Medical Education Electives

Course Number: ACE-300 

Elective Supervisor(s): Camilla Larsen, MD
Elective Coordinator: Tina Calcagno
Credit: 2 weeks 

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

This course provides career advising for students in their third year at SSOM who are having difficulty selecting a specialty using the resources provided in PCM.  Although the course is designed to be a four week elective, scheduling will be flexible so the course can be completed during clerkships without undue hardship.

Deactivated until further notice

Course Number: MDED-110

Elective Supervisor(s): Kayhan Parsi, JD, PhD 
Elective Coordinator: Amara Aziz  
Credit: 1 week 

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

The goal of this course is to introduce students to laws pertaining to the practice of medicine, laws pertaining to ethical conduct, and regulation. Through this course, students will acquire concrete tools that will help them avoid common legal pitfalls as they enter the medical practice. In addition, students will demonstrate a progressive acquisition of interpersonal and communication skills as they become familiar with the legal language and appropriate ways to disclose errors and financial ties to patients, leading to more compliance, professionalism and greater comfort in practicing evidence-based medicine over defensive medicine. Students will also demonstrate the ability to investigate and evaluate one's care of patients and to improve patient care based on analytical reflections and self-evaluation.

The goal of the elective is to introduce students to osteopathic medicine and provide exposure to osteopathic manipulative techniques, OMT. Students will complete a 3-month elective course, including 8 podcasts and 5 skills sessions, to gain understanding and skills of osteopathic examination, diagnosis, and manipulation. Students must attend all sessions and will be examined upon completion. By the end of the elective, student should be able to discuss the history of osteopathic medicine, assess and discuss treatment regarding topics such as soft tissue, lymphatics, and muscle energy, and be familiarized with specific osteopathic manipulative techniques such as the structural exam, myofascial release techniques, and HVLA. 

Course Number: MDED-250

Elective Supervisor(s): Monica Maalouf, MD 
Elective Coordinator: Claudia Kubnick 
Credit: 1 week

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

This elective has been designed to provide students teaching and mentorship skills which will serve as a foundation as they advance in their medical careers. The elective will require students to attend two guided didactic/simulation activities, and then participate in five small group facilitations with under-classmates. Students who register for this elective should be motivated to teach and facilitate small group sessions and should be comfortable discussing psycho-social struggles with their classmates.  They will also be required to attend a debrief session at the end of the elective and submit course feedback surveys and evaluations. 

Course Number: MDED-275

Elective Supervisor(s): Trent Reed, DO, MSMEd, FACEP
Elective Coordinator: Amara Aziz  
Credit: 1 week

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

The goal of the elective is to introduce students to osteopathic medicine and provide exposure to osteopathic manipulative techniques, OMT. Teacher Assistants will have taken the three-month elective course - Introduction to Osteopathic Medicine previously, including eight podcasts and five skills sessions, to gain understanding and skills of osteopathic examination, diagnosis, and manipulation. Teacher Assistants will now be responsible for assisting in three of the six sessions with proper reviewing beforehand of all techniques. TAs will also be included in a half-day shadowing session of osteopathic manipulation at MacNeal family medicine clinic, after which they will write a reflection regarding their experience and include a written case presentation of one of the patients who was treated with OMT OR attend an extra two sessions. 

Course Number: MDED-280

Elective Supervisor(s): Ramzan Shahid, MD 
Elective Coordinator: Claudia Kubnick 
Credit: 1 week

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

This elective will focus on teaching Emotional Intelligence (EI) to help students develop strong communication skills and interpersonal skills. EI is a key component to establishing rapport and trust with patients, in addition to being a vital aspect of leadership development. The elective will further educate students on using EI skills to develop their own resilience in order to help reduce the risk of burnout. Specific EI-Resilience strategies will be discussed and students will explore ways to enhance their own well-being by utilizing these strategies.

Course Number: MDED-350

Elective Supervisor(s): Gregory Gruener, MD, MBA, MHPE, FANA
Elective Coordinator: Claudia Kubnick 
Credit: 2 weeks

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

The Educational Leadership in Academic Medicine Elective (“Leadership Elective”) at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM) is designed to provide students with a personalized experience to develop leadership skills through education, reflection and exposure to leadership in medicine. Through this course, students will have the opportunity to reflect on their own leadership journey, develop interpersonal and communication skills, and collaborate with peers, while participating in activities to build their leadership story and prepare for real world experiences as a leader in medicine. The goal of this course is that students will demonstrate a progressive acquisition of leadership skills, while engaging in both personal and professional development.

Course Number: MDED-350.TA

Elective Supervisor(s): Gregory Gruener, MD, MBA, MHPE, FANA
Elective Coordinator: Claudia Kubnick 
Credit: 1 week

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

The Educational Leadership in Academic Medicine ("Leadership Elective") at Stritch School of Medicine is designed to provide students with a personalized experience to develop leadership skills through education, reflection, and exposure to leadership in medicine. Through this course, students will have the opportunity to reflect on their own leadership journey, develop interpersonal and communication skills, and collaborate with peers, while participating in guided activities to build their leadership story and prepare for real world experiences as a leader in medicine.The goal of this MDED-350.TA elective is to provide students an opportunity to serve as Teaching Assistants for sub-cohorts of students in MDED-350 by actively facilitating, supporting, and providing feedback to their sub-cohort of students as they complete the six sessions in MDED-350 and ancillary assignments. It is our hope that these Teaching Assistants will also become mentors for their assigned students and will themselves demonstrate a progressive acquisition of leadership skills, while engaging in both their own personal and professional development.

Course Number: MDED-380

Elective Supervisor(s): David Smith, MD
Elective Coordinator: Amara Aziz  
Credit: 2 weeks

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

Clinical Reasoning is an important area of medical education; this elective will provide three elements of teaching in to strengthen students’ skills in diagnostic reasoning. Those three areas include: (1) Didactic exposure to the terminology and theories of clinical reasoning, (2) Active participation in case discussions, (3) Guided production of educational content to be shared with peers.

Course Number: MDED-400

Elective Supervisor(s): Richard Carroll, MD 
Elective Coordinator: Claudia Kubnick 
Credit: 2 weeks

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

The goal of this elective is to promote student physician wellness by providing the fundamental scientific basis and outcomes for use of the Transcendental Meditation program, while training students themselves in the art and practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique. Students will attend lecture-discussions, training sessions, meditate daily, log meditation sessions, write a reflection paper and take a short exam. Grading will be pass/fail and passing all components is required to pass the elective.

Course Number: MDED-420

Elective Supervisor(s): Mary Boyle, MD 
Elective Coordinator: Maureen Locklund
Credit: 2 weeks

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

Physicians teach to many learners in their practice. Those learners include students, patients, nurses, and their medical colleagues. This elective will occur over the 9-month period of fourth year for 2 weeks elective credit. Quarterly meetings to discuss medical education theory, methodology and practice will be required. You will be expected to attend 1 out of every 2 sessions in the summer, fall, winter, and spring. While we hope you can attend all 4 sessions, 3 will be required. These sessions will begin at ~ 4:45 PM for 1 ½ hrs. The opportunity to implement that knowledge will be in the form of a teaching practicum through a minimum of six PCM II small groups or independent sessions, i.e.: OSCEs. The expectations are that formal teaching encounters would occur within a minimum of six small group sessions (conducted on Tuesday afternoons) or independent sessions over the nine months. The observation and critique of one medical student teacher will be required. You choose the medical school professor you want and complete an online critique.

Course Number: MDED-430

Elective Supervisor(s): Camilla Larsen, MD 
Elective Coordinator: Amara Aziz 
Credit: 1 week

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

The Healer's Art is an elective course designed to address the "hidden curriculum" in medical school by identifying, strengthening, and cultivating the human dimensions of the practice of medicine. It was developed twelve years ago by Rachel Remen, M.D. at UCSF and has now been successfully replicated at other medical schools. This course adds a unique experience and approach to the professionalism curriculum.

Course Number: MDED-440 

Elective Supervisor(s): Sari Hart, MD, FACEP 
Elective Coordinator: Amara Aziz 
Credit: 1 week

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

This clinical companion course focuses on new ways of understanding the human dimension of medical care. It is designed to illuminate our daily challenges, with discussions that will elevate our common humanity. Students will leave the sessions better prepared to master their own path in a clinical environment.

Course Number: MDED-450

Elective Supervisor(s): Gregory Gruener, MD, MBA, MHPE, FANA
Elective Coordinator: Tina Calcagno 
Credit: 1 week

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

Residency programs are increasingly looking for applicants to demonstrate their competitiveness with a diverse range of experiences beyond strong grades and board exam scores. Experience in teaching is an excellent way to demonstrate a commitment to a career in academic medicine.This elective is designed to support students' initial efforts at teaching and provide them with practical tools to design and deliver learning sessions in individual, small group, or large group formats; evaluate and assess themselves and their learners; and reflect on their practice and progress as leaders and teachers. By providing the opportunity to develop these capacities, we support the educational development of the future teachers and leaders of SSOM and other schools and programs across the country.

Course Number: MDED 270

Elective Supervisor(s): John Hardt, Ph.D. 
Elective Coordinator: Amara Aziz 
Credit: 1 week

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

This part-time elective takes up the question of personal and professional identity formation within the context of medical training. The purpose of this elective is to assist and accompany students in attending to their personal and professional identity through (a) a thematic exploration of traits of attention and self-awareness and virtues of caring and persistence in response to corresponding challenging components of medical training and medicine’s practice and (b) participation in the practice of the Ignatian

—a brief, self-reflective exercise rooted in gratitude—that originates in our school’s origin and mission as a Jesuit medical school.

Course Number:  MDED-460 

Elective Supervisor(s): Jeffrey Heiferman, MD 
Elective Coordinator: Amara Aziz 
Credit: 2 weeks 

ELECTIVE DESCRIPTION

The Medical Simulation elective is a two-week course offering, allowing fourth year medical students interested in medical education and simulation to gain a foundational understanding and exposure to medical education through simulation.  Students will participate in lectures, group discussion, journal club, write a simulation case, and will participate in running and debriefing at least one simulation case during this elective