Welcome to the In the Loop newsletter, an initiative of the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Office of Assessment, Accreditation and Continuous Quality Improvement. As a champion of continuous quality improvement, your medical school has benefited greatly from the feedback of students and other stakeholders the last several years. This feedback has been instrumental in driving positive change. In the Loop aims to keep you informed of these important updates and changes, and the successes we’ve achieved together. This issue focuses on the career advising and professional development services provided by the School of Medicine’s Office of Student Affairs. Our team is here to develop and oversee longitudinal programming for career counseling across all four years of the medical school curriculum, with a focus on supporting personal and professional development of every one of our more than 1,200 physicians-in-training. Our goal is simple – to serve you. Below is a glimpse into a year of career advising and professional development provided by the Office of Student Affairs. Summer 2023July 2023 brought with it Orientation for the Class of 2027, with the earliest introduction to Careers in Medicine of any medical school in the United States, by Sarkis Kouyoumjian, M.D., and April Mayweather. The three packed days culminated in the annual Warrior Olympics. More information about Careers in Medicine, which includes facts about each specialty and preparation recommendations, is found on the CiM website and our Canvas page. We marked the beginning of the Class of 2027 as physicians-in-training with the White Coat Ceremony at the Detroit Opera House, with keynote speaker LaTonya Riddle-Jones, M.D., the 2023 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine recipient. In August, our Student Affairs team collaborated with the Board of Student Organizations to host the annual Student Organization Fair, highlighting nearly 100 student organizations that connect students to their community, mentors and peers. We were thrilled that WSU President Kimberly Andrews Epsy participated in the fair. During the summer of 2023 we completed an update of our website and created the e-kiosk to meet many of your needs with a few clicks of a mouse. Check out our new website and this video of Margit Chadwell. M.D., senior associate dean of Students and Undergraduate Medical Education Initiatives, describing how to navigate the e-kiosk (also available in Canvas). Career advising events during the summer included Hospital Summit Day, when the Student Affairs team hosted more than 60 physicians from more than 10 hospital systems to share details about work in their specialties. Throughout the summer, additional career advising focused on preparation of the Class of 2024 for residency applications with a series of class-wide ERAS informational meetings and more than a dozen weekly drop-in sessions led by Dr. Kouyoumjian, director of Career Advising, and April Mayweather, undergraduate medical education career navigator, as well as 259 individualized discussions with students about application goals and strategies with our MSPE Writer’s Guild, which included Drs. Ayers, Chadwell, Chuang, Collins, Kouyoumjian, Steffes and Waineo. This was followed by specific advising sessions to address the unique needs of the couple's match. During summer and early fall, based directly on your feedback, our counseling team expanded from four to six class counselors. We are proud to re-introduce our two newest members:
Ryan Wiseman, M.S., Ryan joins our team following prior experience in the WSU Student Disability Services office.
Laura Woodward, Ph.D., Laura joins our team following prior work as WSU director of Testing and Assessment.
We are excited to add their knowledge, skills and expertise to our group of experienced behavioral specialists. The counseling team stands ready to support you, from annual appointments to academic support and treatment resources, with an open-door policy. Click on the names below to schedule an annual appointment in Stars with your class counselor: To request an excused absence from your class counselor, use this Maxient form, newly developed in 2023 to streamline requests and meet your needs. For treatment options, refer to these resources for your physical and mental health needs, all confidential and described in the graphic below and accessible on the Mental health page of our website.
Fall 2023Fall brought the next stages of career development for our physicians-in-training. In September, our team hosted mock interviews to help prepare the Class of 2024 for the start of interview season. We had the largest number of students participate this year, with more than 140 students interviewed with the collaborative help of 15 physicians. Our team also organized career advising sessions across 16 specialties, hosted by faculty and attended by more than 240 students of the Class of 2025 to help them determine their specialty as they progressed through the clerkship year. Winter 2024During the winter the Student Affairs staff and counselors were involved in multiple professional development wellness sessions, including “Overcoming Challenges in Medicine,” “Overcoming Test-taking Anxiety” and “Relaxation Techniques to Improve Study Retention” for the Class of 2026. We also collaborated with the Alumni Office to support medical students through the year. This year 11 in-person medical specialty sessions and eight webinars were conducted to facilitate mentorship with alumni and career exploration.
Spring 2024The start of spring brought with it Match Day on March 15, when 98% of the Class of 2024 matched, holding strong our >98% Match rate across the last eight years. Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Family Medicine were the top three matched specialties this year. We were so thrilled to celebrate with our amazing Class of 2024! In March, student affairs staff members led curricular sessions during the Preparation to Clerkships course. Sessions included “Careers in Medicine” and “Mistreatment and Microaggressions in the Clinical Environment.” As a reminder, the anonymous link to report mistreatment is here. Preparation to Clerkships culminated at the end of March with the Clinician Investiture for the Class of 2026. The ceremony is a key mile marker on our Highways to Excellence M.D. curriculum and celebrates students’ entry into clerkship year. It took place at the WSU Community Arts Auditorium, with keynote speaker Eileen Hug, D.O., and remarks by Drs. Erin Miller, Alfred Baylor, Diane Levine and Eric Ayers. Dr. Chadwell introduced the Wayne Trained initiative, and Richard Baker, M.D., senior vice dean and vice dean of Medical Education, led the class in the recitation of the Professionalism Pledge. Members of our student affairs team participated in our own professional development, attending the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Learn Lead Serve conference in November and the AAMC GSA/OSR Conference in April 2024, with the opportunity to share what we do at Wayne with other medical schools, including presentations about our MSPE letters, milestone celebrations and wellness initiatives. With the generous help of the Medical Alumni Association, we also supported 140 students with travel expenses to facilitate conference attendance to present scholarly work.
Summer 2024With the year coming to a close in June 2024, it was time to send off our Class of 2024 with commencement at the Fox Theater. Dr. Kouyoumjian led the class procession into the auditorium as the class marshal, an honor awarded by the graduating class to a faculty member students feel contributed greatly to their education. We are so proud of each and every class that rises to meet unique challenges every year to demonstrate their continued commitment to becoming physicians. We welcome the Class of 2028. We are honored to serve you and wish you all the best in the year to come! Let us know what you think Many thanks to Eva Waineo, M.D., assistant dean of Student Affairs, and the team in the School of Medicine’s Office of Student Affairs for compiling this issue of In the Loop. We hope you enjoy this issue as well as those to come in the months ahead. You can submit your ideas for future issues via the In the Loop Suggestion Form. You can submit general questions or comments about the School of Meidine via the Warrior Med Suggestions Program. You are free to include your name and contact information or to remain anonymous. All issues of In the Loop can be found on the Office of Assessment, Accreditation and Continuous Quality Improvement website. Sincerely, Kanye Gardner |