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. 2020 Oct;95(10):1492-1494.
doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000003540.

Accelerated Graduation and the Deployment of New Physicians During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Terence R Flotte  1 , Anne C Larkin  2 , Melissa A Fischer  3 , Sonia N Chimienti  4 , Deborah M DeMarco  5 , Pang-Yen Fan  6 , Michael F Collins  7
Affiliations

Accelerated Graduation and the Deployment of New Physicians During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Terence R Flotte et al. Acad Med. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges and opportunities for medical schools in the United States. In this Invited Commentary, the authors describe a unique collaboration between the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), the only public medical school in the state; the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center (UMMMC); and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Through this partnership, UMMS was able to graduate fourth-year medical students 2 months early and deploy them to UMMMC to care for patients and alleviate workforce shortages during the COVID-19 surge, which peaked in Massachusetts in April 2020. The authors describe how they determined if students had fulfilled graduation requirements to graduate early, what commencement and the accompanying awards ceremony looked like this year as virtual events, the special emergency 90-day limited license these new graduates were given to practice at UMMMC during this time, and the impact these new physicians had in the hospital allowing residents and attendings to be redeployed to care for COVID-19 patients.

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Conflict of interest statement

Other disclosures: None reported.

Comment in

  • In Reply to Ramotshwana et al.
    Flotte TR, Larkin AC, Fischer MA, Chimienti SN, DeMarco DM, Fan PY, Collins MF. Flotte TR, et al. Acad Med. 2021 May 1;96(5):e15-e16. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000003997. Acad Med. 2021. PMID: 33570854 No abstract available.

References

    1. Liaison Committee on Medical Education. Standard 6.1: Program and Learning Objectives. Functions and Structure of a Medical School: Standards for Accreditation of Medical Education Programs Leading to the MD Degree. http://lcme.org/publications. Published March 2020. Accessed June 2, 2020.