George Washington University (School of Medicine and Health Sciences)

FIRST AND SECOND YEARS The Practice of Medicine, a course that spans all four years, provides early patient exposure and the means to develop outstanding clinical thinking, technical skills, and a sense of professionalism. In the first two years, the Practice of Medicine offers a clinical apprenticeship in which each student is placed with a practicing primary care clinician one day every other week, while on alternate weeks students meet in small groups with faculty mentors to learn clinical assessment skills and to consider ethical, social, and professional issues. In addition, problem-based learning is conducted through small-group, case-based tutorials. The balance of the curriculum in Years I and II is devoted to didactic basic science instruction. In Year I, that instruction is concentrated on the study of normal human biology and function, with specific courses in gross and microscopic anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, neurobiology, and immunology. In Year II, instruction is focused on the study of abnormal human biology, with specific courses in pathology, pharmacology, psychiatry, and microbiology. Year II concludes with Introduction to Clinical Medicine, an interdisciplinary course organized in terms of organ systems. The POM course for Years I and II consists of three segments running through both years. In one segment the students, working in small groups with a mentor, are taught clinical assessment skills, such as history taking, the core physical examination, critical reading of the literature, epidemiologic methods and clinical decision making. This forum is also used to introduce and discuss a variety of important issues for the developing physician. Topics range from government involvement in health care, legal and ethical considerations in patient management to more personal issues, such as death and dying, aging and personal problems encountered by physicians and their families. Another segment of this course is the primary care apprenticeship. At the beginning of the first semester each student is assigned to a physician. Throughout the first two years the student spends time with that physician in his primary care office. This experience exposes students to the office setting where they can observe the practice of medicine first hand. They can also begin to integrate what they are learning in the other segments of the POM course and the basic science courses to clinical practice. The third segment of POM is the problem-based learning (PBL) cases. The PBL cases focus on common diseases and disorders and illustrate how illness affects not only a person's biologic health, but also their psychologic and social well-being. The cases provide an academic setting in which students, working in small groups with a faculty tutor, integrate basic biomedical science with patient care, to individually develop their clinical problem-solving skills and to discover the relevance of their education to the demands of modern medical practice. Beginning in the fall of 1995, PBL cases were expanded making POM the largest course in the first year. POM runs concurrently with core basic science courses in the first year. In the second year, students remain with their original primary care preceptors developing their clinical skills and their mentor groups progress, and PBL cases continue to be explored. FIRST YEAR COURSES : * Gross Anatomy * Microscopic Anatomy * Practice of Medicine I * Neurobiology * Medical Biochemistry * Immunology * Physiology SECOND YEAR COURSES : * Microbiology * Pathology * Pharmacology * Practice of Medicine II * Psychopathology * Intro Clin Med THIRD AND FOURTH YEARS During the final two years, the MD program consists primarily of a series of required clerkships and elective sequences designed to prepare students for graduate training in any field of their choice, while at the same time providing them with extensive exposure to a variety of fields sufficient to enable them to make appropriate career decisions. Basic science content is re-examined and reinforced in the continuing Practice of Medicine course where, among other multidisciplinary considerations, the implications and applications of the basic sciences to the understanding and management of clinical problems are explored, and topics of ethics and patient management are handled on a more sophisticated level. Third-year required clerkships of eight weeks each include medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, and primary care. In the fourth year, students are required to complete an acting internship in medicine, pediatrics, or family medicine; at least one course in neuroscience, emergency medicine, anesthesiology, and a non-clinical subject; and 24 weeks of electives, four weeks of which must be in surgical subspecialties. A variety of elective experiences is available to meet these requirements at the University and its affiliated hospitals; permission may also be granted to take a limited number of electives elsewhere. Incorporation of POM into the Year III curriculum includes one half day per week of didactic instruction which primarily will reinforce basic science material. Year IV POM consists of individualized non-clinical coursework. In addition to covering advances in basic sciences and clinical application, this course will serve as a continuation of Year III POM's integration and reinforcement of basic science material. No medical education would be complete without exploring and approaching the patient in a comprehensive manner, using the biopsychosocial model. In disciplinary courses and the POM, we constantly emphasize that illness occurs in people who live in families, who are parts of groups and who experience the world through the tinted lenses of culture and tradition. Throughout this learning experience, we also stress education through cooperation and collaboration -- not through competition -- and ongoing development of the ability to work with groups of colleagues and co-workers. THIRD YEAR COURSES : * Psychiatry * Medicine * Ob / Gyn * Primary care * Surgery * Pediatrics * Practice of Medicine

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School name: George Washington University (School of Medicine and Health Sciences)
Address: 2300 Eye Street N.W.
Zip & city: DC 20037 Washington
Phone: 202-994-2987
Web: http://www.gwumc.edu/smhs

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