Society and Medicine Strategic Plan
By: Dr. Kristen J. Alston
In the School of Medicine, we are committed to training skilled and compassionate physicians to provide the highest quality health care to all residents of the state of Mississippi. In order to meet this commitment, it is imperative that we create a learning environment that facilitates this training and affords all of our students the opportunity to succeed. To prepare our students to provide high quality health care to all Mississippians, we will emphasize the exploration of the relationship among society, behavior, and health and help our students build the necessary skillset to function effectively as physicians in society by developing programming, processes, and curricula to equip our students with the skills needed to contribute meaningfully to the health care system. The three overarching goals under which all Society and Medicine Strategic Plan 2025-2028 strategies fall, represent our commitment to excellence in education and student success and reflect an implementation plan that addresses current and upcoming needs.
Goal 1: Goal one of the Society and Medicine Strategic Plan is to enhance students’ understanding of the interaction between society, behavior, and health. To meet this goal, three strategies focusing on curriculum development, will be implemented.
Strategy 1: Reconstituting the membership of the Society and Medicine Curriculum Subcommittee
Strategy 2: Curriculum inventory review to identify strengths, gaps, and areas for improvement as it relates to society and medicine topics
Strategy 3: Society and Medicine Curriculum Development
Goal 2: Goal two of the Society and Medicine Strategic Plan is to Enhance students’ preparation to engage in the medical education program and enhance post-degree readiness. To meet this goal, strategic implementation will focus on enhancing supplemental learning activities for medical students and utilizing assessment and data review to inform ongoing implementation of these activities.
Strategy 1: Strengthen the content of the curriculum to include more opportunities for education and training in leadership development
Strategy 2: Develop and implement structured learning activities to increase students’ knowledge and skills to successfully transition into and engage in the medical education environment
Strategy 3: Collect and analyze data to support continued implementation
Goal 3: Goal three of the Society and Medicine Strategic Plan is to increase faculty members’ knowledge and skillset related to the society and medicine curriculum and supporting students’ transition into the medical education setting. Strategic support to meet this goal will focus on specific faculty development initiatives.
Strategy 1: Needs assessment to ascertain specific topics or skills to be addressed
Strategy 2: Development and implementation of faculty development modules
Strategy 3: Collect and analyze data to support continued implementation
The School of Medicine Society and Medicine Strategic Plan 2025-2028 is a three-year strategic plan that will be implemented in August 2025. The first year of the plan will focus on rebuilding the Society and Medicine Curriculum Committee and completing the curriculum inventory to prepare for curriculum development in year two. Year one will also focus on enhancing leadership training and supplemental learning activities to assist students in successfully transitioning into the medical education program. We will also complete a needs assessment to inform faculty development sessions related to society and medicine. We are excited to begin implementation of this three-year strategic plan and look forward reviewing outcome data and analytics to inform future planning.