Pre-Clerkship Interview on Clinical Skills I and II with Dr. Shanika Boyce
Shanika Boyce, MD is a Pediatrician and an Assistant Professor in the College of Medicine at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science( CDU). She received her medical degree from the CDU / UCLA Medical Education Program in 2011 and completed her pediatric residency training from Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in 2014. Dr. Boyce currently serves as Director of Service Learning Programs for the CDU 4-year MD program, Director of the longitudinal primary 4-yearlerkship for UCLA / CDU Medical Education Program and Simulation Educator for medical student and interprofessional educational simulations. Dr. Boyce is also a CDU Phase II, Clinical Research Education and Career Development( CRECD) Scholar and a CDU Urban Health Institute Emerging Scientist.
How does participation in the pre clerkship program benefit students? The pre clerkship program is a foundation phase for students. They have the opportunity during preclerkship to develop and build the base of their scientific knowledge, clinical skills, and research skills. Additionally, they will be exposed to social determinants of health, ethical behaviors, and other aspects of health which they will be able to apply in the clerkship phase, which I consider as the application phase of the program. So, the pre clerkship serves as the foundation.
Why is the Clinical Skills pre-clerkship a functional part of the curriculum? It is the base. It’ s a very necessary, very important, very critical part of their training, because students are going to come in with various levels of knowledge in terms of whether or not they were a science major as an undergrad, or what type of science major they may have been, or if they weren’ t a science major at all. This is an opportunity to get everyone on the same level and to build those key basic science skills that they can then apply once they get to the clerkship phase. It’ s that key base that they need and gets them on the same level after those initial two years.
The Clinical Skills pre-clerkship course is a functional part of the curriculum because it is where students will develop and enhance their clinical skills and clinical reasoning skills. Students will have the opportunity in this course to receive early authentic clinical experiences, practice their skills in simulated settings / safe spaces prior to working with preceptors in outpatient clinical settings, and receive frequent feedback from faculty. The course will allow for growth and graduated independence clinically prior to students entering the clerkship phase of the curriculum.
How does developing the program add depth to the overall university academic curriculum? This program will expand the basic science teaching curriculum on the university campus. Compared to the current CDU / UCLA Medical Education Program, students enrolled in the new CDU 4- year MD program will receive their basic science education on site. This is vital in expanding the capacity for such education on campus. Also, this program will help to increase research opportunities for students, who will participate in research projects from the start of their first year and continue throughout the 4 years of the program. It will also allow us to be very creative in terms of the innovative technology and pedagogy used within the teaching curriculum. There will be more opportunities to have interprofessional education. In the current CDU / UCLA Medical Education Program, we have an interprofessional education between third- and fourthyear medical students, nursing students and the PA students. The new 4-year MD program will allow for increased opportunities for interprofessional education beginning in the first year.
How is your pre clerkship organized? For Clinical Skills I, students will be in small groups; possibly groups of five. There’ s going to be two
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