Feedback from UIW students, please!

[Goro]

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Hi Students,
Can you verify that there is a community service requirement, and essay exams?

 

[Ruraldoc18]

Yes and yes.

Everyone has to do community service (small time commitment, maybe a couple of hours 2-3 times a year)- Examples include treating the homeless in our area (OMT and minor treatments overseen by a physician, since we are all required to be EMT-B certified by the end of year 1), mentor local STEM high school students, or work with local impoverished families to try and help with their healthcare disparities.

All exams are essays, except clinical skills/OMT. We have three exams at the end of a unit- DOCS PE (clinical + OMT with standardized patients), CE (comprehensive 4 hour long 30ish question written essay exam covering EVERYTHING), and Structures AKA Anatomy (also written, and there are no simple identification of tagged structures, everything is at least second/third order). We do get partial credit on these exams, which is nice since they can be crazy difficult.

We also have to do 200 Kaplan questions by the end of the unit, but they aren't a part of the grade. It's to "prepare us for boards" since we don't do multiple choice Q's as part of the curriculum.

We are also true P/F. We have no clue where we are ranked, and we don't even get an average class score by exam. We do see the number who failed and the highest and lowest score, so there's that.

 

[hallowmann]

Yes and yes.

Everyone has to do community service (small time commitment, maybe a couple of hours 2-3 times a year)- Examples include treating the homeless in our area (OMT and minor treatments overseen by a physician, since we are all required to be EMT-B certified by the end of year 1), mentor local STEM high school students, or work with local impoverished families to try and help with their healthcare disparities.

That sounds awesome.

...All exams are essays, except clinical skills/OMT. We have three exams at the end of a unit- DOCS PE (clinical + OMT with standardized patients), CE (comprehensive 4 hour long 30ish question written essay exam covering EVERYTHING), and Structures AKA Anatomy (also written, and there are no simple identification of tagged structures, everything is at least second/third order). We do get partial credit on these exams, which is nice since they can be crazy difficult...

All essay questions sounds terrible.

...We also have to do 200 Kaplan questions by the end of the unit, but they aren't a part of the grade. It's to "prepare us for boards" since we don't do multiple choice Q's as part of the curriculum.

We are also true P/F. We have no clue where we are ranked, and we don't even get an average class score by exam. We do see the number who failed and the highest and lowest score, so there's that.

Both of those sound pretty good. It'll be interesting to see their results in a few years.

 

[Ruraldoc18]

That sounds awesome.



All essay questions sounds terrible.



Both of those sound pretty good. It'll be interesting to see their results in a few years.

Haha, yeah the essays can be killer and takes some time to get used to. They say they got the curriculum from Hofstra, which seems to be doing pretty well as a newer school. It does seem to prepare us well for clinical years per our 3rd years (we also have clinical preceptorships in primary care each unit starting from first year), but we still have to get through boards first. The averages for COMLEX for our 3rd years are coming next month so we shall see.

 

[Goro]

Interesting. I do believe that essay exams definitely one you of ya student knows the material or not. But having to grade >100 of them!??!!

My brain would melt. I'm glad they mandate the MCQs because that's the format you need for Boards.

I'll have to withhold final judgement until I see data about Board scores and pass rates.

 

[NurWollen]

Interesting. I do believe that essay exams definitely one you of ya student knows the material or not. But having to grade >100 of them!??!!

My brain would melt. I'm glad they mandate the MCQs because that's the format you need for Boards.

I'll have to withhold final judgement until I see data about Board scores and pass rates.

Man I feel like UIW students are going to shine clinically when getting pimped by attendings and residents. I always felt multiple choice tests were a decent format for getting us in a boards mindset but I always felt unprepared for pulling knowledge out of nowhere when getting pimped.

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[Goro]

Man I feel like UIW students are going to shine clinically when getting pimped by attendings and residents. I always felt multiple choice tests were a decent format for getting us in a boards mindset but I always felt unprepared for pulling knowledge out of nowhere when getting pimped.

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We Faculty like MCQs only because we're too lazy to read and grade essays.🙁

 

[BorntobeDO?]

At least they give you partial credit on the essays, cause nothing is getting thrown out with that approach. I am really curious how the boards will go tho.

 

[BoneWizard]

I would die if I had to explain neuroanatomy in essay format. Unless there was a word bank.

 

[Ruraldoc18]

I would die if I had to explain neuroanatomy in essay format. Unless there was a word bank.

I'll let you know in 7 weeks after my exam!

 

[DrStephenStrange]

UIWSOM opened in 2017. The Class of 2021 already took COMLEX Level 1 last summer. Past history shows that when a school does not release the results it generally means the results are terrible.

Not necessarily. It might also means that a few students still haven't taken it. Last I checked, I don't think any of the 2017 schools have released their COMLEX level 1 data yet. I'm at ARCOM and the last piece of data we got last semester from our dean wasn't terrible. Albeit, it was below average (88%) while about 15 students still had not taken it yet, but not terribly low. From what I heard through the grapevines lately, for some reason one or two people still have not taken it yet, and a few that failed were trying to retake it in the coming months, so they can move on.

 

[Goro]

Not necessarily. It might also means that a few students still haven't taken it. Last I checked, I don't think any of the 2017 schools have released their COMLEX level 1 data yet. I'm at ARCOM and the last piece of data we got last semester from our dean wasn't terrible. Albeit, it was below average (88%) while about 15 students still had not taken it yet, but not terribly low. From what I heard through the grapevines lately, for some reason one or two people still have not taken it yet, and a few that failed were trying to retake it in the coming months, so they can move on.

FYI, an 88% first time pass rate is typical for a brand new school.

 

[Ruraldoc18]

Yeah, I doubt we are going to break any records with our averages, but I doubt we will be that far off that 88%ish. The school has done the usual assortment of tricks to booster the number (pushed people's exams out, dismissed the lowest or pushed them into the lower class, etc).

 

[Splenda88]

Isn't COMLEX an easy exam? according to one of my colleagues who is a DO

If that is true, why are they pushing students out?

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Isn't COMLEX an easy exam? according to one of my colleagues who is a DO

If that is true, why are they pushing students out?

Lol I don't think it's an easy exam. If anything it might actually be a harder exam than USMLE. It has more questions (400 compared to 280), longer stems for the most part, include more materials because of OMM, and less time per questions (72 seconds compared to 90 seconds). It might be easier to score a higher percentile on the COMLEX because we have an overall smaller pool of students taking it, but it's by no mean an easy exam. Upperclassmen at my school that did well on both exams, usually tell me they felt more exhausted after COMLEX than they did after USMLE.

 

[Deecee2DO]

Lol I don't think it's an easy exam. If anything it might actually be a harder exam than USMLE. It has more questions (400 compared to 280), longer stems for the most part, include more materials because of OMM, and less time per questions (72 seconds compared to 90 seconds). It might be easier to score a higher percentile on the COMLEX because we have an overall smaller pool of students taking it, but it's by no mean an easy exam. Upperclassmen at my school that did well on both exams, usually tell me they felt more exhausted after COMLEX than they did after USMLE.

Although thats good news to hear since I couldnt give a thousand hoots about COMLEX I in absolutely no way believe COMLEX is harder than USMLE lol. USMLE written wayyyy better although more challenging/requires more integration of knowledge (more 3rd order questions) while COMLEX written horribly but the questions more 1st order compared to USMLE- thats one reason we get less time per question on COMLEX

 

[Deecee2DO]

Isn't COMLEX an easy exam? according to one of my colleagues who is a DO

If that is true, why are they pushing students out?

I also heard this from my tutor who is a DO. He scored 260 on Step and said COMLEX was relatively easy and that Step was pretty hard comparatively

 

[The OG MD]

UIWSOM has also been working hard to open residency programs.

"Laredo Medical Center and the University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine (UIWSOM) are proud to announce that their partnership has achieved its fundraising goal of $850,000 for the build-out and start-up of the city’s first residency programs! The groups came together in celebration of this milestone on Thursday, Jan. 16.

The LMC-UIWSOM partnership already fully employs 33 resident physicians, two staff members, and partially employs nine physicians to oversee the programs. The group has already had over 30,000 patient encounters in the clinic and/or hospital setting.

In just its second year, the LMC-UIWSOM partnership received 1,600 applications for the Internal Medicine Residency Program and 800 applications for the Family Medicine Residency Program. Each month, new local physicians are volunteering more of their time to work with the residents in clinical and didactic training. The residents have already started to perform research and quality improvement projects to expand clinical knowledge and elevate the quality of patient care in Laredo."

TIGMER programs include the following:

• CommuniCare Family Medicine Residency, San Antonio
• Laredo Medical Center Family Medicine Residency, Laredo
• Laredo Medical Center Internal Medicine Residency, Laredo
• Southwest General Hospital Psychiatry Residency, San Antonio
• Southwest General Hospital Internal Medicine Residency, San Antonio (Pending Accreditation)
• TIGMER Sports Medicine Fellowship, San Antonio (Pending Accreditation)
• TIGMER Hand Surgery (Ortho) Fellowship, San Antonio, (Pending Accreditation)
• Abilene Regional Medical Center Family Medicine Residency, Abilene (Pending Accreditation)

 

[NurWollen]

UIWSOM has also been working hard to open residency programs.

"Laredo Medical Center and the University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine (UIWSOM) are proud to announce that their partnership has achieved its fundraising goal of $850,000 for the build-out and start-up of the city’s first residency programs! The groups came together in celebration of this milestone on Thursday, Jan. 16.

The LMC-UIWSOM partnership already fully employs 33 resident physicians, two staff members, and partially employs nine physicians to oversee the programs. The group has already had over 30,000 patient encounters in the clinic and/or hospital setting.

In just its second year, the LMC-UIWSOM partnership received 1,600 applications for the Internal Medicine Residency Program and 800 applications for the Family Medicine Residency Program. Each month, new local physicians are volunteering more of their time to work with the residents in clinical and didactic training. The residents have already started to perform research and quality improvement projects to expand clinical knowledge and elevate the quality of patient care in Laredo."

TIGMER programs include the following:

• CommuniCare Family Medicine Residency, San Antonio
• Laredo Medical Center Family Medicine Residency, Laredo
• Laredo Medical Center Internal Medicine Residency, Laredo
• Southwest General Hospital Psychiatry Residency, San Antonio
• Southwest General Hospital Internal Medicine Residency, San Antonio (Pending Accreditation)
• TIGMER Sports Medicine Fellowship, San Antonio (Pending Accreditation)
• TIGMER Hand Surgery (Ortho) Fellowship, San Antonio, (Pending Accreditation)
• Abilene Regional Medical Center Family Medicine Residency, Abilene (Pending Accreditation)

Most of those hospitals are for-profit. A lot of for-profit hospital corporations (like HCA and Tenet) are opening programs, sometimes by thr dozen, with their own funding.

*I'm sure it's because of the goodness of their hearts, and they would hate to see med students go without a residency*

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[ElCucuy]

This curriculum sounds like an awful idea to me. I’m solidly predicting poor COMLEX outcomes to be frank.


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