Faculty Bibliography

The New York University School of Medicine has a rich tradition of cultivating programs in medical humanities and professionalism. They are drawn from the departments, centers, students, and faculty in the School of Medicine, have linkages throughout the university, and are interwoven into the fabric and culture of the institution. Some are centrally based in the School of Medicine's deans' office, and others are located in individual departments and receive support from the dean's office. This article describes representative programs for medical students and faculty. Curricular initiatives, the fundamental components of medical students' learning, include a course entitled 'The Physician, Patient, and Society,' a clerkship essay in the Medicine Clerkship, an opportunity for reflection during the medicine clerkship, and a medical humanities elective. In 2002, the Professionalism Initiative was launched to enhance and reflect the values of the medical profession. Its curriculum consists of a series of events that coordinate, particularly, with existing elements of the first-year curriculum (e.g., orientation week, a session during anatomy, a self-assessment workshop, and a peer-assessment workshop). The Master Scholars Program is a group of five, theme-based master societies consisting of faculty and students who share common interests around the society's themes. Programs developed for the societies include colloquia, faculty-led seminars, a mandatory student-mentoring program, and visiting scholars. Finally, the authors describe three high-quality literary publications created at New York University School of Medicine. Each of the initiatives undergoes regular critical examination and reflection that drive future planning

The current trend of shorter hospital stays has heightened concern about the adequacy of preparation of patients and their families to understand and follow prescribed medication regimens properly following discharge. Cooperative Care, an education-intensive unit incorporating a living-in family member or friend acting as a 'care partner,' has had a self-administration of medication program (SAM) for the past 16 years. This paper describes SAM and reports on two studies of its effectiveness. The first was a 1-week survey of all patients (151) admitted to the unit. 126 (83.4%) were taking a mean of five medications, with a range of one to 17. Of those, 102 (80.9%) were able to participate in SAM independently, and 11 (8.7%) were on SAM with supervision by their care partners. The second study reviewed medication administration errors within Cooperative Care and the traditional nursing units of Tisch Hospital over a 4-year period (1991-1994). Cooperative Care accounted for 19.4% of discharges (22,164/114,206) and 10.3% of patient days (97,037/944,230), but only 4.6% of medication errors (80/1723). The medication error rate per 1000 discharges was 3.6 for Cooperative Care, and 17.8 for the traditional units. Comparative error rates per 10,000 medication orders were 3.06 at Cooperative Care and 4.01 on the traditional units. 74.8% of Cooperative Care patients were on SAM, but only 30% of the errors were attributed to patients or care partners. The other errors were attributed to nursing staff (50%), equipment defects (12.5%) or pharmacists (5%). Our data indicate that SAM during hospitalization is a safe and effective modality of care