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MEDICAL SCHOOL
EVALUATION & GRADUATION

training in PPE, modification of rotations ment, collaboration and well-being. Clinical will only become apparent over time. Our
while still providing sufficient experiences, students continue to rotate, albeit on short- current medical student colleagues will have
monitoring systems for symptoms and expo- ened clerkships this year. Residency inter- an experience like no other generation of
sures among students and free-flowing lines views were only held across screens, and we physicians. Because of their unique position
of communication among the stakeholders. provided our students with campus “office during the pandemic, they will gain perspec-
We further benefitted from a robust commu- space” and equipment to ensure technical tive and wisdom from this time that might
nity response to COVID-19 that kept our glitches (or barking dogs) didn’t diminish differ from ours, but is no less relevant. Our
first-wave case numbers manageable by our their interview experience or the impression job as medical educators is to teach and sup-
hospital systems. they were making. Again, it is the resilience port them now, honor their experience of the
The current academic year finds us at a and creativity of our staff, faculty, clinical past year and continue to model what it
new-found steady state, seamlessly delivering partners and the students themselves that means to uphold our physician’s oath and
classroom content virtually to both first- and have cleared a path for us to continue to ed- commitment to patients.
second-year students, who continue to learn ucate medical students despite the challenges
and engage enthusiastically despite the chal- and dangers. Deborah Conway, MD is the Vice
lenges and isolating circumstances. It is cer- The COVID-19 wave is, hopefully, reced- Dean for Undergraduate Medical
tainly not our preferred way of teaching, ing, and we will never be the same. It has Education at the Joe R. and Teresa
because much of our curriculum, like medi- changed the medical education landscape in Lozano Long School of Medicine at UT
cine itself, is designed to foster collaborative ways we can see right now – such as acceler- Health San Antonio. She is a board-certified
learning and work. Nonetheless, we are dis- ating the decision to eliminate USMLE Step OB-Gyn and Maternal-Fetal Medicine spe-
covering new ways to blend technology into 2 CS (Clinical Skills) as part of the medical cialist who trained and has practiced in San
learning in order to enhance student engage- licensing pathway – and surely in ways that Antonio for more than 20 years.

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