DYU-COM Policies & Procedures

It is the policy of DYU-COM to fully comply with the administration of the COCA Student Survey. To ensure this occurs, students are noticed specifically that the survey is anonymous and that students are protected from retribution and retaliation from the information provided on the survey.

When DYU-COM administration is notified by DYU-COM that the Student Survey will be sent to students, the Office of the Dean will send an initial email and follow up emails to all students with the following statement:

“As part of the comprehensive accreditation process, DYU-COM fully complies and cooperates with the administration of the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA) Student Survey. Please be aware that the survey is anonymous and that students are protected against retribution and retaliation from the information provided on the survey.

DYU-COM has contracted with a diverse group of clinical education partners to deliver the clinical education portion of our curriculum in Years 3 and 4. Each student is required to complete core rotations in a number of specialties, including:

1. Emergency Medicine (Year 4);
2. Family Medicine/Primary Care;
3. Internal Medicine/Hospitalist;
4. Internal Medicine/Subspecialty;
5. General Surgery;
6. Surgical Subspecialty;
7. Pediatrics;
8. OB/GYN;
9. Psychiatry; as well as:
10. One (1) elective rotation in Year 3, and six (6) elective rotations in Year 4.

Students will be assigned to one of our core rotation sites for their third-year of education. In Year 4, students can rotate at any of these sites, at one of our sites offering elective rotations, or any other site they choose provided we have an Affiliation Agreement on file and the rotation meets the requirements DYU-COM prescribes.

It is understood that the training at each of these sites will differ, including the amount of inpatient versus outpatient experiences, but DYU-COM strives to ensure that the education is comparable across all sites. The avenues by which this is done include the following:

1. Standard learning outcomes for each rotation as noted in each rotation syllabus;

2. A checklist of required conditions or patient encounters needed, as reported in a clinical log;

3. Faculty development education provided from DYU-COM to rotation sites;

4. Online/virtual education (either provided by DYU-COM faculty, or commercial companies, such as Lecturio) to offer comparable learning outcomes by students at different sites;

5. Frequent check-ins with the site leadership and students to ensure that resources are in place to maximize student learning; and

6. Commonality in assessment: a standardized examination taken by all students at each of the core rotation sites (NBOME’s COMAT examination series) and a standardized student evaluation form used by all preceptors at all sites.

Our DYU-COM Osteopathic Core Competencies (submitted as Pre-Accreditation Element 6.4-1) and our DYU-COM Programmatic Level Educational Objectives (Element 6.2-1) are provided to all preceptors and students, and preceptors are encouraged to ensure they address applicable competencies, and students are required to ensure they are able to demonstrate each of those competencies in the Milestone 2 Evaluation course, culminating with a clinical skills competency exam (replacing COMLEX Level 2-PE) prior to being made eligible to graduate.

Furthermore, each clinical rotation site is evaluated on a consistent basis by both Office of Clinical Education staff and students who have rotated at that site. Potential gaps in education are identified, and the DYU-COM Office of Clinical Education will work with the site to alert them to these potential gaps and assist in addressing them. Students will also take the appropriate NBOME COMAT subject examination after each rotation, and site data will be tracked to ensure students are being exposed adequately based on student COMAT score achievement as one potential indicator of site quality, used in conjunction with others metrics as noted here, including COMLEX-USA Level 2-CE scores. Site evaluations by students will be reviewed after every block by the Associate Dean of Clinical Education, and summarized reports provided periodically to the Curriculum Committee for review and discussion, and also shared with offices of medical education at our core sites, and with elective preceptors for continual longitudinal quality improvement.

The Milestone 2 Evaluation course will serve to identify any students who are not yet ready for graduation if not able to demonstrate clinical competence for the supervised practice of osteopathic medicine as required in an ACGME residency program, and potentially work to either remediate them or recommend other interventions to increase their likelihood of meeting our Osteopathic Core Competency requirements for graduation.