Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Curriculum and Student Affairs Committee

	Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Curriculum and Student Affairs Committee

Present: Banning, Gilchrist, Johnson, Kanous, Kirchhoff, Noack, Rosa, Spear (Chair), Zahner

Approval of Minutes: The May 10, 2002, meeting minutes were approved with the following correction: Kennedy Gilchrist will be retiring in May 2003, not December 2002 as reported at the time.

Introduction of new committee members: included Susan Rosa, a clinical instructor from the School of Education, Dept. of Kinesiology and Jane Banning from the Medical School.

Committee Recommendations: Susan Zahner represented the committee at the Health Sciences Council meeting in May 2002. In supporting the committee’s request for a defined time-slot in the curricular timetables for medicine, nursing and pharmacy the Council asked for a memo from the committee chair requesting that the deans direct the appropriate personnel to address this issue. Scott Spear sent them such a memo 7/15/02 and shared it with the committee members as well. In Sybil Better’s reappointment letter of Scott Spear as committee chair, she indicated that the deans of the health professions schools “enthusiastically endorsed the group’s recommendation that a specific time slot be designated for interdisciplinary activities—the new Health Sciences Learning Center being an ideal venue for this programming.”

The Council also responded to the committee’s request for an additional charge for this committee by asking for draft language from the chair. Scott Spear has forwarded such language to Sybil Better and the Council—and shared it with committee members—related to the charge of developing criteria that would be applied to any courses that seek to be identified as Interdisciplinary for the purposes of the education of health sciences students at UW-Madison. The Committee would further have the responsibility for applying these criteria in the identification of interdisciplinary courses in the timetable, as well as identifying which interdisciplinary courses or activities will be assigned to the “protected” timetable slot in the schedule. The Health Sciences Council has taken no specific response to this action.

Following are items that were discussed and may need further clarification and/or follow-up:

-- The move-in date for the Health Sciences Learning Center is Spring 2004. Since a minimum 1-year lead-time may be needed to effectuate timetable changes, the committee hopes to address this important responsibility in the next several months.
-- There needs to be a meeting with the people who “control” the timetables in order to begin the process of defining a coherent time for all health sciences schools. Because Judy Thompson is the associate dean for curriculum in Pharmacy, she will take the lead in convening this group with the other two timetable directors.
-- Will these interdisciplinary courses be electives or required course material? There are several required curricular areas that could reasonably be presented in an interdisciplinary format. This should be decided in the near future if currently required courses will fall under this recommendation so that curricular planning by the course directors can occur in a timely fashion.
-- Courses and content need to be identified in each discipline in order to get a sense for those courses which may be identifiable as interdisciplinary—i.e. informatics, health care delivery and communication, medication errors, ethics, public health, human sexuality, community and population health). This would include looking at each course name and course number and possibly discussing with fellow colleagues why each course should/should not be interdisciplinary.
-- It may be helpful to have either Mark Albanese or George Mejicano attend a future meeting since they have both been reviewing articles dealing with trends and education standards and other issues having to do with interdisciplinary educational models. We want to ask if there is best evidence in field of health sciences’ education about the most efficacious approaches in interdisciplinary education—should the professors be interdisciplinary, or the students, or both? Are didactic sessions of large classes as effective as small seminars at developing health professionals who are proficient in working as a team member?

Student Involvement: It was agreed that student input would be very beneficial to this committee as it forges ahead with its mission. However, there were several different ways that this input could be provided, including:

-- Having several student members serve on the committee; however, it was felt that a formal change in committee membership might not be the best use of the students’ time. In addition, there was a sense was that students could not meet at 8 AM due to conflicts with class time. It was the consensus of the committee to hear from health sciences’ students regarding several cogent concerns for them in the near future.
-- Since there is no single health sciences’ student group on campus, it might be possible to have representation from several of the student focus groups already in place on campus to provide input to the committee. It was finally decided that committee members will ask several students in their discipline to come to the next committee meeting to provide a student perspective on the committee’s work early in the process this year. The students might include more advanced students, graduate nurses or trainees who have begun to have experience working with other disciplines in a team setting.
-- It was agreed that we would begin the meeting at 7:30AM on November 15th in an attempt to accommodate student schedules. A list of questions will be developed to use as a starting point in the committee’s discussion with students at the next meeting. Following the October meeting Jane Banning developed a draft list of questions that she shared with the committee.
-- The questions to ask the students are: What considerations should an interdisciplinary course planning committee take into account when scheduling a course or seminar series for interdisciplinary health sciences students (med school, OT, pharmacy, nursing, and possibly others)? What format would be beneficial to you in learning about interdisciplinary issues—lecture, small group discussions, projects, simulations, or a mix of formats? Content areas under consideration include such topics as: ethics, interdisciplinary communication, informatics, health care delivery systems, medication errors, public and community health, human sexuality, and others. This is not an exhaustive list. What content would be helpful or what additions would you recommend? Should such courses be required of all health sciences students, or elective? Or which courses should be required and which ones elective?

HOLD ITEMS: It was agreed by the members of the committee to place on HOLD, discussion on Items 4 and 5 as listed on the agenda: Discuss future activity of Interdisciplinary-Health List-Serve and Review Goals and Activities of the Nascent Interdisciplinary Health Web site. Andrea Ball has made some recent changes to the website, but she was unable to attend the October meeting.

The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, November 15. The start time will be adjusted to 7:30AM to enable health sciences’ students to attend in order to have student input into the committee’s charge for proposed changes for interdisciplinary education on this campus by the opening of the HSLC. Either Curt Johnson or Judy Thompson will handle provisions for additional refreshments, chairs and the earlier entry into the building.

Agenda for November IHSC Committee Meeting
Rennebohm Hall, Room 1042
7:30-9:30 AM, Friday, November 15, 2002
(Please note earlier start time to hear from health sciences’ students)

1. Approval of Minutes from 10/18/02 meeting
2. Listening to health sciences’ students’ voices regarding their vision for interdisciplinary education
3. Discuss future activity of interdisciplinary-health list-serve
4. Review the goals and activities of the nascent interdisciplinary health website

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