I hold Monday evening seminars and attendance is required as it is for their regular shift. Topics in the seminar are directed toward health professions education, including undergraduate and graduate medical education, specialty training, and fellowships. Also included are a myriad of issues facing the health care industry with health care reform not withstanding. Public policy issues are discussed as well. Sixty physicians on staff of the hospital have agreed to serve as resource persons and are called upon to speak with students about the health care system and the respective careers as health care providers.
Students maintain a log of their experiences which is turned in at the last seminar.
HES 494 students must have completed 394 and for them the course entails a shift in the deparment of surgery and they are assigned to a physician with whom they spend a minimum of seventeen hours. Most will log thirty hours or more, however. They observe in the office, go on rounds, observe surgery, etc. These students also submit a written report on at least one book about health care from an approved list . They also must attend the evening seminars.