mdu 4004 spring 2014 syllabus

7/22/2019 MDU 4004 Spring 2014 Syllabus

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Physician Shadowing MDU4004

Syllabus Spring 2014

Course Professor:

Dr. Joseph McNamara, PhD

Assistant Professor

Graduate Student Coordinator:

Adam Reid, M.S.

Doctoral Candidate

Chief Teaching Assistant:

Brandy Johnson, B.S.

3rdYear UF Med Student

Course contact info:

[email protected]

All emails should be directed here and will be forwarded to the appropriate people, if necessary.

This account is managed by the Teaching Assistants and is checked every weekday.

Course Description:

The pre-requisite course, Introduction to the Professions of Medicine (MDU4003), provided an

overview of American medicine for the undergraduate student. Now its time to put that

information to use and get some practical experience. This course will provide students with

background knowledge in issues related to clinical care such as privacy, professionalism, and
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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compassion while giving students a chance to shadow clinicians and an opportunity to learn the

patient interview and exam. Students will also be exposed to a variety of clinical vignettes

featuring intriguing patients from several fields of medicine via reading assignments and videos.

Finally, students will gain an in-depth look at applying to and choosing a medical school.

Note- An ID badge(your Gator 1 ID card) is required to be displayed properly when present in

any UF clinic. You will need to obtain a clear plastic ID card holder which can clip to your shirt

while in clinic. These cost $1.25 and can be purchased at the Health Science Center BMS area

(3rdfloor of the Health Science Library building in the Communicore (room C3-03, phone 352-

273-5044).

Course Availability:

Enrollment in MDU4004 is completed manually by the College of Medicine (students may not

enroll themselves). The number of students who may be enrolled is dependent on the numberof physician mentors we have available for students to shadow. This number will change from

term to term. In general, the pool of eligible students will be selected from those who have

completed MDU4003 with outstanding performance. These students will be given an

opportunity to apply for enrollment in our course and submit a statement as to why they want

to enroll and what they hope to gain from the course. Before acceptance into the course, all

privacy (HIPAA), compliance, and immunization requirements must be fulfilled.

Educational Philosophy:

The educational philosophy is to provide students a learning environment that is current,

interactive and supportive. The online and asynchronous nature of the first part of the course

provides students with flexibility for listening to lectures, completing assignments and taking

examinations. With this freedom comes responsibility and expectations. Students are asked to

check their email at least twice a week and keep an account of assignment/quiz due dates. The

course is accredited for 3 UF credits thus requires at least 3 contact hours per week in addition

to 6 hours for assignments and research. Due to the online nature of the course the contact

hours have been replaced with online lectures and readings. In total, this course should require

up to 9 hours per week, as any other 3 credit course should.

Overview of Course Content:

Even though this course is mostly web-based, it is designed to coincide with the University of

Florida academic schedule. The UF calendar can be viewed at:http://calendar.ufl.edu. The

course is divided into two parts: 1) lessons conveying the background knowledge necessary for

clinical shadowing and the selection of a mentor (a typical lesson topic consists of a lecture,
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multiple readings, an online quiz and an assignment and written discussion), 2) work with

physician mentors, volunteer clinics, or research mentors that have been approved by the

course.

A term paper on the experiences of the clinic is completed at the end of the course. Finally, an

evaluation from the physician mentor is included in the final grade computation.

Lectures and Videos:

We do our best to provide you with interesting, up-to-date lectures and videos. All lectures and

videos in this course are available at anytime online. Viewing the videos requires updated

versions of Real Player and Windows Media Player. Student often have trouble with the

technical aspect of this and are asked to contact the UF Help Desk at 352-392-HELP for

assistance in updating their computer software. Please do this before emailing the course.

Occasionally we will link to third party videos if we feel they are pertinent to the lesson and

interesting to the viewer. NOTE: Videos are currently being transferred to a private YouTube

account to increase accessibility, please be patient during this transition process.

Reading Assignments:

Some required readings for the course are completely web based. Others come from the

required texts.(Note: there are no required text books). We do our best to choose readings

that accurately reflect the lesson topic. The readings are usually centered on supporting

information given in the lecture but can be used to discuss topics not covered in the original

lecture.

Quizzes:

There may be a large number of quiz questions for an entire lesson. However, the title of each

question tells the student from which material the question comes and they are presented in

groups. Thus, a student may wish to complete a portion of the quiz and save the answers but

not submit it, returning to complete other portions later. The entire quiz must be submitted by

the lesson due date.

The quizzes are based on the lecture and readings. They are designed to not only ensure that

you have viewed the lecture and completed the readings but to also test your ability to apply

what you learned.

Please note, since the three quizzes have an uneven number of questions, your "quiz average" in

Sakai will not be accurate until you complete all three quizzes. Until then, it assumes a zero

grade for uncompleted quizzes when calculating your average.

Assignments:

All essays are graded pass/fail. In order to receive credit the essay MUST fulfill each of the

following requirements and otherwise will receive NO CREDIT.


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1. Must be at least 500 words (please use one inch margins 12 point Times New Roman font).

2. Submitted as .doc file (no .docx).

3. Must be on topic and fully answer prompt.

4. Includes two outside references as well. This could include quotes, research findings,

and/or published articles (reference in any format). Wikipedia can NOT be used as a

reference.

File Format:

All written essay assignments are to be completed by the posted due date by 5pm. They must

be uploaded as an attachment to the assignment link in .doc format.Turnitin.com requires

this method of submission to scan the document for plagiarism. Unfortunately, you will not

receive credit if you fail to upload the correct file format.

Assignments are designed to test your ability to think critically, form an argument and

successfully articulate your thoughts into words. You are not graded on your opinion but how

well you research the topic and form a valid argument. Of course, this will require research and

references.

It is mandatory that you follow our guidelines on referencing articles/websites or your grade will

be penalized. First, all sources that you use to write your paper must be cited. There must be

two citations for each reference. The first citation must occur in the body of the text

immediately after the thought being referenced. This should simply be a number. Secondly, at

the end of the document should be a list of all references in number order. Below is an

example:

Caffeine is the most commonly used psychostimulant in the world today.

Its physiologic effects include diuresis, cardiac muscle stimulation, CNS

stimulation, gastric acid secretion stimulation and elevations of free fatty

acids and glucose1. Caffeine containing beverages are popular, in part,

due to decreased fatigue, increased mental acuity and improved

cognitive functioning following the intake of moderate doses2.

1. Graham, D., CaffeineIts Identity, Dietary Sources, Intake and

Biological Effects. Nutrition Reviews, 36(4):97102, 1978.

2. Tanda, G., et. al, Alteration of the Behavioral Effects of Nicotine by

Chronic Caffeine Exposure. Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior,

66:47-64, 2000


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When referencing websites you should also follow the format above and you must reference the

particular page you are viewing and not the main page of the site. For example, if you are using

an article from msnbc.com your reference should look like this:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4137762/

and NOT simply www.msnbc.com.

The reader of your paper should know exactly from where all your outside information

originates.

When referencing papers or websites it is NOT acceptable to copy and paste. You should use the

sources to develop your argument, not to replace your argument. It is OK to put a sentence in

quotes and reference it but it is NEVER acceptable to copy and paste entire paragraphs, even if

they are in quotes. We check every assignment for plagiarism and if you have copied and

pasted from sources inappropriately you will be severely penalized.

All assignments are submitted through Sakai and thus it is mandatory that your file be named

correctly. You will be penalized if you do not follow these instructions. Your filename MUST

contain your last name, first initial, assignment number. See below for an example.

John Smith submitting Assignment 5:

SmithJ5.doc

In addition to the file naming system you must also include your full name within the actual

document. In the past we have received papers with incorrect filenames and no name within

the paperthus some students did not receive credit for their work.

It is required that anything you submit be one of the following file types: Word Document (.doc),

Rich Text Format (.rtf), Text File (.txt), or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)

We do NOT accept Works (.wps), Word Perfect (.wpd) or any other file type not listed above.

Please remember to attach your assignment as a separate file and DO NOT simply paste

your text into the submission box.

Term Paper:

At the end of the clinical experience, students will be asked to write a paper reflecting on thecourse and their days spent in clinic. Additionally, students will be asked to evaluate their

mentors for future students. You may wish to provide your mentor with a copy of your term

paper after you finish.

Mentor Evaluations:


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Just like a medical student, MDU4004 students will be subjectively evaluated by their physician

mentors and other supervisors and this will factor into final grade calculations. There is no

need for students do anything for the evaluations; the course will contact each mentor

towards the end of the term for an evaluation. Mentors will be evaluating each student

regaurding their professionalism while shadowing. This involves appropriate and respectful

communication with mentors and patients, promptness, engagement (i.e., not playing on cell

phone, asking questions, completing assigned acitivities), and appropriate attire. An example of

appropriate attire is provided below:

Males:

Good Bad

Females:

Good Bad


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Grading:

Online Quizzes 40%

Essays 35%

Mentor Evaluation 25%

The grading scale is as follows-

A: 90+

B+: 85-89.999

B: 80-84.999

C+: 75-79.999

C: 70-74.999

D: 65-69.999

E: < 65

Grades at the end of the term may be curved to lower the minimum score receiving a

certain grade, but it will never be higher than what is printed here.

Class Attendance & Course Responsibilities:

Since this course is half online and half clinical it is expected that students take a more pro-

active role than in traditional courses. It is the responsibility of the student to check their email


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at least 2 times a week. We send out important information via email and it is expected that

you check your email account supplied during registration. We also release pop-up notes on the

course website upon log-in. Not checking your email or having a full mailbox is not an

acceptable excuse for not receiving a pertinent course updateit is your responsibility to

ensure that your email works and is accepting incoming emails from the ufl.edu domain. It is

expected that you check your grades and grade feedback every week to ensure that you

received the grade you were expecting. By checking it every week you will be able to ask

questions via email right away and any problems can be addressed immediately. Finally, this is

an online course and we do understand that websites and ISPs occasionally go down. All lesson

materials are available from the beginning of the semester. If you wait until two hours before a

quiz or an assignment is due to turn it in you run the risk of the website being down or your

internet connection at home not working.

Late Policy:

We do understand that the students enrolled in this course have many responsibilities. Since all

assignments and quizzes are posted in advance we have a strict late policy. Assignments and

quizzes are due on Friday afternoon at 5:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. As previously

mentioned, by waiting until the last minute to begin working you will run the risk of computer

problems. Websites being down or your personal computer giving you problems is not an

excuse for late work. We cannot guarantee that the World Wide Web will work all the times.

For this reason we strongly suggest working on all assignments and quizzes at least 1-2 days

ahead of time to avoid such problems. We will not, under any circumstances, accept

assignments or quizzes after the original due date and time if you did not contact us by email

BEFORE the original due date and time. For example, if you are going out of town for a

University sponsored event (such as student government or athletics), and your hotel does nothave internet access, it is your responsibility to submit your course work before you leave. If

this is not an option or you have difficulty doing so, you must email us BEFORE the assignment

deadline in order to work out a submission reschedule.

Emergencies:

In the event of an emergency which causes you to miss work, such as hospitalization, a death in

the immediate family, or a natural disaster, students are asked to gather up written

documented proof of such an event and submit it to Adam Reid ([email protected]). This is

the only mechanism by which missed work will be considered to be made up.

Email Policy:

The course email account is managed by the Teaching Assistants and checked every weekday.

This is the ONLY means by which to contact the course with questions. If you wish to contact

the course coordinator or director you must email this account first and your email will be

forwarded to the appropriate person for a responseif you place the name of the recipient in

the subject line of the email, it will be routed more quickly to the specific person you wish to


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contact. We encourage you to use the email account as often as you like to ask questions/make

comments related to the course.

All emails addressing concerns about your grades or about tardy submissions must be handled

according to the guidelines above. Emails received at the end of the course concerning an issue

from the beginning of the course will not be entertained. It is your responsibility to keep up withthe course and email us at the time of the concern.

Cheating & Plagarism:

Cheating and plagiarizing are against University of Florida Student Conduct Code and will not be

tolerated in this course. Every submission in this course is submitted to

http://www.turnitin.comto check for cheating and plagiarism. Turnitin.com is an online

service that compares documents to each other and to every page on the World Wide Web and

other assignments turned in this semester and in previous semesters. If portions of your

document were directly copied and pasted from another students assignment (past or present)

or from a World Wide Web page, that constitutes plagiarism. Any form of plagiarism will have

to be investigated as set out by the University of Florida Student Conduct Code. Procedures on

investigations can be found at:http://www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/. Students in this course

have been caught cheating (copying) and plagiarizing, were immediately failed, and prosecuted

in Honor Court.

NOTE: Reusing work you have submitted for a previous class IS plagerism.

Information on becoming a TA/grader:

MDU course TAs (called MDUtas) are selected among students who apply and interview only

after having completed both MDU4003 and MDU4004. Students interested in being a TA should

first enroll in MDU4004. The semester following the completion of MDU 4004 or any semester

afterwards, students should email the course email to be placed on the list of interested TAs. In

order to be a MDUTA you must have received an A in 4003 and 4004. You can NOT receive

course credit for being a MDUTA. MDUTAs will be given approximately 1 hour of work each

week.

Policy on Letters of Recommendation:

1) We do notwrite letters of recommendations for students in MDU4003 because:

a) We have never personally met the students and would have little to say.
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b) Earning an A is already noted on the transcript and, since this is not a weed-out

class, does little to distinguish the student academically.

c) There are too many students in the course to start writing letters.

2) We do notwrite letters of recommendation for students in MDU4004 because:

a) We have never personally met the students and would have little to say.

b) Earning an A is already noted on the transcript and, since this is not a weed-out

class, does not distinguish the student academically.

c) The student should consider requesting a letter from the Physician they shadowed.

3) We willwrite a letter of recommendation for TAs for the courses once they have worked for

us for twosemesters and are in good standing.

Students with Disabilities:

Students requesting accommodations must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The

Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this

documentation to the Course Director when requesting accommodation.

Support Services:

Problems with the website (such as not being able to log in, not being able to attach a

document, not being able to click on a link, or not being able to view a video or reading) should

be directed to the UF computing Help Desk at 352-392-HELP.

mdu 4004 spring 2014 syllabus

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