By: Sherilyn Smith, MD |  Clinical Skills Learning Specialist  |  University of Washington |  Aquifer Chief Academic Officer

Programs are reporting that they expect their students and faculty will continue to be impacted by rising coronavirus infections through the spring. Students may become ill, be exposed, and have quarantine or their courses change due to the availability of clinical training sites. Faculty will continue to face the challenges of instructors who are pulled away from teaching, clinical sites that have to temporarily shift away from teaching, and disrupted student schedules. Aquifer has tools to help mitigate some of these disruptions and keep your students learning.  

Personalized Peer Consultations

Aquifer can connect you with expert medical educators from the Aquifer Educators Consortium for a personal consultation for you or your team to find out how Aquifer’s learning tools can support your specific challenges. Our team is here to help and share expertise to help with virtual clinical learning, adapting to learning disruptions, and supporting struggling learners.

Ready-to-use Teaching Tools: Ideal for Online Learning

Looking for ways to engage your students in virtual group sessions? The Aquifer Educators Consortium has done the work for you! Take advantage of our in-depth learning activities to extend the learning in associated Aquifer cases through flipped classroom discussions and knowledge application.

All activities below are available in the Educator Resources section of your Aquifer account for your subscribed courses. 

Successful Strategies from Your Peers

Since the pandemic began, Aquifer has been gathering success stories, practical tips, and new use cases from medical and health professions educators from across the country. Here are some of the most popular blog posts (✎) and webinar recordings (▶):

Lessons Learned from COVID: Successful Strategies for Using Aquifer Cases

• ✎ Blog Post; Sherilyn Smith, MD; Aquifer & University of Washington
• ▶  Webinar Recording 
  • Tele-precepting: Cindy Lord, MHS PA-C, Case Western Reserve Physician Assistant Program (starting at 11:25)
  • Online Orientation: Traci Marquis-Eydman, MD; Quinnipiac University (starting at 17:32)
  • Case-Based Learning Sessions: Kirstin Nackers, MD; University of Wisconsin (starting at 24:35)
  • Oral & Written Presentation Skills: Ronda Mourad, MD; Case Western Reserve University (starting at 32:20)
  • The Student Experience on Virtual Rotations: Georgia Vasilakis, West Virginia University School of Medicine (starting at 38:43)
  • Remediation: Sherilyn Smith, MD; University of Washington (starting at 46:10)

Shortened or Virtual Clerkships

• ✎ Adapting to a Shortened Virtual Clerkship; Rachel W. Thompson, MD; Boston University School of Medicine
• ▶  Supporting Shortened Clinical Rotations (30 min): Melissa Held, MD; University of Connecticut School of Medicine & Craig Myers, MSHS, PA-C, RN, RRT, Case Western Reserve Physician Assistant Program
• ✎ Virtual Radiology Clerkship to the Rescue; Laura L Avery, MD; Harvard Medical School
• ✎ Building a Virtual Rotation; Suzanne Weiner, MD; Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine

Supplementing Clinical Skills & Missing Patients

• ▶  Clinical Skills Preparation (31 min): Chris Anderson, MD; Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine Washington State University & Jacob Prunuske, MD; Medical College of Wisconsin
• ▶  Creating Meaningful Virtual Clinical Encounters (29 min): Michael Dell, MD; Case Western Reserve University & Anjali Kumar, MD, MPH; Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine Washington State University

Using Virtual Orientations to Maximize In-person Learning

• ✎ Easing Transition to Clinic: An Approach to Preparing Students; Traci Marquis-Eydman, MD, FAAFP; Quinnipiac University
• ✎ Virtual Hospital Systems Training: A Case-Based Framework; Michael Dell, MD; Case Western Reserve University

We’re Here to Help

Don’t see what you need? 

• Check the Educator-to-Educator Resources section of our website for more teaching pearls and tips.
• Contact our Relationship Management team and our dedicated staff will help connect you with the right person or resource to answer your questions.