Significant Step 2 CS Announcement
We received news today that could not be shared until 9p and felt it was worth delaying tonight’s digest in order to send. The USMLE is suspending Step 2CS test administrations for the next 12-18 months. Here is the announcement and a prepared FAQ. As the next few weeks unfold, we will be certain to update our graduation requirements so not to delay our students’ progression to graduation and work with our GME colleagues to prepare for this change in the residency application portfolio.
Credit for Step 2 CK Course
The live online Step 2 CK course will run from 12:30-3:30, Monday-Friday from June 8-June 19th. The class will be recorded and will be available to you throughout the academic year. You may either participate live or watch the recordings at your own pace, at whatever point in the year you choose.
To receive 2 weeks of elective credit for the Step 2 CK course, students must watch all course lectures either live online, or recorded online.
Once notified, sign up for the Step 2 CK elective course in Empower. The course will be ready for your registration soon.
Then, watch all sessions, either live or recorded; if you watched all sessions of last year's course already, skip to the next step.
Finally, complete the attestation in the Blackboard organization for the course that states you completed all course sessions.
Submitting a practice test score will not be required for credit.
Class of 2021 Town Hall Recording
So sorry about the broken link sent last week – please review the 5/20 Town Hall HERE.
Clinical Shadowing
As we continue to work through the recovery phase from the COVID-19 pandemic, we wanted to share some general guidelines related to your scholarly work this summer. These guidelines are based on the assessment by our Medical Education COVID Response Infection Prevention team and in conjunction with the city and state health departments’ designations. Based on the current assessment, we are on pause and we hope to move into a phase 1 reopening in the coming weeks.
As a rising second year student, your scholarly work cannot be patient/community-facing. In addition, while NYC remains on pause you cannot participate in clinical shadowing anywhere in our Health System. These restrictions are for your safety.
As we slowly recover as a Health System, a School and a community, we will re-address these guidelines. Depending on the availability of proper PPE throughout the health system we anticipate allowing both clinical shadowing and patient facing/community facing scholarly work in the future. We expect this action will be timed after 3rd and 4th year students begin their reengagement with the clinical curriculum. At that time a thorough assessment of the availability of appropriate PPE for other types of student activities can be undertaken.
If you have questions or are unsure about an experience, please reach out and we will have your questions addressed by the Medical Education COVID Response Infection Prevention team. If and when our risk assessment changes in the coming weeks, we will be in touch with updates.
All In Together campaign
Over the past few weeks, representatives from Student Affairs, Academic Administration, Curriculum Affairs, employee engagement, OWBR, ODI and the RBI formed the Community Engage Committee to create opportunities for staff, faculty and students to connect, share and reimagine together during the next phase of the pandemic—recovery and contingency planning. We are calling this our All in Together campaign.
We would like to invite students to join us in our efforts as a community partner. Student affinity groups will host feedback or brainstorming sessions to reimagine the future. Others will host engagement events like a coffee break, happy hour or energizer sessions. Be on the lookout for these opportunities and take a moment to connect, share and reimagine!
