he finds a bill from the lawyer.
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A boy asks his father, "Dad, are bugs good to eat?" "That's disgusting. Don't talk about things like that over dinner," the dad replies. After dinner the father asks, "Now, son, what did you want to ask me?" "Oh, nothing," the boy says. "There was a bug in your soup, but now it’s gone."
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I decided to make my password "incorrect" because if I type it in wrong, my computer will remind me, "Your password is incorrect."
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A kid comes home from school and excitedly tells his dad, "Daddy, daddy. The teacher asked a question at school today and I was the only one who answered it." His father replies, "Congratulations, my son. I am proud, but what was the question?" "Who broke the damn window..."
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BEAR:
Building Expectations of Alliance and Respect
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