STONY BROOK, NY, February 5, 2020 – The Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society has awarded the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University with its Professionalism Award for 2019. The award highlights best practices in medical professionalism education and recognizes the School for its Professional Identity Formation (PIF) curriculum, which is part of medical school training from the initial white coat ceremony to graduation.
According Alpha Omega Alpha: The professional identity of an excellent doctor embraces empathy, mindful attention to patient care, integrity, self-awareness, teamwork, beneficence, respect and equal regard for all, as well as eagerness to learn, resilience, and attention to self-care. Professional identity Formation is a lifelong endeavor achieved through critical reflection and exposures to role models who “pass the torch” from generation to generation.
Faculty at the Renaissance School of Medicine developed PIF by identifying evidence-based approaches to enhance professional identity formation among trainees and faculty across the curriculum. Purposeful integration of this approach into the School’s learning processes is designed to enhance resilience and a sense of belonging and well-being within a community of practice – something leaders at the School believe is important and necessary, particularly during this time of increasing burnout among physicians and trainees.
“Becoming a physician and leader in medicine requires not only life-long learning but self-awareness, altruism, emotional intelligence, a strong understanding of clinical ethics and many other aspects of professionalism that complement scientific skills,” says Kenneth Kaushansky, MD, MACP, Senior VP for the Health Sciences and Dean of the Renaissance School of Medicine. “This program ensures that we are educating not only some of the brightest medical minds of the future but also people who are mature and advanced in their professional identity.”
The PIF program is rolled out in three phases: the foundational phase, when students first enter medical school and begin to learn about professionalism; the primary clinical phase, when students go through more clinical training sessions and complete clerkships; and the advanced clinical phase, when students work with their physician mentors and are involved with more difficult patient cases. The training is conceptualized around three approaches that integrate clinical ethics, virtues and humanities and the illness experience.
“Our PIF curriculum aims to influence ‘a way of being’ for our students in their professional path to becoming a doctor,” says Latha Chandran, MD, MPH, Vice Dean, Academic and Faculty Affairs and the Miriam and David Donoho and SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor. “The process is central for our students to discover their own professional identity which enables them to become the type of compassionate and dedicated physicians they envisioned when entering medical school.”
In 2019, Dr. Chandran and colleagues published a paper in Academic Psychiatry titled “Developing ‘a way of being’: Deliberate Approaches to Professional Identity Formation in Medical Education.” The paper outlines the Renaissance School of Medicine PIF program and can serve as a guide to teaching professionalism in medical education and making professional identity a priority within medical education.
The Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics has worked closely with the School to create PIF to be a robust program that enhances the development of professional identity formation among all students. The Center will continue to be a leading contributor to the ongoing development of the PIF curriculum.
Founded in 1902, Alpha Omega Alpha is the national medical honor society. Its mission is to recognize high educational achievement, honor gifted teaching, encourage the development of leaders in academia and the community, support the ideals of humanism, and promote service to others.
The Renaissance School of Medicine will receive $10,000 for the Professionalism Award.
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About Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University:
Established in 1971, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University includes 25 academic departments. The three missions of the School are to advance the understanding of the origins of human health and disease; train the next generation of committed, curious and highly capable physicians; and deliver world-class compassionate healthcare. As a member of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and a Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) accredited medical school, Stony Brook is one of the foremost institutes of higher medical education in the country. Each year the School trains nearly 500 medical students and more than 600 medical residents and fellows. Faculty research includes National Institutes of Health-sponsored programs in neurological diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disorders, biomedical imaging, regenerative medicine, infectious diseases, and many other topics. Physicians on the School of Medicine faculty deliver world-class medical care through more than 31,000 inpatient, 108,000 emergency room, and 940,000 outpatient visits annually at Stony Brook University Hospital and affiliated clinical programs, making its clinical services one of the largest and highest quality medical schools on Long Island, New York. To learn more, visit www.medicine.stonybrookmedicine.edu.
Congratulations! As the father of an E.R. doctor, I have witnessed the many stresses that she experiences in the E.R., and I applaud your program.
What a wonderful all inclusive program. Your students are lucky indeed who have been accepted at this exceptional institution.