I know you're biased because you graduated from there. But there is a time and place for everything.
Professional attire makes sense for special events, meetings and conferences. It doesn't make sense to be forced upon for a regular session of lecture. You're not making a student graduate with honors in professionalism by imposing it 24/7.
In the real world, Food and water are allowed in physician offices. Even water bottles are allowed at conference rooms from what I see.
You say LECOM wants to treat students like professionals, so...isn't part of it to trust the professional student to clean up after themselves?
Not using front doors I have no opinion about.
Honestly, most work settings are like this for no reason. I really see no difference in how LECOM does things than how the hospital, research lab, and IT company I worked for previously did things. In the real world, a lot of rules are arbitrary, especially if you are responsible. The truth is though that med students aren't always responsible or considerate. Most of LECOM's rules, excluding the few basic ones, were a result of an issue they had in the past. I believe it, because I see new rules pop up whenever someone does something stupid.
Also, to be clear, the way LECOM does things is not aimed at treating you as a professional, it's to get you to act "professional". We're not professionals yet, but the idea is that if we learn to carry ourselves like professionals now, when we're in the real world we'll have an easier time adjusting. It's not always the best strategy, but I see the reasoning.
Life is uncomfortable in the real world. It's for that reason that I don't really care about the rules. I might as well prepare when its least important, when I'm still a student allowed to make mistakes. I'd rather not figure that out with patients in 3rd and 4th year - I'm sure I'll have plenty of other mistakes to deal with then.
But to each his own. If it's a big deal, don't apply. If someone doesn't see themselves following rules, even when they may not agree with them, LECOM's not for them.
how about helping students be comfortable, find their best method for learning, and consequently allow them to reach their fullest potential? Mandatory attendance (30-40 hrs/week), daily professional dress code, and no liquids makes me wonder how committed they are to this.
To be fair, that's kind of what the pathways are for. LECOM has gone out of its way to setup multiple pathways to fit different learning styles. If you choose the wrong one, is it really all the school's fault?
there is a difference when such rules are essential. You HAVE to be in a hospital, OR, clinic, whatever, to carry out certain duties. You had better be dressed appropriately during patient encounters. You don't need be sitting in an auditorium at 8 AM, dressed in a coat and tie, and be spoken at in order to learn the steps of glycolysis and gluconeogenesis...
No coat, just tie. PBL = 8am becomes a rare occurrence, painful when it does happen though.
Why can't you see a patient in shorts and a t-shirt? I mean if that's what makes you comfortable, why not? It would be nice if it didn't matter in the real world, but the truth is you'll be judged by your patients, peers, etc. and worse yet losing the confidence of your patients and making them feel less comfortable is counterproductive to doing your job.
LECOM tries to hammer that in from the get-go. When I started, I didn't really see the point of it, but I also didn't care. Something I noticed along the way though is that not only does it help the random people that simply don't get that you have to carry yourself in a certain way in a hospital/with a patient (yes, shockingly there are tons of people like this even in med school), but also by being forced to dress professionally, we take what we do more seriously.
This is a "profession" (I can't believe I'm actually saying it like this, but at least on some level it's accurate), and what we learn as med students and what we do as physicians is important, and we really should be treating it that way. It may not be as important as being in a hospital with a patient, but by treating the whole process like it's important, it changes how I personally treat the day-to-day work. It's doesn't feel like just school, it doesn't feel like just a job, and I don't think it should.
That's not for everybody. And God knows there are days where it's a pain, but I like the mindset it puts me in. You may not like the way they do things, but it works on some level. LECOM has good results at a minimum cost to the students.
It's very similar, from what I gathered at my LECOM interview. We have weekly group cases, we study objectives for the cases and the week's lectures, and we do a session where we integrate everything together. The big difference seems to be that we've got the option of in-person lectures if that's what we're down for.
We don't really have study objectives per se, it's more like we choose readings in our text books that are at least supposed to be somewhat related to the cases we cover. 7 cases a block (~1 case/month), 100 or so pages per case. We get a 4 hr exam each block that covers the material from the case.
I think DSP might be similar to your PBL, just without the cases (I guess that's a big part). From what I understand, DSP gets objectives, meets regularly with advisors, has the choice of attending lectures with LDP students, and then is tested more frequently (every couple weeks?).
