Tag Archives: PLFSOM

After four arduous years of medical school, 99 Paul L. Foster School of Medicine (PLFSOM) students found out Friday where they will serve their medical residencies.

The class of 2019 included a record 16 medical students who were matched with residencies in El Paso.

“Residents often remain in the region in which they are trained, so this is a good sign for fulfilling the PLFSOM’s mission to increase the number of practicing physicians in the El Paso region,” school officials shared via a news release.

Friday was known as Match Day, and thousands of graduating medical students across the country gathered in similar ceremonies, waiting to simultaneously open their envelopes and find out where they will train.

Jesus Guzman was one of those excited and grateful to find out he will serve his residency in El Paso. Guzman grew up in the Segundo Barrio, graduated from Bowie High School, and will now serve a residency in internal medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso.

“My family was so nervous because we were all wishing and praying for me to stay in El Paso,” Guzman said. “We’re so blessed. We couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

Guzman hadn’t considered a career in medicine until a chance encounter after graduating with an accounting degree from the University of Texas at El Paso. He started working at the Chamizal National Memorial in El Paso and happened to witness the inaugural PLFSOM White Coat Ceremony at the Chamizal Theater.

The ceremony welcomes first-year medical students into the profession by cloaking them with their first white coats.

“I was so inspired by the ceremony and by what the field of medicine meant — I just knew then and there that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” Guzman said. “Now I get to be a resident here and help the community where I grew up.”

Jake Wilson, PLFSOM class of 2019 president, correctly predicted before the Match Day ceremony that there would be many students matching in El Paso. Wilson was matched to the University of Florida Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, in internal medicine.

“This is going to be a really interesting year, because I think we are going to have more people stay in El Paso,” Wilson said. “More people want to stay, or at least come back to El Paso, because we’ve fallen in love with El Paso. Regardless of where we end up, we’re taking what we learned in El Paso and spreading it across the country, and eventually I think we’re going to bring it back. This class has really embraced the patients and the community of El Paso. We’ve really loved it here.”

Roberto Solis and Roxana Mohhebali are engaged, and both graduated in the class of 2019. So, they were delighted to both be matched to the University of California-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California. Solis will be training in otolaryngology and Mohhebali in obstetrics-gynecology.

“We’re very excited,” Solis said. “There was a lot of anxiety and nervousness, because the unknown was scary, but now we’re very, very happy.”

El Paso businessman Paul L. Foster attended the ceremony for the first time Friday and afterward had lunch with 22 Foster Scholars who were matched to residencies. Foster donated $50 million to help create the PLFSOM, and his gift also has funded the tuition of more than 140 medical students, known as the Foster Scholars. The PLFSOM, which seated its first class in July 2009, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year.

Match Day comes after the students have spent the past six months applying to residencies, interviewing and deciding the order in which to rank programs they hope to be matched to, said Herb Janssen, Ph.D., interim associate dean of student affairs.

“Though the moments leading up to 10 a.m. on Match Day can be filled with tension, the moments right after are usually filled with joy,” Janssen said. “It’s always exciting to learn where our students will be going to continue their careers.”

Photo gallery courtesy PLFSOM

A five-member team of Paul L. Foster School of Medicine (PLFSOM) students finished in second place out of seven Texas medical schools at the inaugural Shift 2018 – Texas Health Challenges Case Competition at Texas A&M College of Medicine.

The event, held Sept. 22-23, aimed to develop innovative solutions to improve health care delivery in rural Texas.

The PLFSOM students’ solution proposed a network of community health care centers that worked with local high schools and churches to connect small-town hospitals to a broader network of Texas medical schools. The plan incorporated telemedicine and rotating specialty services.

The second-place award brought not only pride to a team representing one of the youngest medical schools in Texas, but also a $3,000 cash prize.

“We were absolutely thrilled,” third-year PLFSOM student Jacob Winters said of his team’s performance. “We were most proud of the fact that we were able to represent our school, to put our school’s name out there, and to give a testament of the strength of our education.”

Members of the TTUHSC El Paso team included fourth-year medical students Brandy Mills and Alex Palmer, third-year medical students Brittany Harper and Winters, and second-year medical student Roxann Lerma.

The team’s Shift 2018 presentation can be viewed below.

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso’s (TTUHSC) medical education program has been granted full accreditation for eight years without citations by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME),

According to TTUHSC officials the announcement is the “best possible outcome of an application for continuing accreditation.”

The LCME is the U.S. Department of Education-recognized accrediting body for programs leading to the M.D. degree. There are three stages of accreditation: preliminary, provisional and full. The Paul L. Foster School of Medicine has been fully accredited since 2013.

Richard Brower, M.D., associate dean for medical education, said the LCME’s survey team was impressed by the school’s educational resources, committed faculty, and well-documented philosophy and theoretical basis for its curriculum.

Clinical integration is key to the PLFSOM’s curriculum. Unlike many traditional medical schools, PLFSOM students are immersed in diagnostic reasoning and clinical skill-building from the very start of their medical education. They learn the scientific foundations of medicine and related diagnostic skills based on common clinical presentations throughout the first and second years.

During this phase they also participate in community explorations and assessments, as well as a unique program of fully integrated Spanish language instruction.

“The LCME is very interested in the modernization of medical education,” Dr. Brower said. “And we were well-prepared to emphasize how the development and evolution of the PLFSOM curriculum has been deliberately based on settled principles of adult learning and educational psychology — this definitely worked in our favor.”

From the first day of medical school, PLFSOM students are taught to think like a doctor. Active learning is encouraged through simulation exercises in the school’s Center for Advanced Teaching and Assessment in Clinical Simulation. ATACS uses high-fidelity manikins that simulate everything from cardiac arrest to a vaginal birth.

Students also interact with “standardized patients,” real people trained to act out symptoms of medical conditions. These simulation activities help students learn to recognize conditions while developing their people skills and bedside manner.

In the final two years of medical school, students interact with actual patients in a wide range of clinical settings, and gain knowledge in ways that no textbook or simulation could ever teach. These experiences provide students with the background to lead the nation in medical care and prevention upon graduation.

With accreditation through 2026, PLFSOM leaders are looking at ways the school can continue to evolve.

“The great thing about the school’s definitively positive accreditation outcome is that we know we’re on an eight-year cycle, and this establishes an advantageous timeline for educational program enhancement and growth” Dr. Brower said.

With TTUHSC El Paso’s Medical Sciences Building II slated for completion in 2019, TTUHSC El Paso’s priority now will be to align its physical planning with its educational planning and enrollment goals.

The PLFSOM’s LCME accreditation is the third accreditation to be awarded to TTUHSC El Paso in 2018. Previously accredited under Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, TTUHSC El Paso was granted separate institutional accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges in June.

Also in June, the Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing earned its 10-year programmatic accreditation by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).

More information about the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine may be found at online.

Students in the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine (PLFSOM) will host two events Saturday to help keep El Pasoans healthy.

The SUNS Health Fair, running from 9 a.m. to noon at Dolphin Terrace Elementary School in Northeast El Paso, is free to the public and will offer blood pressure readings, blood sugar tests, EKGs, dental screenings, and more.

This will be the third year PLFSOM students have participated in the Texas Two-Step: Save a Life Campaign, said Kelcy Steffen, a PLFSOM student. The campaign began in Texas in 2016 and expanded nationwide to seven states this year.

“Since heart disease is the number one killer of Americans, we knew it was important to help the medical students and our great partners bring this lifesaving event to our communities again this year,” Steffen said.

The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso medical students will also offer classes in hands-only CPR. During five-minute training sessions, El Pasoans will learn how to react quickly to cardiac emergencies in two steps: 1. Call 911. 2. Initiate hands-only CPR.

The Texas Two-Step CPR classes will be offered during the SUNS Health Fair, and at two other sites on Saturday.

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Fountains at Farah

8889 Gateway Blvd. West

8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sun Metro Downtown Transfer Center

601 S. Santa Fe Street

For more information, visit the Texas Two-Step: Save a Life Campaign website, or follow @TX2StepCPR on Twitter.

What: SUNS Health Fair and Texas Two-Step CPR Training

When: 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Feb. 24

Where: Dolphin Terrace Elementary School, 9790 Pickerel Drive

The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso (TTUHSC El Paso) Paul L. Foster School of Medicine (PLFSOM) will hold its third annual Hearts for Sparks Golf Classic to benefit the Medical Student Run Clinic (MSRC) located in the community of Sparks.

Started in 2013 by PLFSOM students, the clinic operates twice a month on Tuesday evenings in the Sparks community.

Located in far east El Paso county, Sparks is home to residents who lack health insurance and sometimes cannot afford a trip to a doctor; 43 percent of its residents live below the U.S. poverty line, according to U.S. Census data.

The MSRC provides free primary health care screenings, such as diagnostics, blood work and patient education. Run entirely by students with faculty oversight, the clinic not only benefits the Sparks community, but gives students real-life opportunities to hone their medical and Spanish language skills.

Proceeds from the Hearts for Sparks Golf Classic event will go directly toward funding for the MSRC.

Participants will receive lunch and dinner, unlimited range balls, a goodie bag, and 18 holes of golf.

What: Hearts for Sparks Golf Classic

When: 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19 (shotgun start)

Where: Butterfield Trail Golf Club (1858 Cottonwoods)

This week, TTUHSC El Paso will graduate its fifth class of physicians and its sixth class of nurses.

Eighty-seven students from the PLFSOM are eligible to earn their Doctor of Medicine and receive their doctoral hoods Friday evening. TTUHSC El Paso President Richard Lange, M.D., M.B.A., will give the keynote address.

Forty-three students from the GGHSON are eligible to earn their Bachelor of Science in Nursing Saturday evening. Nicholas Tejeda, FACHE, chief executive officer for The Hospitals of Providence Transmountain Campus, will keynote the ceremony.

The PLFSOM and GGHSON have graduated 241 doctors and 315 nurses to date. With the addition of this spring’s graduates, TTUHSC El Paso will have played an integral role in a total of 328 physicians and 358 nurses earning their health care degrees.

What: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso (TTUHSC El Paso) spring commencement ceremonies

When:

Paul L. Foster School of Medicine (PLFSOM)

6 p.m. Friday, May 19 at the Plaza Theatre, 125 Pioneer Plaza

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Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing (GGHSON)

5 p.m. Saturday, May 20 at the Abraham Chavez Theatre, 1 Civic Center Plaza