This is Beth Pletcher, from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. I wanted to share an experience that happened today - what I might call a curricular “win”. After introducing our TIC-ACEs module with small group, discussion-based sessions to all of our first year medical students three years ago as part of the Health Equities and Social Justice course (https://www/medportal.org/publiction/10803/), we were unsure of how to continue to reinforce and build upon the TIC-ACEs knowledge across the 4 year curriculum. Although we have domestic violence screening in the women’s clinic, we needed much more deliberate integration of this topic and opportunities for skill building for our future physicians. Today, I had a most productive two hour small group session, where we delved into weight bias and food insecurity. This is also the first time we have presented this topic as an interactive session. During our discussion, these now second year students, had the chance to explore how childhood adversity and trauma may tie into metabolic and neurologic pathways, contributing to risk for obesity. A natural connection that the students made based on what they learned more than a year ago, without my prompting!
If any of you have more ideas for us here at Rutgers NJMS, I would love to her them.
Sincerely, Beth
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