FAQ - Office of Medical Education

A: Login into emedely and select “other” then “absence request” at the top toolbar. Follow instructions to submit an excused absence request if your situation falls under the approved conditions. Don’t forget to notify the course or clerkship director of your absence and OME staff Thomas Middleton T1, Bryan Whittington FiM, Tiffany Richardson for T2 if it is within 24 hours of the exam. Also, please see Exam Policy: Preclinical or Clinical Curriculum (whichever applies to you) at this site: LCME Accreditation ~ Policy Library | Tulane School of Medicine

A: Contact Dr. LeDoux and Dr. Rae if in preclinical years, and Dr. LeDoux and Dr. Gambala if in clinical years. They will help you through this event and notify course directors and staff as needed. Don’t forget we also have support services through Dr. Weissbecker and the counseling center. Please reach out and let us help you manage your situation.

Formative feedback: In 2023, we added a minimum of 3 questions per session to the preclerkship curriculum. In 2025, Phase 1 faculty are increasing that number to 5 questions per session and requiring those formative feedback questions to be board-style questions.

Uworld integration: In 2024, we added Uworld to the preclinical curriculum. In 2025, the Phase 2 faculty will strive to integrate Uworld to a larger extent, with some faculty even using questions on exams.

Exam reviews and improvement sessions: in 2023, faculty implemented meetings for each module to review and improve exam questions with low statistics and performance.

Small changes in class order and methodology: Each year, faculty respond to student feedback about ordering of class sessions and laboratory sessions to increase flow of content and the cognitive load on the student.

A: First step, see your course director and talk about options. Then read the policy on “grading criteria” on this page: LCME Accreditation ~ Policy Library | Tulane School of Medicine. It outlines the grading policy and grade categories. Then, read “Academic Deficiencies and Student Progress policy to see what happens after one or multiple failures through the PPC committee voting process.

A: read the policy on “Challenge of Educational Records” on this page: LCME Accreditation ~ Policy Library | Tulane School of Medicine. It outlines the steps needed to take in order to challenge your grade. Note the time limits that are in effect for the challenge of a grade.

A: 6 weeks.

A: See “Leave of Absence” policy on this page: Policy_Leave-of-Absence.pdf

A: For Histology, Anatomy, or Biochemistry, please contact Thomas Middleton (tmiddleton@tulane.edu) and CC the course director. For Genetics, please contact the Genetics Coordinator, Amaris Frias (afrias@tulane.edu). For Physiology, please contact Debbie Mickal (dolavar@tulane.edu).

A: Most videos will be posted by the end of the business day. However, if a lecture was presented in the afternoon, the video may not be posted until the next morning. This is because Zoom may not have finished processing the videos until after the business day has ended.

A: Please contact the course director to discuss specific issues with an exam question.

• For questions on using GivePulse, please contact foundations@tulane.edu.
• All current T1s and T2s should have access to the GivePulse platform and be a member of the Foundations in Medicine group. If you are not able to access the platform with your TUSOM Single Sign-On, please contact us immediately.
• In order to demonstrate how to receive credit for your service learning hours, please see the attached video tutorial here. See below for a text tutorial:

1. Join organization's subgroup. Each service learning organization will have its own subgroup within the Foundations in Medicine group on GivePulse. In order to log hours served with an organization, you will need to join that organization’s subgroup on GivePulse. Once you have joined an organization’s subgroup, you will be able to log hours served with them. GivePulse’s terminology for this is “Impact”. For example, if you volunteer for 4 hours, you will log an “Impact” for 4 hours. As the participant in the SL opportunity, it will be your responsibility to log your Impacts via GivePulse!
2. Find event. Each subgroup will have at least one event listed – an “open opportunity” event. This is the default event that you will log your hours to; however, organizations may also create their own individual events. Please defer to that organization’s service learning leader as to which event you should log your Impacts. Do not submit an Impact to the subgroup itself; you should submit it either to the default open opportunity event, or to a specific event if directed.
   1. If you served at a one-time event that is not associated with any particular TUSOM service learning group (i.e. a one-time festival, fundraiser, etc.), that event will be listed under the Foundations in Medicine group.
3. Add Impact. When you click on the appropriate event (either the “open opportunity” default event or, if applicable, the specific event that was created for the shift you participated in), you will have the option to “Add Impact”. When you add your Impact, you will be able to specify the date that you served, the length of time, and include any information or feedback you feel is necessary for the service learning leader for that project.
4. Wait for approval or dispute. The service learning leader will then either approve your Impact and it will go into your Impact Summary record, or dispute it, sending it back to you to edit and resubmit if there is anything incorrect.

• Your first contact for service learning inquiries should be the Service Learning Council servicelearningcouncil@gmail.com.
• Please be proactive in completing your service learning hours; the earlier notice you give us in having difficulties with completing service learning hours, the higher likelihood that we can help you finish your hours. For example, if the due date is in March, then notifying us in January or February would give us sufficient time to help find service learning opportunities.
• If you are having trouble completing your clinical hours, please reach out to foundations@tulane.edu and the course director can assist in finding clinic shifts or other clinical opportunities.
• If you are having trouble completing your service learning hours in general, the Service Learning Council can provide guidance on upcoming events or "recurring" projects that can be completed on an "at one's own time" basis.

If you have participated in a service learning event and submitted your impact accurately via GivePulse, you have fulfilled your commitment! We understand the verification of the impact is outside of your control, and we won't penalize you if all of your impacts haven't been verified by the deadline. As long as you complete and submit your hours by the deadline, you will be good to go. You may consider gently reminding the service learning leader of impacts waiting for verification, or notifying us at foundations@tulane.edu so that we may intervene.

Your first contact for service learning inquiries should be the Service Learning Council servicelearningcouncil@gmail.com. 

First, ensure that your proposed project or opportunity meets all university and course requirements:

1. All requests for one time or ongoing SL project approval must be submitted at least 5 business days before the project date.
2. SL activities must be open and available to all Tulane SOM students in order to count for SL hours, and therefore they must be effectively advertised to the classes.
3. Limits on the number of people participating, requiring training, etc. are all acceptable.
4. Students are not allowed to advocate for any particular political or religious beliefs, but are able to participate in service learning opportunities for such organizations as long as the opportunity is open and available to all Tulane students. (Example: Glucose screenings at a health fair at a church, mosque, synagogue, etc. are acceptable. Handing out religious texts is not.)
5. Standard of care must always be met for any SL projects. (Example, medical students cannot run clinics without having an attending present, but can take vitals, counsel patients, and do glucose screenings.)
6. Medical students cannot serve alcohol as part of their Service Learning.
7. Any events canceled 24 hours or less before it was supposed to start qualifies people for half of the expected hours. (Example: An event planned for 4 hours of service learning canceled 2 hours before would count for 2 hours of SL.) Please contact both Service Learning Council and the Course Coordinator for verification.
8. All clinical SL activities will follow the policies and procedures set out by the Student Clinic Council

Then, you will submit the project for approval via Google Form. Please use the following forms:

For a one-time event:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeubr2SHvHPpa7ZaCjfuACbuoAsFTHZwaY2A00dlJ6b1x0GYg/viewform?formkey=dDJxMDA1UHo5eWo1NF9aWVhyMXB4WWc6MQ#gid=0

For a recurring project:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeKupLDuzeJESmC7zWlqRlU7BsDZPjmQfUJNVk5Iwm-MxcV_g/viewform?formkey=dEk0cVAza1IyR2I4RElsZTZYRm1nQ1E6MQ#gid=0

The Service Learning Council will review your proposal and either recommend changes if anything needs to be altered or send it to the course director for approval. Once approved, a GivePulse page will be set up and you will be given administrative access to it. It is your responsibility to track and/or verify hours submitted for your service learning project.