Medical Skills in a Clinical Presentation-Based Curriculum – Adult Preventive Services

Abstract

Abstract In this curriculum, basic science instruction is organized around a series of clinical presentations (i.e., chief complaints that bring the patient to the doctor). The educational goal of this approach is to organize basic science instruction to physician trainees in the context of illustrative clinical problems that they will be seeing in practice. In this way, students apply basic science principles to clinical procedures and decision-making from the beginning of their training. In essence, the purpose of the curriculum is to teach basic science to medical students in the way that they will understand it and use it in clinical practice. These instructional materials have been used to present a 1-hour session to first-year medical students on providing preventive care to adult patients. For the last 5 years this session has been presented at Texas Tech University Paul L. Foster School of Medicine during the first week. The fundamental learning activity consists of a structured interview with a standardized patient, the writing a post-encounter note, and a debriefing session during which students collectively write a consensus note for comparison with their own individual notes. The module includes preparatory materials for medical students, faculty facilitators, standardized patients, and also a Spanish language translation for practice. The session is designed as a straightforward, structured encounter that is intended to cover the basic skills of providing preventive care to adult patients, introduce students to learning through standardized patient encounters, and provide students with introductory guidance and practice with doctor-patient communication.

Keywords

• Primary Health Care
• Standardized Patient
• Internal Medicine
• Family Medicine
• Patient Care
• Interpersonal and Communication Skills