UMass Chan Medical School
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

There are three schools at UMass Chan and each has its own set of learning outcomes.

VISTA Learning Outcomes apply to the TF Chan School of Medicine.
Broad goals and objectives for the Climate Change Curriculum:
Goal 1 Define Climate Change and its Impact on Health and Disease
Objectives:
a. Explain the role of greenhouse gases and how the climate has changed and will continue to change
b. Describe the environmental impacts of climate change
i. Extreme heat
ii. Extreme precipitation
iii. Wildfires
iv. Increase sea level rise
c. Describe the health impacts of climate change
i. Heat related disease
ii. Respiratory and allergic diseases
iii. Vector borne disease
iv. Waterborne Disease
v. Food insecurity
vi. Mental health
vii. Population displacement and violent conflict

Goal 2 Define, Devise, and Explain Mitigation and Adaptation strategies as it relates to Climate Change
Objectives:
a. Define Public Health
b. Define Public Health Advocacy
c. Describe short- and long-term mitigation strategies/opportunities from a local, national, and global perspective
d. Describe short- and long-term adaptation strategies/opportunities from a local, national, and global perspective
e. Describe public health advocacy from a Climate change perspective.
f. Evaluating a climate change mitigation or adaptation strategy

Goal 3 Apply communication techniques and strategies to inform others on the science and health
issues related to Climate Change.
Objectives:
a. Describe the physician as “the trusted messenger”
b. Describe the community, professional, and legislative audiences to communicate to
c. Describe tools to facilitate communication

Goal 4 Acquire the skills to take a comprehensive and effective environmental history
Objectives:
a. Discuss how a patient’s surrounding environment may be impacting their health and/or presenting concerns
b. Demonstrate and practice discussing patient risk factors and exposures to environmental hazards

The Graduate School of Nursing Learning Outcomes
Synthesize and integrate knowledge and evidence from the biological, psychological, social, nursing, genetics, public health, health promotion, disease prevention, quality improvement, and organizational sciences for the continual improvement of health and health outcomes in populations across diverse settings particularly those who are vulnerable and/or medically underserved.
Lead and participate in interprofessional collaborative practice, critical thinking and ethical decision-making within health care systems, based on scientific evidence and standards of practice that focus on quality and patient safety initiatives to improve patient and population health outcomes.
Interpret research findings, critically evaluate scientific evidence and employ informatics and health care technologies to resolve problems leading to best practices to improve patient and population health outcomes.
Collaborate to advocate for patients, populations, communities and develop policies to improve health outcomes.
Influence health care outcomes for individuals, populations and systems by integrating nursing, organizational and relevant scientific literature at the advanced level to ensure quality of direct and indirect patient, population, and community care through individual and interprofessional team practice
Student Outcomes associated with Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Program. Graduates will be able to:

Assess, intervene, and evaluate the responses of patients to health/illness states by applying the population competencies of advanced practice (NP Tracks)
Critically appraise and communicate the best evidence for nursing practice to promote safe, timely, effective, efficient, ethical, equitable patient/family centered care.
Design and plan care delivery approaches grounded in the ethical principles of the nursing discipline to support and improve patient care and healthcare systems through organizational and systems leadership.
Lead and participate in interprofessional teams to collaborate and create healthcare solutions to improve population health outcomes.
Synthesize biopsychosocial data to create, provide and evaluate patient centered interventions to optimize health (individual, family, and group).
Interpret scientific data to create new strategies to address determinants of health that supports population health initiatives.
Student Outcomes associated with Post-Graduate Certificate (PGC) APRN Program. Graduates will be able to:

Synthesize and integrate knowledge from the biological, psychological, social, and nursing sciences into practice
Assess, intervene, and evaluate the responses of patients to health/illness states by applying the competencies of advanced practice
Apply the standards of practice and evidence-based literature to make cost-effective clinical judgments in the context of quality patient outcomes
Contribute to the scholarly advancement of the nursing profession through education, research, and clinical practice
Manage health/illness care as a member of an interdisciplinary team implementing preventive and population-based health care in institutions and communities
Provide clinical leadership within the context of the social, economic, political, legal, cultural, and ethical forces that affect health care delivery, health policy, and professional nursing practice.

Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Learning Outcomes
Core Competencies of the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
The Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences has concluded that 4 competencies are central to successful doctoral training. These competencies describe the knowledge, skills and attitudes students will develop through our curriculum and research training programs. Proficiency in these competencies and their related objectives is assessed in individual required courses for each academic program, Qualifying Exams, thesis-mentor Research Evaluations, annual TRAC meetings, and at the Dissertation Defense. Graduating students will have acquired mastery in all the following competencies.

#1. Knowledge-based problem-solving ability and critical thinking: identify important biomedical and/or population health problems and conduct original research.
Demonstrate knowledge mastery; integrate information from prior research experiences and the literature to identify novel, unanswered biomedical and/or population health questions as the basis for one’s original thesis research project.

Design a research strategy, including appropriate quantitative, analytical, qualitative, or theoretical methodologies, to explore components of the problem and begin to address the question.

Independently analyze, assess, and critically evaluate one’s own scientific work and the work of others to determine research directions.

Demonstrate mastery and appropriate application of a range of research approaches and techniques used in their field.

Generate original research outcomes that meet dissertation standards.

Demonstrate the ability to conduct and lead research efforts in a productive and efficient manner.

#2. Communication: successfully engage in written and oral scientific discourse
Describe scientific information accurately; articulate the outcomes, progress, limitations and challenges of one’s own scientific work.

Compose and deliver accurate, organized oral and written communications of scientific ideas, analyses, and arguments.

Articulate the background, significance and impact of one’s research and place it in the context of their field as well as more broadly in the context of scientific advancement.

Demonstrate the ability to respond to and address scientific inquiries and constructive criticisms from others, including from colleagues, peers and members of the scientific community.

Exhibit proficiency for listening to and considering others’ views, including views from diverse backgrounds and/or that may appear different from their own.

#3. Responsible Conduct of Research: students comprehend and apply ethical standards to research and decision-making
Adhere to ethical principles and recognize potential sources of bias applicable to research, free from scientific misconduct.

Demonstrate an understanding of and compliance with appropriate regulations and institutional policies regarding lab biosafety protocols, and protection of animal and/or human subjects.

Adhere to the highest ethical standards related to honesty, integrity, and transparency.

Identify and use appropriate attribution in in both oral and written communications, including but not limited to presentations and publications.

Conduct research with scientific rigor and ensure reproducibility.

#4. Professionalism and career advancement: students exhibit professional behavior and attitudes
Demonstrate the ability to work in collaborative and team settings involving colleagues with expertise in other disciplines.

Recognize the value of diverse teams and engage in efforts that support a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment.

Demonstrate professional and organizational skills including time management, setting and meeting deadlines, and project management.

Apply leadership principles including creating a vision, planning strategies to determine and achieve short- and long-term goals, fostering collaboration, empowering others, and guiding decision making.

Seek and leverage mentorship and professional networks to advance one’s professional development and career goals.

UMass Chan Medical School launched its new VISTA curriculum in the fall off 2022 by building on the lessons of the Learner-centered Integrated Curriculum (LInC) and scientific, pedagogic, and societal advances. Since this is an overarching curriculum for our TH School of Medicine, the number of graduates from degree programs at UMass Chan that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability covers the entire graduating class for that school, which is 150 for this year (anticipated June 2023).

One of the VISTA curriculum's learning outcomes focuses on social determinants of health, which are the "conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks." The physical environment and ecological systems are a key part of this topic, fulfilling the environmental component of sustainability that this credit requires. Air quality, soil contamination, extreme heat, vector-borne diseases, food availability, water quality, and other environmental impacts on human health form the ecological dimension of sustainability and climate change, helping UMass Chan's health practitioners to draw conclusions about how climate change impacts human, societal, and community health. As mentioned above in Part 1, defining climate change and its impact on health and disease, is a key objective for the Climate Change Curriculum that is a learning outcome for VISTA.

For the Graduate School of Nursing and Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, an understanding of sustainability is not required. Graduates from these programs were not counted in the total above.

TH Chan Graduate School of Medicine
MD Program
MD/PhD Program
PURCH Track