FACULTY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES
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Again we continue to amass data in our various databases and the small but con- tinued increase in publications of residents’ clinical research projects is a good and welcome development, reflecting and reinforcing the academic nature of these programmes. The Department is actively engaging in funded inter-departmental and inter-university funded collaborative research and we are sure that with this and increased faculty and postgraduate student engagement, our research output will not only increase in numbers but also in impact factor. One major initiative launched during the year under review was the Prof Hon Sir John Golding Endowed Chair in Surgical Leadership and Education in conjunction with the Golding Family and the Ministry Health and Wellness. This aims to be a fully funded endowment that will guide postgraduate surgical training, and should be a catalyst for similar initiatives in this our 75 th anniversary year. Based on the commitment by the various stakeholders, we are well on our way for achieving the targeted $150 million needed to install this professor. Care was also taken to reduce the impact of burn-out and mental health issues in staff and our postgraduate students with a liberal ‘time off’ approach. Additional measures included publicising information about seminars for the optimisation of coping skills and regular reminders about access to counselling services. Gender issues were also ventilated and in keeping with the University’s policy, we aim to create a safe workspace where all rights are respected. Now with the COVID-19 pandemic firmly behind us, its lessons learnt, and its induced advantages retained, the Department of SURRADIC is now appropriately poised and returned to its core functions: teaching and education, research, clinical services, and outreach and infrastructure aligned with the University of the West Indies’ guiding pillars of, Access, Alignment and Agility.
ACCESS
TEACHING AND EDUCATION During the year under review our attention to our students focused on ensuring that we were graduating the student with the clinical skills the medical fraternity had grown to expect from the UWI. Emphasis was placed on face clinical teaching for our undergraduate students and more emphasis on competency based training in the clinical and simulated clinical environment for our postgraduates. Again at the undergraduate level emphasis was placed on strengthening our clerkships, including the assessment processes. The various clinical clerkships progressed well culminating with the final MBBS examinations which were a success with
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