MSC Meeting Minutes 2/19/2014

Class Updates

1st years: Second test on Friday, everyone is stressed about aminoglycosides and macrolides. Co-presidents will be contacting handbook people.

2nd years: 2nd ID and Life Cycles test coming up. Step 1 Review Sessions are going on. Social Chairs planning a barbecue to get people back together and help distress.

3rd years: Still waiting on 4th year scheduling, a little bit behind schedule.

4th years will be certifying matches in a few weeks

Committee Updates

Innovations: looking at a Match Day Match for raising scholarship money.

Events: Dodgeball can’t happen this year because the Bladium is all booked.

OSR: Interviews for new OSR representative. Person will be approved by MSC.

Exec Committee: would like to get people thinking about Exec Council positions for next year.

Communications: Technology stuff will be addressed at meeting tonight.

Finance Committee: will present Spring Budget as soon as Chair (Tim Ung) arrives

MSTP Rep Survey

  • MSTP’s feel that they are definitely or somewhat well represented during their medical school years
  • Some comments indicated that they sometimes fall off the radar, esp. during lab years
  • Many of the survey respondents said they would like an MSTP rep on MSC
  • Some thought they could get represented well enough by just talking to other non-MSTP reps
  • Some other assorted issues also came up.
  • Vote to add an MSTP rep to MSC: Movement Passes

MSTP Rep will be added to MSC if a representative can be found.

Warren Village Agenda

  • Warren Village runs Healthy Beginnings Clinic in transitional housing for single parent, low income families
  • Medical Students help to run the clinic and are trained by older students
  • Volunteer support from attendings at Children’s Hospital
  • Warren Village was founded in 1996, but now has run into some obstacles in their non-profit status. Currently reestablishing non-profit status and vaccination program.
  • Now working to be affiliated with State Health Department vaccine clinics.
  • Working to get new equipment to maintain temperature regulation tools and will need $3000 dollars to obtain it.
  • In the time between their approval as a non-profit, they would like to be approved as a student group so they can get financial support through MSC.

Questions:

  • After obtaining Student Group Status, would all students be able to participate in the clinic? Or only the ones registered for the elective?
  • Not sure
  • Will be adhering to State Guidelines for children’s vaccination program.
  • Recently lost ability to store the vaccines and new guidelines are the reason for the change
  • How are other electives funded?
  • Warren Village could potentially apply as a student organization for the Innovations Award next year.
  • Main concern is recognition as a student group so they can get funding.
  • If they did become a student organization, they would still get elective status. Must be “associated” student status by Senate.
  • We can only fund medical student groups only.
  • Student Interest Groups that also have electives have funding from specific departments. Leaderships happen to be the same, but they are different entities.
  • Student Groups are open to everyone, Electives are not. Do you change the premise of how members are chosen. Can everyone participate without being registered in the elective?

Discussion will be tabled until we have more information about Warren Village’s status on elective

Stout Street Innovations Award Check-in

  • Students come to clinic to work with homeless patients, first years under 4th year and faculty attending
  • Social medicine module to help first years ask direct questions of patients to connect them to vital services. Innovations is funding “to-go-kits” with food, hats, gloves.
  • MS1s can have conversations about education, why these goods are important
  • Stout Street is now on Wednesday nights, people have to choose between Stout Street or bed at the shelter. Offsets opportunity cost of coming to clinic.
  • Will further student understanding of how difficult access is, and that this is a rewarding population
  • Patients are also very happy and numbers have anecdotally gone up

Helen MacFarlane on Technology

  • SharePoint is challenging – administrative staff also has trouble with it
  • Will be hiring a student worker
  • Concentrate on content, give to student worker to get it done
  • Seth Lofgreen was struggling to find things on the website, maybe create a Canvas Course that is a generic space, students can curate the site and help them find things.
  • Second years have student forum w/ Step 1 review
  • School of Medicine is the only one that can set up courses like that not set up to registrar’s office. Contact Helen or Everett to get things set up on Canvas.
  • Canvas courses will integrate google docs

Spam stuff

  • Communications has a digest of clinical trials to minimize emails
  • May also do something similar from academic organization where it is
  • Many administrative faculty have list serve, and many emails get sent out
  • MSC is trying to centralize and make sure that fewer emails are sent.
  • OSR has started using bracketed prefixes in the subject line to get consistent senders and filterable messages.
  • Digest might be too big a project
  • Identifying people w/ access to emailing us, discuss email etiquette
  • Canvas notifications also contribute to this.

Student Interest Groups

  • Trying to put up to date interest stuff. People who are listed as leadership.
  • Random pages linked to site, through dept. etc.
  • If MSC can help work on Student Group Interest Pages it might help
  • Helen will follow up

Student Life Website Level

  • Limited space, can’t be on the top bar of the student life website

MSTP registration and Canvas problem

  • Were not included because of grad school status in Canvas, were not added to B&L, D&D. Has been remedied

New software for responses

  • Group is looking to make a new type of response software for audience response. Will transition next year after they figure out
  • Scheduler for 4th year will now cover 3rd year
  • FDC loggers will be transitioned in April to make a mobile app, etc.
  • SNAPPS is also changing. It is moving on campus but will have a different function.
  • New Innovations is sticking around
  • There could be a survey tool added for MSC, other student groups.
  • Curriculum tool can keep track of your courses and allow you to gauge where you are learning which core competency

Issues in 3rd and 4th year with Canvas transition

  • Blackboard is impossible on a mobile device. Canvas app is available for notifications, etc. Browsers used at Children’s or Denver Health are too old.
  • Blackboard should still be available, even after the transition to Canvas
  • Information is disseminated all over the place, not much of a “centralized portal” for things. Is there a way to revamp the site and have a unified medical school website with MSC
  • Is this feasible?
  • Helen collaborates with people who run the overall website. Central functions of school of medicine are already decentralized, could be hard to get all this communication together in one place.
  • Can try to improve it for our cohort

Leadership Elective

  • Curriculum aspect: helps you talk about this on ERAS
  • Based on 11 leadership principles of military cadets
  • Faculty advisor sees a void of leadership development and wants to work on it and a general leadership philosophy
  • Will have flexibility to have different leaders from the community, school come and speak in the didactic sessions
  • MSC would be core group and members of elective, later adding people to the course who are not part of MSC
  • Hard to quantify and evaluate leadership in many roles (including electives, etc)
  • Could be based on a point system for didactics, leadership roles, etc. Accolades for top performers?
  • Would also have an objective feedback format to track growth over the course of all medical school, could be fodder for Dean’s letter.
  • Erik will sent a template of his elective syllabus (track changes, etc) and send it back. Can be a larger discussion point at the next meeting.

Updated budget

  • Mostly underbudget, except for food
  • Might be a little bit of money to play with for a Spring Fling based on the budget
  • Spring Fling Discussion at events committee, others with spring fling opinion can join

By-laws discussion

  • Inclusion in bylaws – MSTP rep will be added. Will be submitted for MSC approval
  • Some changes were not included as they were not issues, but others were.

Attendance

  • Some MSC members have not been at meetings for the entire year. Both members decided to resign in lieu of probation and not making meetings.

OSR Representative Approval

Alyssa Blood is approved as new OSR representative