About
Objectives
- Create a program to recognize multiple outstanding and passionate clinical faculty and residents for service to the medical students, awarded directly by medical students
- Unify a program across departments and resident/fellow/faculty levels to create a recognizable symbol of devotion to teaching
- Ensure program longevity and prestige to promote a medical culture of faculty/resident pride, medical student gratitude, and general high esteem for teaching excellence
- Utilize longitudinal research to continually assess impact on inductees’ individual success, success of their programs, hospital environment/culture, and overall satisfaction of faculty and housestaff
History
Need
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is famous for innovation in medical education and teaching excellence. Alumni from JHUSOM remember interactions with resident, fellow, and attending physicians that made a lifelong impression. Recognition awards exist to honor excellent teaching, yet these distinctions tend to be presented to a select few each year. In addition, many teaching awards are scattered around different departments and hospitals, each with its own criteria and process of choosing recipients, often with no recognition of semi-finalists. Furthermore, the awards are usually presented by course directors or administrators without direct involvement of medical students in an award ceremony. Some educators feel under-appreciated by students. On top of this, students notice that distinctions for teaching trainees are not as plentiful nor as valuable for career advancement and academic promotion, when compared to research accolades. Many students express a desire for prioritized, student-integrated efforts to make the clinical environment more appreciative of learners and teachers.
Development
The Medical Student Senate (MSS) recognized the opportunity to create a new model of teaching recognition. A task force of nine MSS members met regularly in fall of 2015 to plan every aspect of the society, from the initial mission, nominating process, and initial selection and induction plans. The team also worked with the Office of the Vice-Dean of Education, the Office of Medical Student Affairs (OMSA) and the Institute of Excellence in Education (IEE) to workshop the proposal, as well as the Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC), the Faculty Senate, the House-Staff Council (HSC) and the Office of Assessment and Evaluation (OAE). The unique rubric used for final selection was developed with help from faculty, MSS students, and Welch Library experts. Seventy published research papers concerning traits/characteristics of master clinical educators were summarized into five main categories. A parallel “Q-sort” analysis of traits/characteristics submitted and ranked by JHUSOM students composed another guiding force for the final rubric. The faculty and house-staff support for the task force was outstandingly positive, and the MSS and partners moved forward to establish the society and induct its first members in 2016 (31 inductees)! Our second DTS class in 2017 welcomed 23 inductees. Since 2018, we have maintained a rate of 10-16 inductees per year. In 2021, the DTS Diversity & Outreach Program was created to amplify voices of those underrepresented in medicine and society. In 2023, we introduced the DTS mentorship program, which connected medical students with enthusiastic faculty mentors previously inducted into DTS.
The operation of all DTS activity and research on our impact is conducted by the Distinguished Teaching Society Board Members, with support from Medical Student Senate, our Faculty Advisors, and other faculty stakeholders.
Dissemination
The honor society continues to work with students and educators to broaden the nomination pipeline and refine selection techniques. In 2021, DTS student leaders shared the development of this innovative and the first 5 years in a peer-reviewed publication: The Distinguished Teaching Society at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: A Student-Led Initiative to Recognize Clinical Educators - PubMed (nih.gov). We hope student leaders at other medical schools can utilize our lessons learned to develop similar recognition programs at their own institutions.
Process of Selection
Medical students nominate faculty and house staff throughout the year, who they recognize as excellent clinical educators during shadowing, longitudinal clerkship, core clerkships, sub-internships and clinical electives. These are our “Nominees,” which have numbered over a hundred in past years.
Nominees are sent a “Nominee Application,” which requests more information about their teaching activities and philosophy on clinical teaching. Nominees who complete the “Nominee Application” are called “Confirmed Nominees.” The medical student Co-Directors then de-identify the nominee’s nomination and application, creating a single document called the “Judging Form.”
The “Judges,” a team of about 15-30 medical students who are selected and trained over several months, each receive “Judging Forms” for a select number of nominees and assess them based on our student-designed rubric of educational excellence.
The top scoring nominations are then presented to the student body and educational leadership at JHUSOM for additional comment. After this final round of comment, the 8-12 nominees who received the top judging scores are ultimately inducted into the Society.
Those who are inducted are invited to an Induction Ceremony, where they receive a white coat pin, lanyard, and award certificate. JHUSOM Leaders, Department Directors and Residency Directors are notified and invited to attend the ceremony.
Throughout the process, DTS is constantly taking in feedback and ideas for improvement. The DTS student leadership and judges meet before and after the final selection of Inductees, to discuss outcomes for the year and any desired changes for the future.
Frequently Asked Questions
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The number of selected inductees is highly variable, depending on the quality of nominations as well as the number of nominations each year. In our first year, about 40% of nominated candidates were selected for induction. In past years, due to an ever-increasing number of nominations, as few as 10% of nominated candidates were inducted.
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The DTS takes the integrity of the selection process extremely seriously. All nomination forms are de-identified to any names, departmental references, and other identifying terms. Two student co-directors de-identify all materials; these individuals are recused from judging. The judging team is composed of 15-30 individuals from the medical student body, who attend multiple trainings in how to utilize our rubric and to judge nominations fairly. The judges are selected to create a highly diverse team, and are also de-identified (Judge A, B, etc.) throughout the judging process. Each application is scored by three different judges, and final scoring of the applications takes place by the two coordinating individuals.
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The nomination form is extremely short and consists of two main questions. The nominator is asked to describe why a certain faculty/resident/fellow/intern deserves to be inducted, then is asked to give a “one-liner” completion of the sentence “This individual is worthy of induction because_______.” The form takes about 5-10 minutes to complete and is also automatically saved so a nominator can return to the form at any time prior to submission. Nominators are advised to populate the form with anecdotes and descriptions of clinical encounters, covering topics such as feedback, role modeling, and teaching process of the nominee.
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More details on the process are available under the “About/Process of Selection” tab. Typically, the deadline for nominations is in February/early March, with judging taking place through March and April. A final list of Inductees is announced in April, with an Induction Ceremony scheduled for early May.
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The “Process of Selection” tab in the “About” heading provides more information about the timeline to induction. All semifinalist applications are combined with the nomination forms, de-identified and assigned to three medical student judges. That process typically takes 2-3 weeks to complete, with an additional week or two for review. Inductees are announced in late April, with an Induction Ceremony scheduled for early May.
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All inducted members of the DTS are expected to support each other and the objectives of the society. This support can take many forms, including prioritizing student teaching encounters and supporting other excellent educators, creating an environment that does not tolerate medical student mistreatment, and engaging in general efforts to make the medical school environment safer and more productive for medical students. There are no explicit enumerated responsibilities; the society seeks to recognize master clinical educators and support them. It is our hope that inducted members will feel a calling towards medical education and will continue their already amazing efforts to help medical students at JHUSOM. If inductees are so inclined, they may also choose to participate in ongoing DTS activities throughout the year, such as Diversity and Outreach events and/or the DTS Mentorship Program.
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The DTS is committed to ensuring the support and recognition of our brilliant, diverse master educators. The society realizes that many populations are under-represented in the faculty and is devoted to pursuing methods to make sure that these individuals are not marginalized in the nomination/selection process. In addition, the society plans to increase outreach to certain departments that have lower student rotation rates to ensure that all faculty/residents have a chance to be nominated for the society, regardless of whether a certain service receives hundreds of medical students each year, or just one. The DTS process is constantly evolving, with the continued goal of honoring the most remarkable clinical educators, regardless of department, background, or any other characteristic beyond being a great teacher.
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Induction to the DTS is an incredibly prestigious honor. Out of hundreds of JHUSOM faculty and residents, only a very small proportion are nominated by students for master clinical excellence, and even fewer are selected for induction. The selection process is uniquely robust, utilizing a novel rubric that is informed by evidence-based literature and an extensive “Q-sort” process undertaken by the entire JHUSOM student body. We hope that having this distinction on a CV/resume will help with career/fellowship advancement. We also hope that students will recognize your white coat pin and will regard you as a leader on the wards in the area of medical student teaching!
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If you would like to donate to help support DTS in its mission, you can do so here. If you would like to get involved in another way, we would love to hear from you! We can always be reached by email at [email protected].
Faculty Advisors
Medical Student Board
Co-Directors: Sumrah Jilani & Shreya Sriram
Ceremony Chair: Pallavi Menon
Diversity & Outreach Co-Chairs: Elizabeth Saoud & Samalya Thenuwara
Judging Chair: Sonia Hamilton
Mentorship Co-Chairs: Angela Renne & Lauren Russell