It was a busy school year for the College of Medicine as Dean Alfaretta Luisa T. Reyes implemented Faculty Development programs one after the other. In line with this objective of “[Enhancing] our [human] resources to fuel the growth of the Center” that the College adapted when it participated in the Five-Year Strategic Planning Workshop last June 2007, the Dean worked closely with the Faculty Development Committee in carrying out programs and activities that were meant to strengthen the existing capability of the College´s faculty.

First among these activities was the two-day Seminar-Workshop on “Developing Effective Interviewing Skills” held last October 19 and 20, 2007 at the Preventive Medicine Lecture Room. This seminar, conducted by veteran Human Resource Development Speaker Dr. Agnes Ycasiano, was aimed at training and re-training the faculty on the basic principles and techniques of interviewing, to prepare them for the re-institution of the interview as part of the admission requirements for first-year applicants to the College of Medicine. A total of 27 Faculty Members from both the Basic and Clinical Sciences were certified at the end of the seminar. These certified Faculty Members has since had the opportunity to implement the interviewing skills learned in that seminar when they became part of the interviewers´ pool for first-year applicants for school year 2008-2009.

The said two-day event was followed by one-day workshop on Leadership and Managerial Skills aptly entitled “Managing Subordinates´ Performance,” held at the Bonaventure Plaza at the Ortigas Center. This workshop, conducted among two batches of participants, was held on two separate dates, February 12 and 29, 2008. A total of 52 Faculty Members, mostly Heads of Academic Departments, Senior Faculty Members, and some Hospital Officials attended the training, which was conducted primarily for the participants to recognize their role in developing a positive organizational climate and a positive attitude among employees. This highly successful training, conducted by another veteran, Mr. Dennis Ycasiano, boasted of almost 0% dropout rate among the participants (which included President Romeo A. Divinagracia, in the second batch) with almost everyone staying until late in the afternoon to finish the session.

Next came the very productive two-and-a-half day Seminar-Workshop on “Enhancing Your Personal and Professional Effectiveness,” held last April 17 to 19 at the R and R Resort in Laguna. As the seminar title suggests, this activity was aimed at enhancing one´s effectiveness through the discovery of one´s personality, behavior type, values, strengths, weaknesses and sources of stress and stressors (First Day), awareness and adoption of ways to manage stress (Second Day), and drafting and committing to a Personal Mission Statement (Third Day) which was deliberately examined and assessed if aligned with the Medical Center´s Mission and Vision. This enriching experience, again under the guidance of Dr. Agnes Ycasiano, had 26 Faculty Members participating, all of whom committed two and a half days away from family and professional practice.

Throughout the school year, the College supported several Faculty Members in their attendance to several conferences, both local and international. Four Faculty Members received support both from the UERM Alumni Foundation USA, Inc. and the Special Development Fund when they attended the extensive Clinical Training Program for Primary Care Providers of HIV-Infected Patients at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, conducted by the Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center. Local conferences that were attended by other Faculty Members were the 3rd National Conference on Health Informatics (six Faculty Members), Health Research Methodologies and Research Ethics and How to Conduct a Cochrane Systematic Review (one Faculty Member each). To disseminate the wealth of information learned in these conferences, these faculty members conducted an Echo Seminar on April 2, 2008 at the Clinical Conference Room, where important learning, key points and best practices were highlighted and discussed among the attendees and which included Faculty Members from both the Basic and Clinical Sciences.

Not to forget our primary role as educators in the College of Medicine, the Training Committee likewise became busy conducting six Teacher Training sessions primarily for newly appointed Faculty Members. This was to fulfill the newly instituted requirement of attendance to Teacher Training courses prior to the regularization of Faculty Members. Though originally meant for the new members of the College, the sessions were likewise attended by Regular Faculty Members, which welcomed the training and perceived them as a means to continuously learn and improve their strategies and methods of teaching. (See “Certificate Program on Basic Skills for Teaching-Learning Conducted” news item in this issue.)

For this coming school year, the Office of the Dean will continue to implement the activities and programs it has committed to when it submitted its Five-Year Strategic Plan. These activities for school year 2007-2008 were made possible by the active support of the Faculty Development Committee-Dr. Andres D. Borromeo, Chair; Dr. Natividad A. Salazar, Dr. Milagros U. Magat, Dr. Georgina T. Paredes, Dr. Arnel V. Malaya, Dr. Ricardo C. Zotomayor, Dr. Ignacio V. Rivera and Dr. Teresa Diana B. Bongala-and the Training Committee-Dr. Norietta C. Balderrama, Chair; Dr. Marivic A. Villamor, Dr. Olivia F. Gumiran, Dr. Gracieux Y. Fernando, Dr. Tomasino D. Padla, Dr. Disraeli V. Europa, Dr. Lana Jomi H. Alcon, Dr. Imelda D. Rivera and Dr. Rochelle C. Valera. Grace H. Encelan-Brizuela, MD, MSPH