Remediation

Remediation During the Foundations Phase

Assessments are used to identify those students who have not achieved minimal competency during a course: remediation is the process used to improve student performance and ensure that all students achieve the designated Student Physician Activities (SPAs) before moving on to the Application phase of the curriculum.

Remediation Policy

The Office of Medical Education and Student Affairs will notify students by email of their need to remediate a course no later than three weeks after exam completion. A link to the remediations policy will be included in this email. This email will be cc'd to the course and Foundations director.

Schedule

1. The student must contact the course director within one week after the notification from OMESA. It is the responsibility of the student to schedule the remediation process with the course director.
2. Students are required to make their first attempt at remediation no later than two weeks after their notification about the need to remediate an anatomy examination, and no later than the end of the week following the next school break for all other courses. Under certain circumstances, remediation may be delayed with prior permission from Dr. David Schulman, Director of Foundations.
3. Students with remediations outstanding at the end of the Foundations phase must complete these remediations no later than December 31 of their second year of medical school. All remediations must be complete before a student may move into the Application phase. In addition, a student may not sit for the USMLE Step 1 exam administered by the National Board of Medical Examiners until all Foundations phase remediations are complete.

Process

1. Students requiring remediation must meet with the director of the course to be remediated. If, during this conversation, the student identifies a non-academic contributor to their poor performance (i.e., something medical or social), this should be brought to the attention of the Associate Dean for Student Success within 24 hours.
2. The process for remediation, as determined by the course director, should be tailored to the individual student through the identification and correction of specific areas of deficiency. Retaking the entire course exam should only be necessary if the student's performance in all major content areas is unsatisfactory. A take-home exam on its own does not allow the student to demonstrate competence.
3. The course director will provide the Office of Medical Education and Student Affairs a record of the remediation process for each student. This record will outline the format of the remediation, the date(s) on which it occurred, and whether the student successfully remediated on that date. If the student was unsuccessful on a remediation attempt, the course director will briefly outline how they were unsuccessful, and the Foundations Phase Director will notify the Associate Dean for Student Success to connect directly with the student prior to additional remediation. This will be part of the student's internal record but will not be indicated on the student's official transcript.
4. If a student is not able to demonstrate mastery of the course material after two attempted remediations, the course director will refer the student to the Progress and Promotions Committee for recommendation of repetition of part or all of the Foundations phase curriculum.
5. Each failed anatomy exam will need to be individually remediated.

To identify students more readily in academic difficulty and offer them additional support services in a timely fashion, students who need to remediate more than one course/thread will be provided with information on receiving a learning assessment, the results of which may trigger further support services that may help the student avoid the need to remediate additional courses.

For students required to repeat the Foundations phase of the curriculum, student progression in anatomy will be as follows:

• Students will be allowed to continue in anatomy, at the discretion of the anatomy director, if they begin the repetition process after having already started the anatomy thread. In this situation, students will not be required to retake anatomy (as part of repeating Foundations) if they pass ALL the anatomy exams.

Remediation During the Application, Discovery, and Translation Phases

Students who receive a "U" in a clerkship or Discovery will have to repeat and successfully pass the respective clerkship or Discovery in order to progress to the next phase of the curriculum.