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Dr. Rhonda McIntyre, Associate Dean of Medical Sciences at Ross University School of Medicine conversing with Chief Academic Officer of Ross University Dr. James Record.

Associate Dean McIntyre: RUSM has settled well in Barbados

Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM) has settled well in Barbados.

Students are performing and the community has been welcoming, according to Associate Dean Dr. Rhonda McIntyre.

The American offshore medical school relocated operations here officially in January, this year, after Hurricane Maria battered the neighbouring island of Dominica causing extensive damage to its campus located in Portsmouth for four decades.

“I think all in all we feel grounded and settled… I think one of the things that I can say that truly has gone well is our academics. We have established our academic community here – it was established in a short time as you know, and we provided all of the academic support that we are normally used to providing and more,” she told reporters on the sidelines of Ross’ convocation ceremony at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre (LESC).

“I am very impressed with how we have been embraced by the Barbadian community. We actually established numerous community partners, and just the relationship we have with partners in terms of our philanthropy is truly impressive,” she said.

Close to 1 400 students are enrolled at the campus, which Dr. McIntyre describes as a state-of–the-art environment, “All of the classrooms are state-of-the-art – as we are very focused on using technology in education, and also using a lot of
academic support as well,” she added.

Elaborating on student success, she expressed, “our students are doing well”, reporting that they have achieved a 96 per cent first-time pass rate on Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Exam.

“Also, we actually have an excellent Residency Attainment rate of 91 per cent which is really just one per cent shy of what you find in US Medical Schools,” she disclosed.

Having recently joined Ross University, Chief Academic Officer Dr. James Record further expressed how pleased he was with the progress the medical school has made since having to relocate after the 2017 disaster.

“It is astonishing to me that the organisation was able to recover so well from really a devastating impact.”

“And I am so thrilled to have the connections with Barbados… It isn’t even a full year and to think of how well the operation has been moving is really a tribute I think, to how well we have been received on the island,” he said.

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