Course Information Year 1 Courses: Practice of Medicine

“Think Like a Doctor”

The Practice of Medicine is the fundamental course in the medical school curriculum that addresses the development of knowledge, skills, and behaviors that are necessary to practice both the art and science of medicine in an optimal manner. In order to obtain this ability, an excellent physician requires integrity, compassion, and knowledge. The course has been designed around four integrated components based on a series of standardized patient cases and actual patients evaluated by the students in various clinical settings:

  1. History: The development of optimal questioning, listening and communication methods for effective medical interviewing and history taking
  2. Physical: Clinical skills acquisition for the performance of a complete and accurate physical examination.
  3. Ethics & Professionalism: Understanding the ethical and professional, as well as cultural, age, gender, and ethnic issues of patients and the relevance of these to optimal patient care.
  4. Clinical Decision Making: Development of abilities in clinical reasoning, including formulation of clinically relevant questions and ability to obtain and critically evaluate scientific evidence pertaining to basic science and clinical studies. This will include interest in and ability to conduct life-long, self-directed learning

Course Objectives

  1. Perform a full medical history and basic physical examination
  2. Formulate Problem Lists, Differential Diagnoses, and identify preventive medicine issues and patient education opportunities on a variety of simulated and actual patient cases
  3. Communicate information about patient cases accurately and thoroughly, both in oral and written presentation formats
  4. Reflect upon common professionalism and ethical considerations that impact patient care, with attention to relevant cultural, age, and gender specific issues.
  5. Cultivate intellectual curiosity, learning to construct useful clinical background and foreground questions for every patient and how to access and interpret the resources available to answer them
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Source:
https://www.utmb.edu/som/som-educational-affairs/instruction-management-office/year-1-2-course-information
Captured on May the Fourth, 2021