Clinical Skills II
Course Overview and Preceptor Preparation
On April 27th, Interim Assistant Dean of Medical Education Shanika Boyce led an orientation seminar which detailed the highlights of the new Clinical Preceptor Preparation Program for the secondyear students enrolled in the 4-Year medical program. In her introduction, COM Dean Deborah Prothrow-Stith commented regarding the upcoming clinical skills training,“ The inaugural class has done very well in their basic sciences class work and their standardized patients training. They are more than ready for Clinical Skills II.”
Clinical Skills II is a nine-month longitudinal course dedicated to enhancing students’ clinical skills including history taking, conducting physical exams, diagnostic reasoning, and basic treatment management. The course has two parts:
• Preceptorships in outpatient clinical / ER / hospital settings.
• Didactics that are simulation based with standardized patients on the CDU campus.
During the Preceptorships phase, students are matched with a clinical preceptor in an outpatient clinical setting and join them for two- three monthly four-hour afternoon sessions. Sessions in May are focused on meeting the preceptor and onboarding There is a summer elective break, and sessions resume in August and continue through February.
Preceptors are paired with a student who will join them on the same afternoon throughout the eight months of the course. Continuity of the work effort will be determined by the preceptor. Primary care and Specialty fields allow opportunities for students to interview patients and conduct basic physical exams.
To date, students have developed basic skills in interviewing and conducting physical exams. The preceptorship sessions are aimed at helping them translate and refine the skills they have developed in the classroom to the clinic / ER / Hospital setting with real patients.
Dr. Shanika Boyce
Elements of training in communication skills with patients will entail determination of patient history, including the history of a patient’ s present illness and the review of systems designed to uncover dysfunction and disease within the 14 organ systems of the human body, noted Dr. Boyce.
During clinical sessions with preceptors, the expectation for student training will include seeing at least one patient under the supervision of the preceptor, with graduated independence to interview them and obtain an appropriate physical exam. Students will participate in discussions related to differential diagnoses, work-up and development of a patient treatment plan. Students will write a note for review by the preceptor once per month for the purpose of a written skills evaluation, in addition to oral and observed skills.
Meanwhile, students will concurrently be taking Organ Systems courses. Efforts will be made to let preceptors know what topics have been covered so that patients with disease processes that align may be seen by students, though this process will not be relevant or possible at all preceptor sites, according to Dr. Boyce. For example, the first organ system block is Cardiac / Respiratory. Students will also be exposed to Hypertension, Aneurysms, and Peripheral Arterial Disease.
Preceptors are to become a CDU faculty member, and Sign Faculty Attestation. Their role is multi-faceted, including the observation of student taking a patient history and conducting a physical exam. They will provide feedback on written notes that are formative. Such notes can also be delivered verbally. Preceptors will provide
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 33