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An Association of American Medical Colleges panel finalized its proposal to redesign the standardized test required for medical schools, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported Tuesday. The new test, which will likely be used from 2015 to 2030, aims to attract aspiring physicians savvy in both practical skills and bedside manner, according to The Chronicle. The proposals will emphasize medicine’s psychological and social aspects by adding sections on the fundamentals of behavior and on analytical and reasoning skills. These sections will cover topics including ethics, psychology and population health, The Chronicle reported. The test’s writing section was eliminated due to its lack of consideration by admissions officers and received an updated natural sciences section. The panel released its recommendations Tuesday after collecting data from 2,700 surveys and 90 outreach sessions, The Chronicle reported.
Venetia Orcutt, former chair of the physician assistant studies department and a profressor at George Washington University, resigned last month after she allegedly did not teach two online semesters of her evidence-based medicine class but gave enrolled students A grades, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. Three students wrote letters to the GWU School of Medicine and Health Sciences Office of the Provost this fall stating that they did not receive a reason why the classes were not taught, The Post reported. The students will be refunded for the class but will be able to keep the course credits, according to a statement released by the university Wednesday afternoon. The GWU School of Medicine and Health Sciences, which is separate from Orcutt’s department, was recently on probation from Fall 2008 to early 2010 for not abiding by the standards set by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the national accrediting organization, according to The Post.
The U.S. State Department will limit any expansion to the Summer Work and Travel program, which offers foreign students a brief immersion in Amercan culture through four months of work and one month of travel, while continuing to evaluate possible improvements to the program, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Critics of the department’s initiative said the exchange, which will continue to fund its current enrollment of 100,000 students per year, has turned into a jobs program that lacks labor authority supervision and is taking jobs away from American workers, The New York Times reported. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton originally called for a reevaluation of the program after students led by the National Guestworker Alliance protested working conditions at a Pennsylvania Hershey plant in August. Nonprofit organizations fund the Summer Work and Travel program, The New York Times reported.