Clinical Skills Training

Phase 1 clinical skills will be in 3 distinct segments:

The initial part of the course will be presented during the first 18 weeks of Phase 1. During this period, students will learn to enable patient/family -centered therapeutic communication through creating effective dynamic interactions with patients, families, caregivers and everyone involved in the patient’s care. The foundational period learning objectives are essential for establishing rapport and trust, formulating a diagnosis, delivering information, striving for mutual understanding and facilitating a shared plan of care. The goal is to create equitable care for everyone (family/patient centered care). The student will develop the basic knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for interacting with a patient, developing a therapeutic relationship, gathering information, performing a basic physical exam and problem-solving. This will utilize standardized patients, real patient, small group workshops, and simulation. The clinical skills training is tightly aligned with the skills students will need in their Human Dimension activities as well.

During the following 12 months students will learn more detailed aspects of the physical exam and specific symptom presentations in small group settings with standardized patients and task trainers as the primary teaching methodology. These sessions will be coordinated with the content students are learning in the Systems blocks of the SSR courses, so that common clinical problems are being addressed in their clinical and scientific contexts.

All students will have a longitudinal 1:1 clinical mentor for their longitudinal clinical experience in Phase 1. These will take place in the outpatient primary care setting, and will provide students the opportunity to apply and integrate the knowledge and skills they are learning throughout the Phase 1 curriculum.