Foundations 1 Operations Committee Charge

Updated 9/2020

Introduction
The Bridges Curriculum is designed to produce physicians for the 21st Century who improve health and reduce suffering. To govern this new complex curriculum, the Medical Education Leadership and the Committee on Curriculum and Educational Policy has developed a governance structure that streamlines communication across committees, improves curricular integration, and incorporates the responsibilities and management of all new and existing components of the curriculum. The structure aims to be inclusive of students, clinical and basic science faculty, as well as staff and administrative leadership.

Foundations 1 Operations Committee
This charge document describes the role and responsibilities of the Foundations 1 Operations (F1 Ops) Committee. Beginning August 1, 2017, the F1 Ops Committee will report to the Executive Committee and will be responsible for overseeing the operations, procedures and quality improvement of the Foundations 1 phase of the curriculum, including all elements within this phase (Clinical Microsystem Clerkship, Foundational Sciences, Inquiry, Inquiry Immersion, and ARCH weeks). The F1 Ops Committee has the authority to recommend procedural and content changes related to the Foundations 1 phase of the curriculum, within the scope of existing curricular policies and in alignment with the program objectives. Any proposed program, policy, and significant course scheduling changes are to be vetted by the Executive Committee with consideration of the appropriateness of the proposed action in the context of the overall curriculum, service to students, and School of Medicine and University missions.

The Curriculum Governance diagram demonstrates the reporting relationship of the 4 Operations subcommittees of the Executive Committee.

The management of Continuous Quality Improvement and Program Evaluation resides with the Director of Program Evaluation and Continuous Quality Improvement  and the evaluations team. Relevant program evaluation data/reports will be shared across the appropriate governance committees as part of the CQI process.

The specific responsibilities of the F1 Ops Committee, as charged by the Executive Committee are to: 

1. Monitor (as scheduled) the following LCME standards to help ensure the compliance of the School of Medicine in the Foundations 1 phase of the curriculum: 
   • Standard 6.3: Self-Directed and Life-Long Learning: Pre-Clerkship Workload
   • Standard 7.3: Scientific Method/Clinical/Translational Research
   • Standard 7.4: Critical Judgement/Problem Solving Skills
   • Standard 7.8: Communication Skills
2. Monitor curricular operations, execution of policies, and maintenance of quality and appropriate distribution of curricular content in the Bridges Curriculum within the Foundations 1 phase and its elements; 
3. Ensure that students experience a consistent and integrated learning experience across courses in Foundations 1 including a manageable workload; 
4. Promote and oversee ongoing curricular innovations within the Foundations 1 phase, ensuring consistency with the vision and goals of the Bridges Curriculum with a focus on continuous quality improvement;
5. Collaborate with other subcommittees to maintain and improve horizontal and vertical integration of content throughout all curricular elements in Foundations 1 and across the other curriculum phases, especially in Foundations 2;
6. Review Course and Clerkship (CCPR) Summary Reports for Foundations 1 courses with CCPR Teams to inform the quality improvement plans for courses; 
7. Work with the Technology Enhanced Education (TEE) unit to integrate effective and efficient digital curriculum that enhances student mastery of the Foundations 1 curriculum.
8. Communicate issues, questions or concerns to appropriate subcommittees, the Executive Committee, or associate dean in a timely manner;
9. Deliberate on issues that are presented to the F1 Ops Committee and provide recommendations/response to the person or committee that requested the F1 Ops feedback.

Membership:
The F1 Ops Committee is comprised of the element leaders (directors and co-directors) of all of the Foundations 1 courses. The F1 Ops Committee is chaired by a faculty element director and stewarded by the Director of Assessment, Curriculum and Evaluation. The Associate Dean for Curriculum will be a member of this Committee and provide leadership support to the Chair as needed.  Each course has a single vote regardless of the number of representatives present at the meeting. In addition, a single student vote for each phase of the curriculum is allowable.

Meetings:
The F1 Ops Committee will meet monthly and the Chair will represent the committee and present any critical issues at the monthly Executive Committee meeting.