Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine at Hofstra UniversityInaugural Year Comes to a Close; Second Class Prepares for August 1As the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine at Hofstra University wraps up its inaugural year, the first class, composed of 40 students, has an extensive collection of patient experiences to reflect on – experiences usually reserved for medical residents. These patient experiences, which included attending surgeries, delivering babies and rotating through many of the North Shore-LIJ Health System’s hospitals and physician group practices, taught the students biomedical science through real patient encounters.

A Look at the Medical School’s Curriculum

EMT Training: The First Nine WeeksDuring the first nine weeks of the medical school’s curriculum, students trained, and were then certified, as emergency medical technicians by working shifts on North Shore-LIJ Health System ambulances, responding to 911 calls. This training is one of the core elements of the first 100 weeks of the school’s groundbreaking academic course work. During ambulance tours, students observe patients in their homes and evaluate and treat them under the supervision of certified EMTs and paramedics. The EMT training culminates in a Multiple Casualty Incident (MCI) conducted at the FDNY Training Academy on Randall’s Island, where the students provide emergency care during the exercise, followed by a full debriefing. The day at Randall’s Island offers a unique opportunity for the students to gain hands-on, realistic experiences – encountering fire, smoke and seriously wounded victims.

PEARLSThe medical school’s curriculum is based on an innovative educational method called PEARLS — Patient-Centered Explorations in Active Reasoning, Learning and Synthesis. Students meet in small groups three times a week to uncover and learn the biomedical science underneath real patient cases. These themes and concepts identified during PEARLS integrate with other learning sessions, labs and clinical experiences the students have during the week.

Structure LabStudents spend one day a week in the Structure Lab, a state-of-the-art environment that offers the most advanced tools to learn gross and microscopic anatomy and features clinically relevant pathology and imaging. In general, each laboratory session includes several stand-alone stations, each of which has discrete learning objectives that coincide with the cases the students study in their PEARLS classes that week. School of Medicine faculty from the North Shore-LIJ Health System also participate in Structure sessions, thereby bringing their expertise to the learning process.

Simulation Training at the Center for Learning and InnovationAs part of the first-year experience, students spend many hours at North Shore-LIJ Health System’s Center for Learning and Innovation (CLI) and its Patient Safety Institute, where they learn and strengthen their clinical skills through the use of simulation education. Simulation education provides a critical bridge between classroom learning and real-life clinical experience.

During the first year students are exposed to simulation exercises that most medical schools cover in the third year, offering our students a distinct advantage. Lessons taught in realistic simulations are more effectively retained through active learning, focused concentration, emotional investment, and direct association with the real world.

The CLI’s high-tech, computerized mannequins mimic real patients that talk and respond to medical students as they take vital signs and perform emergency procedures, such as intravenous line and breathing tube insertions and medication administration. CLI helps students manage hypothetical patient cases as members of a multidisciplinary health care team. The exercises are followed by a debriefing with medical school faculty and CLI staff.

In addition to CLI, medical students also train at the world-renowned Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, the research arm of the North Shore-LIJ Health System.

Narrateur: Reflections on Caring Gives Voice to Challenges and Celebrations of Patient CareThis year, the students celebrated the publication of the school’s new literary journal, Narrateur: Reflections on Caring. This publication reflects the School of Medicine’s commitment to self-expression, reflection, compassion and respect for the patient-physician relationship. Narrateur publishes works – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, photography or illustration – by students, faculty and employees of the North Shore-LIJ Health System, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, and Hofstra University.

Community Outreach

Medical Scholars Pipeline ProgramThe Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine’s Medical Scholars Pipeline Program is an outstanding opportunity offered to academically exceptional but economically disadvantaged high school students from surrounding communities. The School of Medicine administration and faculty designed this unique five-year summer program to increase diversity in the health care workforce by providing students with the exposure, support and educational tools necessary to become competitive college and medical school applicants. Several of the first-year medical students will be working with the Medical Scholars Pipeline Program students this summer.

Helping to Feed the HungryMedical students donate their time to The INN (Interfaith Nutrition Network) in Hempstead, a private, social service agency on Long Island that feeds thousands of people each week. Students assist with food preparation and served dinner to The Inn’s guests.

Germs Be GoneIn the first of many planned interactions with the school district, medical students taught second-grade students from the Plainview Old-Bethpage Central School District about germs and the importance of proper hand-washing techniques. This past spring the medical students visited four elementary schools and conducted hand-washing lessons for the young students. Following each lesson, students were asked to go home and share with their families what they learned about germs and proper hand washing.

Other Highlights This Year

Setting Standards for Other SchoolsThroughout the course of the medical school’s first year, the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine invited representatives from universities and health care organizations to come learn about the School of Medicine’s groundbreaking innovative curriculum and facilities. Dean Lawrence Smith shared the school’s story, vision and founding values with Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (New Jersey); University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville; University of Denver (Colorado); Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest managed care organizations in the country (California); and the Universidad Iberoamericana in the Dominican Republic.

Seasonal Allergies StudyAs part of an ongoing research project, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine students study honeybee colonies, called apiaries, located at the Bird Sanctuary at Hofstra University. Students ask if, and if so, how, natural honey may help to desensitize patients with seasonal pollen allergies that affect approximately 40 million people in the United States. The project is led by long-time beekeeper Dr. Patrick Gannon, professor and chair of the medical school’s Science Education Department, who seeks to identify and eliminate the causes of such allergies as opposed to simply treating the symptoms with medications that have attendant side effects.

ConclusionIn August 2012 a new class of 60 medical students will join the historic inaugural class. In the years to follow, class size will grow until a maximum class size of 100 is reached. Plans are also underway to nearly double the size of the medical school building.

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