Experienced community physicians, in practice or retired, whether alumni of the institution or not, are wonderful resources for both tasks, and they are underutilized as teachers, advisors, mentors and models. The first step is finding out what s already going on. Don's report says the group wanted to develop a mentoring relationship with the CC's including introducing CC's to regional meetings, perhaps considering some sort of special membership rate for CC's, finding a source of corporate funding to assist advisors from CC's to attend meetings and a mentoring program to include workshops for CC advisors involving admissions officers of 4-year schools. Don has some experience with articulation with the six Chicago City Community Colleges. He says they did not come to firm conclusions, but rather shared ideas they had.
Some reviews involve students from the sophomore year on.
Some charge fees and others do not. Some utilize commercial preparation programs and others set up their own programs. There is some question about the effectiveness of prep courses of all kinds. Tom says several advisors wanted to continue the discussion in St. Louis and there has been some discussion from time to time on the hlthprof listserv. Surely there is an interest and a need here.