Strategic priority 1:
Educational excellence
MU-COM will provide a quality educational experience that prepares students for success as they progress along the osteopathic educational continuum.
Goals and objectives:
1. Develop processes to facilitate stronger connections between pre-clerkship, clerkship, and graduate medical education experiences.
To meet this objective, MU-COM will:
- Build upon and strengthen student development days throughout the curriculum to assist students in their preparation for the upcoming phases (i.e. laps) of the MU-COM development roadmap.
- Create additional mechanisms for formative feedback throughout the curriculum to help students identify opportunities for growth prior to moving to the next phase of their educational experience.
- Support scholarly pursuits that connect clinical and biomedical sciences across the osteopathic continuum, as evidenced by publications and presentations by MU-COM faculty, staff, and students.
2. Enhance teaching practices to align with national best practices in teaching and learning.
To meet this objective, MU-COM will:
- Increase the partnership between MU-COM and Marian University's Center for Teaching and Learning to provide additional targeted faculty development opportunities.
- Regularly evaluate and refine the Faculty Guidebook to align with benchmarked institutions and emerging practices in the field.
- Promote innovative educational practices beyond the traditional classroom environment.
- Conduct educational research to assess the effectiveness of teaching and learning strategies.
3. Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of the MU-COM curriculum to ensure that students are prepared for all levels of the COMLEX.
To meet this objective, MU-COM will:
- Develop a functional curriculum mapping process to assess the alignment between the curriculum and COMLEX blueprints and support the Curriculum Committee in monitoring and modifying the curriculum as necessary.
- Engage in an ongoing process to enhance the quality of examination questions.
- Strive toward a pass rate of 100 percent on all COMLEX exams and domain scores that are all above the national average.
- Convene faculty groups to evaluate curriculum content in underperforming areas on the COMLEX and create a formal action plan by 2020.
- Using nationally vetted examinations, establish a progress testing model to help students assess their COMLEX readiness.
Strategic priority 2
Partnerships
MU-COM will enhance relationships with critical partners to positively impact local, national, and international communities and promote health and wellness.
Goals and objectives:
1. Develop a pipeline into MU-COM with a mission-driven focus on Indiana residents.
To meet this objective, MU-COM will:
- Create a focused recruitment plan to attract high-performing high school students from rural communities.
- Expand networks with Indiana colleges and universities to create access pipelines to MU-COM.
- Transition to the use of admissions criteria that focus on additional non-cognitive variables with lesser emphasis on numeric, cognitive requirements.
2. Increase partnerships with other degree programs at Marian University and local campuses.
To meet this objective, MU-COM will:
- Evaluate options for dual degrees, tracks, and certificate programs.
- Develop new and expanded partnerships between MU-COM and other institutions.
- Conduct collaborative faculty development sessions with local higher education programs.
3. Enhance existing partnerships with healthcare systems across Indiana and the Midwest.
To meet this objective, MU-COM will:
- Increase engagement with current clerkship providers by offering ongoing feedback and sharing site evaluation data from a bi-annual comparability analysis.
- Develop additional preceptor development opportunities and on-site networking events in response to an annual needs assessment for preceptors.
- Monitor match data and alumni placements to create connections and routes to serve as MU-COM preceptors or faculty in the future.
- Enhance the number of clinical sites to accommodate exposure to clinical medicine in Years 1 and 2.
Strategic priority 3
Interprofessional collaboration
MU-COM will be known locally, regionally, and nationally as a medical school that supports collaborative learning and interprofessional education.
Goals and objectives:
1. Create a culture which values interprofessional collaboration as a central tenant of the educational experience.
To meet this objective, MU-COM will:
- Regularly communicate the importance of interprofessional activities across the curriculum.
- Foster a process to recognize faculty for engagement in interprofessional education and interprofessional education leadership activities.
- Transition to the use of admissions criteria that focus on additional non-cognitive variables with lesser emphasis on numeric, cognitive requirements.
2. Establish additional opportunities for interprofessional collaboration across the educational continuum of physician education.
To meet this objective, MU-COM will:
- Create collaborative partnerships to engage in more interprofessional programs and offerings.
- Cultivate an undergraduate advising program for the Health Professions at Marian University to regularly engage in collaborative discussion and the development of interprofessional education initiatives.
3. Create a comprehensive assessment model to ensure that all MU-COM students meet the appropriate Interprofessional Education Collaborative competencies.
To meet this objective, MU-COM will:
- Create a specific set of objectives and competencies for interprofessional education during each year of the curriculum.
- Analyze annual course evaluation data to gather student feedback related to self-reported gains/outcomes from participating in interprofessional initiatives.
