Business Barbados - 2023 Edition

is crucial for medical students to gain the experience and confidence needed to become successful physicians. With that in mind, Dr. Rhonda McIntyre, senior associate dean of external affairs and campus dean, developed and led a new program, the Community Clinical Experience. This program allows students to develop their advocacy skills and gives them exposure to administering medical care in a community setting. It is a differentiator in empowering RUSM’s diverse student body to serve local and global communities with a patient-centric, ethical and humanistic outlook. The Community Clinical Experience program has partnered with community organizations such as Urgent Care Mobile Services, BAEH, Hope Foundation Barbados, Forlam Foundation, A.C. Graham Development Centre and the Barbados Red Cross Society to provide healthcare and health education to the local community. Since launching in September 2022, nearly 300 RUSM students have spent more than 3,300 hours serving over 1,000 community patients. RUSM students provided patient evaluations, counselling, and conducted physical examinations. The culminating event for the Community Clinical Experience program took place in November 2022, in Queen’s Park, where RUSM, in collaboration with BAEH, hosted a Health Extravaganza along with 10 other local healthcare providers. This community event offered free health screenings that included blood sugar testing, blood pressure checks, cholesterol tests, COVID-19 vaccines, breast exams, health education and more. Our partnerships with community organizations are so meaningful because these non-profit organizations are right at the centre of what we are trying to teach our students – the need for advocacy, understanding, and getting up close to patients and communities to understand the social and economic determinants of health. Embedded in RUSM’s mission is to deepen community engagement and ensure that we are contributing to the communities that we live, work, and learn in. We will continue to integrate into the local community in Barbados and provide students with the foundation they need to pursue successful careers in medicine. RUSM is accredited by the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM-HP, www.caam-hp.org) , an independent and autonomous body of professionals that only certifies medical schools operating at the highest levels of educational standards. BUSINESS BARBADOS 2023 90 R O S S U N I V E R S I T Y S C H O O L O F M E D I C I N E