This checklist was developed by the Assessment team in conjunction with Charlene Blake, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care; Meghan O’Brien, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, and medical student focus group participants.The purpose of these resources is to outline good assessment practices and strategies to avoid harmful bias in assessments of students’ clinical performance. Though written assessments of student performance are important to document learning, provide feedback, determine achievement of expected objectives and milestones, and contribute to the residency selection process, research shows that assessments of performance commonly reflect biases that disadvantage women and learners from groups underrepresented in medicine (UIM). Faculty and resident adherence to best practices in learner assessment and conscious effort to avoid harmful bias are essential to assess all students fairly, accurately, and equitably.

Learning Module: Bias and Microaggressions in Feedback

The newly revised Bridges Curriculum Component Review (CCR) will launch this month. The CCR is an educational continuous quality improvement initiative in which courses, clerkships, topics and programs receive the opportunity to undergo a formal review of their outcome data by a peer review team to identify strengths and best practices and informs next steps for improvement. The CCR, which replaces the prior Course, Clerkship and Program Review (CCPR) process, underscores curricular priorities, ensures optimal use of up-to-date outcome data, and improved accountability and decision making.

The Foundational Sciences in Foundations 2 (FS-in-F2) course continues core foundational science learning of students while they are on clerkships, and applies the foundational sciences in a robust clinical context. Like many courses this past year, FS-in-F2 had significant changes to its curriculum caused by the COVID pandemic. The course leaders used this as an opportunity to make changes, guided by valuable input from students over the past two years.

Student ratings highlighted improvements in the overall course and clinical relevance of small groups, instructor teaching excellence, and the value of the preparation on interpreting appropriate diagnostic tests. Student comments underscored effective ways clinical faculty modeled application of foundational science to solve clinical problems. Student ratings also revealed that individual online lessons provide balanced clinical/foundational science content with useful multiple choice questions and explanations.

We are pleased to announce that a new SJV Prime Fresno medical coach has joined our team: