Bridges Faculty

The School of Medicine Coaching Program is designed to provide academic guidance for students and support their professional and personal development throughout their medical school curriculum. By providing longitudinal coaching for all medical students and robust faculty development for our coaches, we aim to create successful learning communities that support and respond to the needs of our students, coaches, and the patients we serve.

Overview of the Coaching Program:

Coaches are clinician educators who provide advice, assistance, and encouragement in all aspects of our students’ education and professional development. The coaches are a diverse group of faculty from multiple specialties and teaching sites. They are each assigned a small number of students to foster personal and individualized teaching and mentoring relationships.

The coaching program provides:

• Longitudinal coaching for students
  • Each coach is assigned a group of about 6 first-year medical students to oversee throughout their medical school curriculum. As we begin this new program, coaches are also assigned 6-7 third-year medical students to provide additional support as those students complete medical school.
• Individualized support
  • Coaches regularly review their students’ progress and competency development with them, and guide students in individual learning planning.
  • Coaches meet with their students individually and in small groups.
  • Coaches refer students to the range of learning and career development resources available at UCSF as needed.
• Formal instruction in clinical skills, including quality improvement and patient safety
  • Coaches are site faculty members in the Clinical Microsystems Clerkship (CMC), teaching clinical skills and overseeing students’ systems improvement learning at clinical sites during the Foundations 1 portion of the Bridges Curriculum.